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White Noise (2022)
Director/Screenwriter Noah Baumbach has reunited the stars of his 2012 film Frances Ha for a cinematic acid trip called White Noise that claims an underlying theme but all this reviewer saw was over half a dozen different stories being introduced and waiting for a connection between them that never materialized.
Adam Driver stars as Jack, a college professor who teaches Nazism and leads a rather harried existence with his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig) and the varied children they have produced during the course of both of their four marriages, The children seem to be living in a constant state of terror and paranoia about absolutely everything and seem obsessed with trying to scare their parents to death. A supposed connection is then revealed through Jack's Hitler studies and an accident between a truck and a train which causes a toxic accident resulting in the evacuation of the entire town.
And this is just the beginning of this impossible story that starts off as typical Baumbach fare, a filmmaker who has rarely gone the commercial route in his storytelling and this film is no exception. The film opens with a fellow professor of Jack's named Murray (Don Cheadle) teaching a class about cinematic car crashes which segues into Jack's Hitler class and then a dual lecture where Jack is talking about Hitler and Murray is talking about Elvis, which leads to the toxic accident and an evacuation, which seems to connect to the alleged underlying theme of this story, which seems to be the fear of death.
But just when we think Jack and his family are going to meet their greatest fear during this toxic accident, it ends as abruptly as it started and all of a sudden things seem to be back to normal. Then the story suddenly shifts to Babette's addiction to an unknown drug, which leads to alleged adultery, attempted murder and a visit to a church turned into an emergency room staffed by nuns who speak German. By this time, I was just trying to keep my eyes open.
Baumbach's direction is striking, filling the screen with some unforgettable imagery, but the connection that we keep waiting for with these separate stories never comes. Driver is terrific as is Sam Nivola as his son, Heinrich. Nivola is the son of actor Allesandro Nivola, best known for playing Castor Troy in Face/Off, but this is easily the nadir of Baumbach's career and two hours and sixteen minutes of my life I'll never get back. And a gold star to anyone who can explain what goes on during the closing credits.
Director/Screenwriter Noah Baumbach has reunited the stars of his 2012 film Frances Ha for a cinematic acid trip called White Noise that claims an underlying theme but all this reviewer saw was over half a dozen different stories being introduced and waiting for a connection between them that never materialized.
Adam Driver stars as Jack, a college professor who teaches Nazism and leads a rather harried existence with his wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig) and the varied children they have produced during the course of both of their four marriages, The children seem to be living in a constant state of terror and paranoia about absolutely everything and seem obsessed with trying to scare their parents to death. A supposed connection is then revealed through Jack's Hitler studies and an accident between a truck and a train which causes a toxic accident resulting in the evacuation of the entire town.
And this is just the beginning of this impossible story that starts off as typical Baumbach fare, a filmmaker who has rarely gone the commercial route in his storytelling and this film is no exception. The film opens with a fellow professor of Jack's named Murray (Don Cheadle) teaching a class about cinematic car crashes which segues into Jack's Hitler class and then a dual lecture where Jack is talking about Hitler and Murray is talking about Elvis, which leads to the toxic accident and an evacuation, which seems to connect to the alleged underlying theme of this story, which seems to be the fear of death.
But just when we think Jack and his family are going to meet their greatest fear during this toxic accident, it ends as abruptly as it started and all of a sudden things seem to be back to normal. Then the story suddenly shifts to Babette's addiction to an unknown drug, which leads to alleged adultery, attempted murder and a visit to a church turned into an emergency room staffed by nuns who speak German. By this time, I was just trying to keep my eyes open.
Baumbach's direction is striking, filling the screen with some unforgettable imagery, but the connection that we keep waiting for with these separate stories never comes. Driver is terrific as is Sam Nivola as his son, Heinrich. Nivola is the son of actor Allesandro Nivola, best known for playing Castor Troy in Face/Off, but this is easily the nadir of Baumbach's career and two hours and sixteen minutes of my life I'll never get back. And a gold star to anyone who can explain what goes on during the closing credits.