Having glanced at the critic reviews I'm not surprised by the general response that White Noise tries to cram too much in/tries to address too many ideas and becomes muddled. But so what? Does that ruin the possibility for entertainment? Not a bit. This is a film that delights in being muddled, fragmented, and many things at once.
White Noise is fundamentally a strange and unfocused ramble of existentialist angst, full of surreal and absurdist humour with a little horror thrown into the mix from time to time. The plot is divided into very distinct chapters which constantly lurch through styles and levels of seriousness and silliness in a way that often reminded me of Netflix's miniseries Maniac, especially given the retro setting and the obsession with the medicalisation of personal problems, and the desperate hope that a little crackpot scientific advancement could save us all. The po-faced absurdity of the characters and situations is also reminiscent of Baumbach's earlier work with Wes Anderson (particularly The Life Aquatic, for which he wrote the screenplay).
Adam Driver is at his most hilarious as the pompous academic, with Don Cheadle excellently serving as his tirelessly philosophising sidekick. In fact everyone is a delight to watch, even Greta Gerwig (how does she manage to be so watchable and yet so abysmally wooden at the same time?). The plot takes this hapless group into some wild and extreme places, and by about the 90-minute mark I was honestly having so much fun wondering where this trip would go next. Unfortunately, the film does sag in its final episode, as the plot becomes less imaginative and more familiar in subject matter. And the ultimate message of the ending is rather trite and simplistic given the ideas it explores in the earlier chapters.
However, I would still highly recommend giving White Noise a try, particularly if absurdist humour is your thing. It manages to do a lot of things extremely well, especially portraying the sheer madness of everyday existence.
