WHITE NOISE Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel about a deathobsessed, imposter syndromesuffering academic, and his family’s adventures through the hypermediated high noon of the Reaganite 1980s, is the best entry point into the great author’s extended universe. It’s the book where DeLillo’s themes of conspiracy, mortality and waste are most leavened by his morbid, mordant humour. But it’s also his most domestic novel. So on the face of it Noah Baumbach, with his feel for fucked-up families and the absurdities of academia, is the perfect director to bring the book to the screen.
But the film isn’t quite a triumph on the level of Paul Anderson’s . It’s largely a problem of tone. Baumbach shoots the Midwest campus town in a golden, Spielbergian light (and thestyle sitcom. But the naturalistic, nostalgic vibe jars with DeLillo’s dialogue, which is as stylised as restoration comedy. Adam Driver, as Hitler Studies prof Jack Gladney, has a ball with some of the obvious set pieces (a two-hander with Don Cheadle as they lecture students on the parallels between Hitler and Elvis, the madness of crowds and the fatality of fame, is a delirious tour de force), but Greta Gerwig as his wife Babette seems uncharacteristically unsure with dialogue that’s less mumblecore, more Intro to PoMo 101.
