Certainly won’t be for everyone, and it’s almost too clever by half. But Noah Baumbach’s swing at satire lands a few pops now and then, even as it swerves all over the road.
Based on the award-winning novel by Don DeLillo (unknown to me until now) we follow a blended family in 1984 who constantly talk over each other, a device that wears out its welcome before the closing credits, as they navigate suburban dysfunction.
Dad is a college professor of Hitler studies (Adam Driver giving a great performance and employing a flat, Midwestern accent) and mom is a pill-popping Greta Gerwig; both are funny and fun to follow. Don Cheadle is a pop culture professor whose presence is welcome, but sporadic.
The film is sort of all over the place – going from 80s snarky sitcom to an environmental mini-disaster, when a truck and train collide to release poison gas over the area, to, finally, a third act that inexplicably brings in several characters being shot, kind of for laughs. There’s no natural segue and the feeling that this played much better on the pages of a novel than it does on the screen grows.
Finally, a choreographed dance sequence in a supermarket as the credits roll, which feels like a David Byrne video: weird, but self-consciously so.
What does it all mean? I dunno. I know the story once had something to say about society, but any message via satire was mostly lost on me. I liked looking at the Pepsi and Pringles old logos and the big boat cars of the time, and Driver is navigating old Ben Stiller territory (seemingly confident to the other characters, but completely on the verge of a nervous breakdown to the audience) to good effect.
Watch the trailer to see if it feels like your kind of thing. You’ll probably be right, whatever your conclusion.
White Noise is in some theaters and starts streaming on Netflix December 30th
2 ½ out of 4 Stars
