White Noise (2022)
RT Audience Score: 65%
Awards & Nominations: NA
Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s White Noise is a maximalist, screwball satire that will leave you scratching your head and giggling at the same time. While the film struggles to articulate the book’s ideas with clarity, it succeeds in creating a strange beauty in the synchronized shopping scenes. Baumbach’s self-conscious work of literature adaptation juggles big themes and highly literate dialogue with ease, but the weak script leaves the cast grappling for tone and clarity. Overall, White Noise is a project worth rooting for, but it falls short of its potential and becomes a chore to endure in its later acts.
White Noise” is a movie that will leave you feeling like you just went on a wild ride through the ’80s. While some critics found it hard to follow, I found myself enjoying the synchronized shopping scenes and the witty banter between characters. Sure, the script could have been stronger, but the cast did their best with what they had. Overall, it’s a fun and quirky film that’s worth a watch if you’re in the mood for something a little offbeat.
Production Company(ies)
HBO Max, Heyday Films, Netflix, Passage Pictures, Psychological, Verse
Distributor
Netflix
Release Type
Streaming, Streaming (Netflix), Theatrical, Theatrical (Limited)
Filming Location(s)
Cleveland, Ohio, United States; Wellington, Ohio, United States; Cleveland Heights, Ohio, United States; Oberlin, Ohio, United States; San Francisco, California, United States; Georgia, United States; California, United States; Ohio, United States
MPAA / Certificate
R
Year of Release
2022
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital, Dolby
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Aspect ratio:2.39 : 1
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Runtime:2h 16m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States, United Kingdom
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Nov 25, 2022 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 30, 2022
Genre(s)
Comedy/Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, directed by Noah Baumbach, written by Noah Baumbach, comedy, drama, horror, R rating, box office performance, budget, reviewed by A.O Scott, Jake Coyle, Anthony Lane, Dwight Brown, Pippa Bailey, Paul Attard, Joanna Langfield, Hope Madden, Avi Offer, Laura Clifford, Richard Propes, producer Noah Baumbach, David Heyman, Uri Singer, Dolby Digital, Scope (2.35:1), love, death, family, uncertainty, American life, literature adaptation, satire, synchronicity, shopping, everyday life, universal mysteries, happiness, apocalyptic, absurd, lyrical, contemporary, American family, conflicts, mundane, critic reviews, audience score, Netflix, limited release, streaming, November 25, 2022, December 30, 2022, 2h 16m
Worldwide gross: $91,196,419
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): NA
US/Canada gross: $56,386,759
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $80,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $80,000,000
Production budget ranking: 511
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $43,080,000
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Greta Gerwig – Babbette
Don Cheadle – Murray Siskind
Raffey Cassidy – Denise
Sam Nivola – Heinrich
May Nivola – Steffie
Noah Baumbach – Director, Producer, Writer
David Heyman – Producer
Uri Singer – Producer
Director(s)
Noah Baumbach
Writer(s)
Noah Baumbach
Producer(s)
Noah Baumbach, David Heyman, Uri Singer
Film Festivals
Berlin, Venice
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
All Critics (78) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (20)
“White Noise” is an expression of sincere and admirable faith. I just wish I could believe in it.
November 23, 2022
A.O. Scott
New York Times
TOP CRITIC
In very ’80s environs, Baumbach’s film always remains — purposefully, I think — a self-conscious work of literature adaptation, juggling big themes and highly literate dialogue with a screwball touch.
November 23, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/4
Jake Coyle
Associated Press
TOP CRITIC
If, like me, you enjoy watching smoothly choreographed sequences of people weaving in and out of rooms, chattering and snacking, or rallying one another to the TV, then the everyday crackle and hum of “White Noise” will be enough.
November 19, 2022
Anthony Lane
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
The cast, acting from a weak script, looks like they’re grappling for tone and clarity.
October 26, 2022 | Rating: 2/4
Dwight Brown
DwightBrownInk.com
TOP CRITIC
White Noise is maximalist, funny, abrasive satire that resists interpretation.
October 12, 2022
Pippa Bailey
New Statesman
TOP CRITIC
The film rarely articulates the book’s ideas with any real sense of the outside world without resorting to the easy exaggerations that Don DeLillo peddled in the name of satire, which, while maybe fresh back in 1985, ring completely hollow today.
October 5, 2022 | Rating: 1.5/4
Paul Attard
Slant Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of the venerable novel is a project worth rooting for. But it’s a very hard one to recommend.
November 24, 2022
Joanna Langfield
The Movie Minute
It’s a film that might leave you giggling, scratching your head, or convinced that we’re all doomed, but you’ll be damned near helpless against the strange beauty of synchronized shopping.
November 22, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/5
Hope Madden
MaddWolf
Overlong, clunky and shallow while biting off more than it could chew. It’s ultimately less than the sum of its parts.
November 21, 2022
Avi Offer
NYC Movie Guru
Baumbach’s adaptation works best as it transitions between its first two acts… but the film increasingly becomes a chore to endure.
November 21, 2022 | Rating: C
Laura Clifford
Reeling Reviews
Rather unexpectedly, Noah Baumbach was the perfect filmmaker to bring DeLillo’s White Noise to life.
November 20, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/4.0
Richard Propes
TheIndependentCritic.com
The material gets away from Baumbach in a way it never does with DeLillo.
November 18, 2022 | Rating: 2/4
Michael Nordine
Film Occasionally…
Plot
At once hilarious and horrifying, lyrical and absurd, ordinary and apocalyptic, White Noise dramatizes a contemporary American family’s attempts to deal with the mundane conflicts of everyday life while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world. Based on Dom DeLillo’s 1986 novel.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Fresh Kernels does not have any goofs listed for the film “White Noise (2022).”
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