“Who’s out there?” Adam Driver’s Jack Gladney whispers to the ceiling (from whence we are staring down) with all the self-seriousness of a character in the thesis play of a drama student enamoured with but not entirely comprehending Brecht. “Who are you?” he adds, a beat later. With this and other vaguely postmodern discursions of perspective, Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s seems to be not just telegraphing the loneliness of a man in the early stages of the dissolution of his marriage and sanity, but also aspiring toward a commentary on—what? Identity? Voyeurism? The nesting meta of adaptation as a form of immortality? Probably all of the above, which attests to Baumbach’s general oversaturation of his judicious source. DeLillo’s novel is acerbic, dry, and dark, haunted by the
WHITE NOISE
Jan 09, 2023
5 minutes
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days