White Noise In Depth Movie Review
Spoiler Alert!
Today I will be reviewing the film “White Noise” directed by Noah Baumbach. This film recently aired on Netflix, and after watching, I thought I would share what I got from it, and what might not be so obvious to others.
Where do I start? This movie has so much to unpack! This dark comedy is teeming with allegory, and dripping with nostalgia. Set in the 1980’s, the safe, colorful setting that brings us back to an easier time is harshly juxtaposed against an ominous threat referred to as, “the airborne toxic event”. Adam Driver, I have to say, is outstanding in his role as the laid back, intelligent and mostly level headed father figure he portrays here. He tends to have a flair for the dramatic, and he is a perfect fit for this role in light of that. I haven’t loved him in every film or tv show he’s worked on, but he definitely has his moments. Take my word for it, this is one of them.
It can be a little hard to get into at first. Things are a bit Stanley Kubrick-ish from the get go. The camera panning and light set up work together to make you feel like you are watching from a live studio audience. This, together with the color and nostalgia, quickly grab one’s attention, even if we aren’t really sure what is happening before us.
From the very first scene, we are bombarded with old film reels of fiery car crashes and disaster, the college Prof. Murray Siskind’s (Don Cheadle) voice over ensuring us that car crash footage of this type, from American films, is actually uplifting and optimistic!
Part 1. Waves and Radiation
We are introduced to Professor Jack Gladney (Driver), and then, shortly thereafter, his wife, upbeat and eccentric Babette (Greta Gerwig). They live together brady bunch style with their four children, Denise, Steffi, Heinrich and Wilder. Jack teaches “Hitler Studies” (which he definitely made up) at the local university, and Babette teaches various classes at the local church, including exercise and who knows what else. That’s not important. Cut to the important stuff you say? Ok here it is…… they love each other. They live a nice, quiet little middle class life. They have a maroon station wagon, and a two story house with an attic that stores all the usual things like books and trunks and telescopes. They are also both afraid to die. They both pretend that they want to be the one to die first, so as not to have to stick around without the other, mourning the life they currently lead. This may be true, but what is even truer is that in spite of this, they are both consumed by the thought of death. In Jack’s life, this is seen in his studies and in his teachings. We get a wonderful look into this in the scene where he and Prof. Murray give a joint presentation on two people that, to a normal person, have absolutely nothing to do with each other, Hitler and Elvis. Nonetheless, this lecture is beguiling and inspiring and downright nonsensical. What it boils down to, ultimately, is that both men were momma’s boys. Well, not just momma’s boys, but momma’s boys who enthralled the masses, distracting them from their inevitable death. The masses, that is.
While Jack’s obsession with death manifests in his work life, Babette’s is taking over every facet of her’s. We see her sliding into an unshakable depression, disappearing till all hours and acting generally, all around shady. Even the children are starting to become concerned. Her teenage daughter, Denise, is on to the fact that Babette has been taking some sort of medication, labeled Dylar, which she tells Jack. They begin trying to figure out what the little white pills do, behind Babette’s back.
Let’s talk about the children for a second. Denise, Babette’s daughter from her second marriage (I believe) is headstrong and inquisitive. She is concerned over her mothers recent strange behavior, and is hellbent on getting to the bottom of things. Heinrich, Jack’s eldest son from a previous marriage, is intelligent and resourceful, always being the sensible one, on the lookout and full of information about what in the world is really going on. The third child, Steffi is younger than the other two, but still older than the youngest, Jack and Babette’s shared son, Wilder, who can’t be more than four years old.
The grocery store. The grocery store is a recurring theme in this film. It is a brightly lit, fantastical place lined with all your favorite brands, in all their retro glory. I spied Pringles and Dunkaroos, Cheerios and Raisin Bran, I’m talking alll the good things the grocery store has, and had, in the 80’s. There is a general sense of community and safety in the grocery store, but our hearts are even further warmed by the bright oranges and deep purples displayed here for the hungriest of hungry 80’s baby to take in!
Part 2. The Airborne Toxic Event
Moving on. While all of these things are culminating together, the ‘‘toxic event’’ takes place. A reckless semi driver, carrying some unknown flammable substance, collides with a train carrying a chemical known as “Nyodene D”. Cue mass explosions and ominous, looming, black clouds laced with fire lightning.
At first, Jack tries to downplay the disaster, which has now caught the attention of the entire area. While the sensible older children stay alert and prepared, Jack and Babette downplay the doom everyone is beginning to feel, reassuring themselves and everyone else that everything will be just fine. This lasts only until the Fire Marshall comes screeching down the street with evacuation orders. This is followed by a quick scramble of everyone grabbing their things and jumping in the family station wagon, only to realize that they are late!
The family then deals with the usual doomsday traffic. You know, mass panic, wrecks, running out of gas. Thankfully, for us, it is done in an almost lighthearted way, like Prof. Murray Siskind pointed out at the beginning of the film, no one does it like the Americans! The family, bouncing around from shelter to shelter, deals with things surprisingly well, except for Jack, who learns his life may be cut short after his two and a half minute exposure to Nyodene D (while he pumped gas in the toxic rain). Ooohh, and Murray gives Jack a gun along with some magical thinking speculation about how violence might lead to rebirth ehh.. killing another might prolong your own life type stuff. (Can we talk about that cute little duet on the back of the car during the shelter scene??) After about nine days, everyone is allowed to return to their homes, and their lives.
3. Dylarama
Upon returning to their lives, and the grocery store, Jack and Murray contemplate the ins and outs of coming to terms with the death of someone you know. Babette is spiraling, and living in her sweats full time. Jack and Denise are still working to uncover the truth behind Dylar. Jack, after consulting with a chemist at the college, finds out that Dylar is an unknown drug meant to treat the fear of death. He also finds out that her doctor has no idea what it is, and never prescribed it to her. Jack eventually confronts Babette and she spills the tea! She’s been SLEEPING with the head of the company in order to continue taking the pills after participating in a failed drug trial. You have to commend her for her honesty, and Jack takes it all in stride, albeit with a little saltiness, which we can’t fault him for. Babette is depressed and contrite, and you can’t help but feel sorry for them as they both struggle with what she has done.
Days pass and Jack just can’t get over the betrayal, so he does some digging and finds out who the guy is. He meets with him (and he’s German!) at a seedy hotel and yep, you guessed it, after some general crazy stuff goes on, he shoots him with the gun that Murray gave him on Doomsday!! While he’s cleaning up the scene, Babette appears in the doorway because duh, “men kill”. The guy, who now has the gun because Jack staged the scene to look like a suicide, then shoots both of them, but it’s only superficial. They proceed to come to their senses and attempt to drag the confused guy to the fever dream hospital. Here we see atheist nuns who run the place and things are just all around weird and surreal. They died? They didn’t die? Who knows what the heck is going on here? Not important. After the light at the end of the tunnel scene, err, light through the circular window scene, we are back in their kitchen, and all’s right with the world again. Babette quotes Murray saying “Murray says that we are fragile creatures surrounded by hostile facts.” and Jack laments that they are out of milk.
Grocery store scene grand finale!!! This was such a fun and perfect way to end the movie. The nostalgia, along with the catchy earworm of a song, put the entire story to bed in a nice, neat, little grocery store package that I can’t wait to open up over and over again!
Now to unpack the heavy stuff!
What this movie deals with is the fact that we all fear death on some level or another. It is an inevitable truth that we must wrestle with, some more than others. I found it to be quite beautiful, the way that the writer and directors were able to portray the way that a pretty normal family might deal with the reality of the coming of the end of their lives as they know it, whether it be now or at some time in the distant future. Every aspect of this film peeled back the layers on how we see and deal with death as an individual, within the family structure, and as a society in general. The dark comedy, thoughtful characters, and the work put into the setting, really gave this movie something special. I truly enjoyed it, and I would recommend it to anyone who uses laughter to cope with some of the hardest things life throws at us, or to anyone who has ever struggled with the thought of death, as this film paints the inevitable in a nostalgic and lighthearted way that will leave you feeling that there is always hope left to be found, even if we are only kidding ourselves.
The end.