Noah Baumbach directs Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig and Don Cheadle in this absurdist drama based on a literary classic by Don DeLillo.

Academia. Consumerism. Apocalyptic Events. Addiction. Infidelity. Only viewed through a cartoonish, Sesame Street tinted lens that is three parts Amblin (think Goonies / Gremlins) and one part Mike Nichols. A lot happens in White Noise. All of it anxious. Both Gerwig and Driver possibly give their career best performances. The movie has a magnificent middle hour where the family try to survive an Airborne Toxic Event that is both nightmarish but also a loony Spielbergian homage caper. On the whole though this is a movie consisting solely of big swings that only a fool could connect with all of. Excessive effort has been put in here for a release that got lost on Netflix. My real question is: should satires care about skewering the attitudes and excesses of forty years ago?

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Perfect Double Bill: Downsizing (2017)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/