If you are into apocalyptic black comedy films, you should check on White Noise, which will premiere on December 2, 2022. The film is directed by Noah Baumbach and adapted from the 1985 novel of the same name by Don DeLillo. White Noise would become Baumbach’s eleventh narrative. The film had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2022. It was released on November 25, 2022, in selected cinemas and it will soon be available to watch on Netflix, specifically on December 30, 2022.
Jack Gladney (Adam Driver), a college professor, and his family’s comfortable suburban life is upended when a nearby chemical leak causes, known as the “The Airborne Toxic Event”, releases a noxious black cloud over the region that forces the Gladney family to evacuate.
The cast is formed by Adam Driver as Professor Jack Gladney, Greta Gerwig as Babette Gladney, Raffey Cassidy as Denise, André Benjamin as Elliot Lasher, Jodie Turner-Smith as Winnie Richards, Don Cheadle as Prof. Murray Siskind, Lars Eidinger as Arlo Shell, Sam Nivola as Heinrich, and May Nivola as Steffie.
This is another film that is adapted from a novel, in this case, this project is adapted from the White Noise novel by Don DeLillo. The novel is set in Blacksmith which is a bucolic college town, the book follows the life of Jack Gladney who became famous for pioneering the field of Hitler studies. The novel also highlights that this character has married five times, and now he is currently married to Babette. Both characters are afraid of death since they frequently wonder which of them will be the first to die. The first part of White Noise is called “Waves and Radiation”, yet the second part is called “The Airborne Toxic Event” which is the part the film is based on.
The reception of the film had mixed reviews, starting off with the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where White Noise holds a rating of 74%, based on 81 reviews, the film has an average rating of 7/10, the critic consensus says “White Noise may occasionally struggle with its allegedly unfilmable source material, but Noah Baumbach succeeds in finding the humorous heart of its surprisingly timely story”.
On Metacritic, the film received a rating of 68% based on 26 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews.
The film was also reviewed after the Venice Film Festival, Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian, gave the film five out of five stars alleging Baumbach knew how to adapt the film describing it as an “elegant and assured adaptation”.
Before this project, Barry Sonnenfeld took the lead in 2004 to direct the film adaptation of White Noise, from a script by Stephen Schiff. In 2016, Uri Singer acquired the rights to the book and pushed the project into development. On October 17, 2016, Michael Almereyda was set to write and direct the film adaptations. However, in the end, Noah Baumbach ended up being in charge of the project which will be adapted for Netflix alongside David Heyman and Uri Singer
Sometimes the adaptations to movies do not end up being the best and this makes fans of the adapted novel angry, but according to the critics, White Noise has all the earmarks of having a decent adaptation.
Andrea Rich
