First Review of 2023: In Which the Reviewer Does Not Spoil White Noise. This review does not rely on any content of the film, so don't worry about spoilers. I think Noah Baumbach's adaptation of Don DeLillo's 1985 novel, White Noise, is pretty decent. Many things are done in a creative, interesting, smart way. Most if not all of DeLillo's themes are present, or at least glossed over: fear of death, obsession with violence, the cycle of dysfunctional parents being raised by exceptional children who will then become dysfunctional parents, obsession with celebrity, the inundation of photons and data, science and medicine as savior, attachment, belief, everything has happened (deja vu)--it's a long list. DeLillo's book is a critique of society which is just as relevant today as it was in 85. If while watching White Noise (and this perhaps ACTUALLY IS A SPOILER) you do in fact feel a sense of deja vu, I am fairly certain that you are supposed to (Baumbach uses National Lampoon's Vacation as the template for White Noise, giving all of us a sense of having seen everything we are viewing before.). Adam Driver channels Chevy Chase masterfully. Jack and Babette's family IS the Griswold's in a parallel universe. The screenplay is to be praised. Breaking the film into parts is literary and helpful. The credits at the end of the film are a well-earned spectacle. And still, while I have read White Noise the novel three or four times, the last return in 2020, I am fairly positive that I will never watch Baumbach's film ever again. For all of its cleverness, and for all of the ways in which it remained true to the novel, and despite great performances by all of the actors--loved Don Cheadle (always do)--something didn't add up for me. I think for me the film satirized themes which I believe DeLillo presented with a better balance of gravitas. Granted, that is perhaps hard to do in two hours. 4 out of 5 stars.
