A disarming adaptation of Don DeLillo’s prescient, “unfilmable”, cult novel, Noah Baumbach’s latest finds the fun in fatalism. Focusing on unnatural disasters, the film is practically the equal and opposite of another Netflix offering, Don’t Look Up. The message there is “Act Now And We Can Still Save The Planet!” The take-away from White Noise is: “Oh, we’re so doomed. Let’s dance!”
It’s the 1980s and professor Jack Gladney (Adam Driver), is teaching “Hitler Studies”, at a Midwestern college. Jack (imagine a bonny hybrid of Slavoj Zizek and Chris Morris) wears sunglasses. He deconstructs the rock ‘n’ roll nature of fascism and, in the small pond of academia, is a bit of a rock star himself.
