Film Fest 919: White Noise Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Film Fest 919 Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

White Noise, based on the book of the same name by Don DeLillo, is a dark comedy at it’s root though its humor will not be for everyone. The film takes place in a very authentic late 80s to early 90s and follows the Gladney family including Jack (Driver), a flamboyant college professor who specializes in Hitler studies, his wife Babbette (Gerwig), a big haired housewife, and their four children. As the family goes on a series of zany and increasingly insane adventures and endures ludicrous shenanigans along the way, the comedy that ensues is sure to win over most viewers while other are sure to find themselves endlessly frustrated.

Baumbach’s presence can be felt throughout as the director and writer as he should be commended for bringing source material that many believed to be unadaptable to the screen. The dialogue is to die for as the outrageousness of it all is sure to be a hit more than often than not. Where the the film ultimately triumphs is in it’s originally and creativity despite its divisive humor. A lot of the credit for this goes to its performances as Driver is excellent as Jack Gladney, the backbone of the film, while Gerwig as Babbette Gladey and the child actors rounding out the Gladney family slide in to the insanity seamlessly.

Some strongly-edited sequences only served to amplify the film’s humor and nonsensical nature while also helping it maintain a quick pace as its 2+ hour running time simply flies by. Meanwhile, the cinematography is also a highlight, delivering a wonderful bright color palette across an array of impressive shot compositions. Even though White Noise lingers heavily on such themes as death and the human sense of foreboding and impending doom, it is hard to deny its so much of a wild and erratic fun watch that most will find themselves wondering what kind of film they are actually watching more often than not but not care.

In the end, White Noise is a hard film to compare to but one thing for sure is that it was never boring and while the zaniness of it all won’t work for some, most audiences are likely to have a good time while they watch what is undoubtedly one of the wildest films of the year.

(original review)

still courtesy of Netflix

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Russell Miller

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