White Noise

Baumbach manages to transform this strange portrait of American numbness, consumerism, and soul-searching into something intimate.

Above all, it is - not surprisingly - a marriage story, and the story of a family that, in its own bizarre way, might be the most functional and relatable Baumbach has ever portrayed.

It’s another one of 2022’s high profile, star-encrusted projects that struggles to be as good as its dazzling cast and provocative premise.

White Noise is bursting with fun things to watch. And though the story takes place in the 1980s, it tackles present day preoccupations: human-caused disaster, media saturation, drug addiction and consumerism.

The effect here is that [Noah Baumbach's] White Noise comes across far more sentimentally than DeLillo likely ever intended. Yet its forgiving nature is oddly comforting.

Baumbach holds back from giving us anything truly bold. The film needed to be far more experimental and political to have something substantial to say about our viewing practices...

Director Noah Baumbach gives it the old college try and for the most part succeeds. Some sections fall flat, understandable as it tackles so many 80s tropes, but when it sizzles it’s jam hot.

It’s heartening to come across a film that broaches such big ideas without ever losing its sense of dark and ironic fun.

Baumbach captures the novel’s emphasis on death and society’s attitude towards it.

If anything, White Noise shows that being overtly faithful to a pre-existing source from another medium can fundamentally lead to a film’s downfall.