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  • Writer's pictureDylan Buell

Review: White Noise

College professor Jack Gladney and his family's comfortable suburban life is upended when a nearby chemical leak causes "The Airborne Toxic Event," releasing a noxious black cloud over the region that forces the Gladney family to evacuate.


Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, and Raffey Cassidy


One of the years most interesting films, "White Noise" takes every idea it could and shoves it into a 2 hour film. Adam Driver delivers a great performance and has some great connection with Greta Gerwig. The film does a great job with its family dynamic and the internal struggles of daily life.


While the film has some great acting, it contains some of the most unbalanced and messy storytelling of the year. They try so hard to create depth to these characters but go about it in the strangest way possible. They make Adam Driver's character a professor is Adolf Hitler, a character aspect which has no importance to the story. The same thing is in place with Don Cheadle's character, they make him a professor of Elvis which is pointless to everything.


The first 2 acts of the story are slow but interesting. Thye set up a whole plot with toxic chemicals in the air and being on the run for survival but then abandon it for a horrible third act. If the entire story was a continuation of this chemical spill plot and was about them setting up a new life it would have been a lot more interesting and successful.


Instead they abandon it and completely shove it to the side for an absolute abomination of a third act. They poorly attempt to intertwine the two storys and in the end make you care less and less for the characters. All the stakes are laughed off and in the end they create a creepy happily ever after.


While there is some great acting and some great scene here and there, unfortunately this film fall short in a key area needed to succeed. At the end of the day there was too much going on and not enough attention to what really mattered.


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