White Noise review: Adam Driver’s Netflix movie epic arrives just in time

When a book is written about Netflix’s epic investment in prestige movies, Noah Baumbach’s white noise It may go down as the movie that finally killed the golden-budgeted goose. and. Irishman was more expensive blonde was more disastrous, but for sheer arrogance, the post-apocalyptic film adaptation of a literary classic that could probably never be made into a film, with a rumored budget of $140 million, from a director best known for his hard-hitting domestic comedies. You can’t beat an adaptation of the era.

You can go out as much as you want. Beloved, adapted from his 1985 Don DeLillo novel, white noise is an enigmatic, uneven, and sporadically gripping film about mass psychosis in 1980s America and a run-through to the end of the world. It’s basically him three movies rolled into one. A polite satire on academia, consumerism, and the modern family is followed by a delusional Spielberg disaster epic. The final third twists into a nauseating, surreal noir reminiscent of the Coen brothers at their most enigmatic. If I had to guess which of these Baumbachs would handle best based on previous Baumbach research, I would almost certainly be wrong.

Baumbach’s love for the source novel is evident. This is a surprisingly hilarious, silly, and faithful adaptation. Baumbach’s self-written screenplay reverently lifts most of DeLillo’s dialogue and prose, but misses a handful of her novel’s beats. But despite his fan credentials, the director is an odd fit for the book. Baumbach specializes in interpersonal drama. Francis Ha Also marriage story, was written, performed and filmed in a naturalistic style. But DeLillo’s books are vaulted, stylized, and metaphorical, full of big ideas, big events, and solipsistic characters talking and talking to each other.

The story focuses on Jack Gladney (Adam Driver), a pleasantly anonymous Hartland University professor who pioneers the provocative field of “Hitler Studies.” In his work, Jack covers the lack of a real scholarship (he can’t speak German) and his friend Murray Siskind (Don James), who is considering diversifying from car crash to Elvis Presley. Cheadle) and engage in swirling intellectual debates. At his home, Jack gleefully manages a bustling and contentious mixed-race family with his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig). The infatuated pair compete over who is more worried about dying, but something seems really wrong with Babette and ominous clouds are gathering on the horizon – literally. An accident unleashes a toxic cloud known as an airborne hazard, and Gradnees is caught in a wave of panic.

Everything about this material, except the middle-class intellectual milieu, pushes Baumbach far out of his comfort zone. A highly day-glow interpretation of the 1980s in design is one of them. white noiseis a major pleasure. ) He meets challenges in unexpected ways. This is his most visually dense and imaginative film by a long chalk, and he skillfully constructs a series of stunning set pieces. Weaving together the legends of Hitler and Elvis, the dignified academic duel of Jack and Murray prowls around the lecture theater. Jack’s really spooky night terrors. And later in the film, the theatrical confrontation between Jack and Babette. The latter is exquisitely blocked and beautifully played, especially by the distressed Gerwig.

The flashy CGI train wreck that triggers the Airborne Toxic Event doesn’t really work, but it’s a bluntly literal representation of a disaster far more ominous in the book for being so vague. Reminiscent of Spielberg’s masterpiece of collective madness, close encounter of the third kindAs a director of big thriller films, Baumbach proved to be talented. Scenes of traffic jams and car slaughter under turbulent skies are terrifying, and Hitchcock’s fears are exposed when he stops at an empty gas station. birdsBaumbach then showed that action and comedy could be combined in a farcical station wagon car chase that could easily have come out of a Chevy Chase movie of the time. white noise is set. Baumbach at times seems more instinctive to the pop-his culture that DeLillo was criticizing than DeLillo himself.

Photo: Wilson Webb/Netflix

Strangely for Baumbach, who is usually generous with his actors, the cast struggles to find rhythm in a collage of dialogue from the book, drifting into the surreal grandeur of the director’s design. Tweed and whimsical, Cheadle is one of the best in this strange world, making statements like “She has hair that matters.” Driver has some great moments and signature business: Witness him thrusting his hand up through his academic gown, pushing Jack’s tinted glasses up into his magnificent nose, and sporting a private grin. Please, at 39 he is at least 10 years too young for Jack. Nor can even the shabby middle-aged potbelly and patina given to him by the make-up and costume departments hide his essential masculinity. You cannot purchase drivers as a Sabotaged Scholar. His body does not know the meaning of sabotage. But he is very funny. Due to the intensity of the driver, his comic skills are often overlooked. white noise Push them forward.

What worries DeLillo purists most about Baumbach’s film may be what makes it the most enjoyable to watch for everyone else. It’s fun. This is a thorny movie that fails to find a clue to understanding DeLillo’s vision or the reality of his characters. Especially during his bewildering final third after the airborne toxicity event vanishes and Jack kind of becomes obsessed with Babette’s place in the medicine. conspiracy. But it’s made with wit and an infectious taste: Baumbach lunges to make you laugh or scare you, often with success, splashing your screen with bright colors and movement. Under the end credits, he stages a dance number in a supermarket aisle, imagining DeLillo and his bombastic characters as a modern American church. The latter, I think, is the greater force for him. He took the Netflix money and ran away.

white noise It’s out now on Netflix.