04/27/2023
The trailer for this film (White Noise) was a bit deceptive – it looked like a fun family adventure film (not a bad thing – enough to make me want to watch it) but it turned out to be far more interesting. Noah Baumbach is a director I appreciate. However, while his previous film, Marriage Story, was mostly notable for its fantastic performances and sensitivity in treating such a fraught subject as divorce, White Noise is a very different film and in some ways feels more ambitious in scope.
Film fans will enjoy the numerous nods to other films, but aside from these clever references, what was most compelling to me was how it resonated with our contemporary experiences of the pandemic, including the extreme disorientation and breakdown of consensus over basic facts, through its adaptation of an 80s postmodern novel about a train derailment. Sadly, the film has since found an even more uncannily familiar referent in the Ohio train derailment in East Palestine that pretty much exactly replicates the situation in the film. I think this film is a bit slept on. It was mentioned in a few end-of-year lists but I think it deserved a nomination for best adapted screenplay.
Also, love the poster ads for this film