At once hilarious and horrifying, lyrical and absurd, ordinary and apocalyptic, 'White Noise' dramatizes a contemporary American family's attempts to deal with the mundane conflicts of everyday life while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world. Pictured (L-R): Greta Gerwig (Babette), May Nivola (Steffie), Adam Driver (Jack), Samuel Nivola (Heinrich) and Raffey Cassidy (Denise).
(Front L-R) Greta Gerwig as Babette, Dean Moore/Henry Moore as Wilder and Adam Driver as Jack (Back L-R) Raffey Cassidy as Denise, May Nivola as Steffie and Sam Nivola as Heinrich in White Noise.
At once hilarious and horrifying, lyrical and absurd, ordinary and apocalyptic, 'White Noise' dramatizes a contemporary American family's attempts to deal with the mundane conflicts of everyday life while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world. Pictured (L-R): Greta Gerwig (Babette), May Nivola (Steffie), Adam Driver (Jack), Samuel Nivola (Heinrich) and Raffey Cassidy (Denise).
Filmmaker Noah Baumbach has always had a knack for showcasing the emotional authenticity of the human condition in his darkly funny and intellectual works. Whether it’s a family confronting a divorce in 2005’s The Squid and the Whale and 2019’s Marriage Story or the thrills and humiliations of our 20s and 30s in 2012’s Frances Ha and 2015’s Mistress America, each film centers on characters experiencing and navigating significant change. And Baumbach’s latest, Netflix’s White Noise, while larger in scope, shakes the same dramatic ground.
Adapted from Don DeLillo’s 1985 apocalyptic tragedy and satire, White Noise says much about our current world. It tackles misinformation, reflects on family life and parodies academia, and wraps it up in a wild, on-your-toes disaster movie plot. Though things go *boom* and an airborne toxic event takes place (costing the film about $80-100 million to make), the film never allows those more blockbuster elements to cloud over the human aspects.
Adam Driver plays Jack Gladney, the head of a Hitler studies department at a liberal arts college. He comfortably lives with his fourth wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig), and four children from their previous marriages. However, that’s all upended when toxic waste spills into their hometown – syncing up with many of the same strange feelings accompanying our pandemic era.
As much as White Noise challenges the viewers’ thoughts and ideas by evolving from a Spielbergian disaster movie about family to a Fincher-esque film noir, it also dazzles with its colorful and impeccably lensed imagery by cinematographer Lol Crawley (45 Years and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom).
(Front L-R) Greta Gerwig as Babette, Dean Moore/Henry Moore as Wilder and Adam Driver as Jack (Back L-R) Raffey Cassidy as Denise, May Nivola as Steffie and Sam Nivola as Heinrich in White Noise.
To further discuss the film’s unique themes and how the visual language strengthened them, the Denton Record-Chronicle sat down virtually with Crawley. In the below video interview, we chat about how Baumbach’s vision inspired Crawley’s creativity, knowing when to linger on or let go of “cool shots” and the overall collaborative process.
White Noise will be available to stream Friday on Netflix.
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