White Noise (2022, R)

This is a film that I saw in the lead-up to the Oscar nominations—it wound up on some prediction lists as a Best Original Screenplay contender. Since it didn’t get nominated, and it was a “so many nominees, so little time” situation, I didn’t review it earlier. But now that the Oscars are over, I’m circling back to it.

In the 1980s, a blended family has their safe suburban life upended and is forced to deal with the existential crises that accompany a local environmental catastrophe. Professor Jack, his wife Babette, and their noisy houseful of kids debate how to respond when a truck carrying toxic chemicals crashes outside of town, sending a poisonous cloud up into the air. As they listen to officials whose instructions keep changing, they contemplate mortality.

That’s a rather neat summary for a film that really isn’t that neat. This is a sprawling movie that, while it places the toxic event in a central narrative position, also includes dueling lectures on Hitler and Elvis, a mystery prescription for a secret ailment, and a dance number in a supermarket. At two hours and sixteen minutes, the film takes its time in all the various places the story goes. It doesn’t always make sense, and it doesn’t always hold together, but there’s an odd, pedantic humor that mostly keeps it engaging.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t seen much of Noah Baumbach’s work. In fact, looking over his filmography, I realized this is only the second film of his I’ve seen, after Marriage Story. Based on what I’ve gleaned about his movies from general cultural osmosis, I’m guessing this one is more in line with his sensibilities than Marriage Story was, though I obviously don’t know for sure. But the swift monotone dialogue, the fastidious precision of word choice, and the mix of the absurd and the mundane feel too particular to be a one-off style for this film.

It was only on occasion that I found myself fully on board with the movie. The actual toxic event is probably the section of the film that works best for me. I feel here like I best understand the thesis and what things are building toward, and I get into the rhythm of the formal-but-urgent chemistry between the family. The further we get out from the toxic event, though, the more my attention strains, and it’s more difficult for me to keep track of where we’re going.

Leading the film is Adam Driver as Jack. A renowned expert on Hitler, the professor makes up for his shabby appearance with the intensity of his lectures. Jack likes to be on top of everything, and when the toxic event hits, he vainly tries to project confidence to his worried wife and jumpy kids. Driver goes all in on this performance as a lost man grasping for reason. Greta Gerwig plays Babette with a sad sort of distracted sweetness; she always has a sense that she’s wondering if she left the oven on. I don’t really jibe with everywhere the film takes her, but Gerwig plays it well. I’m not familiar with any of the actors playing the kids, but all of them fit nicely into the film’s style—I especially like Sam Nivola as the knowledgeable Heinrich. The movie also features Don Cheadle as a professor friend of Jack’s, and we get brief appearances from Jodie Turner-Smith, SNL’s Chloe Fineman, and Barbara Sukowa, who I loved as Jones on 12 Monkeys.

Warnings

Language, scenes of violence (including references to rape,) sexual references, smoking, and thematic elements.

A Little TLC(w): The Duke of Mount Deer: Season 1, Episode 32 (1984)

This is an interesting episode. Lots of big things going down, but the episode itself spends much of its time on the things happening before, between, and after those major events. Not sure if it was just, “Oh man, we’re near the end of the season, we don’t want to run out of money!!”, but either way, they still create a pretty entertaining episode out of it.

Wai Siu-bo is on his way to Devine Dragon Island, with Sze Long leading the plan of attack on the dangerous sect. Siu-bo is caught between his desire to stay out of the fray and his anxiousness to help Fong Yee, who’s still being held by the Devine Dragons. The mission unfolds in unexpected ways and leads Siu-bo and Sheung Yee to a fortuitous turn of events.

We follow up a tiny bit on the Taiwan cliffhanger with Helmsman Chan in the last episode, but very briefly. Just enough to remind us that Chan is the noblest shifu in the game. He’s a guy who stoically intones lines like, “My personal suffering is nothing. I am worried that the people of this country are still suffering under the yoke of the Manchu rule.” Class act all around!

The emperor once again proves that, for all of Wai Siu-bo’s loyalty, he’s not afraid to play the emperor card at the slightest provocation. The moment Siu-bo expresses hesitation at the thought of going to Devine Dragon Island, it’s, “If you don’t put your whole heart into [this mission], I will have your head chopped off.” Sheesh! Fortunately, Siu-bo has Sheung Yee backing him up—over the last stretch of episodes, she’s been emerging as the most ride-or-die of his “wives.”

Other than a few scenes, we’re mainly sticking with Wai Siu-bo here, which means not actually seeing most of the battle between the imperial soldiers and the Devine Dragons. For his own safety as one of the emperor’s most trusted lords, he’s set up at “headquarters” on a different island while Sze Long commands the troops. As relieved as he is to be out of danger, though, he’s worried about Fong Yee and he doesn’t want anything to happen to her in the fight. Likewise, he quickly starts freaking out that he doesn’t know what’s happening, imagining all manner of catastrophes happening just beyond his reach.

This is a great episode for Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s physicality in this role, so many fun moments. He does an admirable job of teaming up with the shaky camera to create the illusion of being in a boat on choppy waters, stumbling and swaying all over the scene. There’s this awesome bit where he’s upset about something, and he yells as he spins around while walking along the wall. That’s not the best description, but I just love this little piece of business, which is a perfect physical expression of his anxiety in that moment. I also love it when Sheung Yee suggests he fake being hurt to get them out of a tight spot—Siu-bo brightly responds, “I am good at faking,” and immediately launches into the most over-the-top performance.

Finally, it’s of course not exclusive to this episode, since Wai Siu-bo spends plenty of time on this show running/fleeing, but I really do love the way he runs with his whole body. It’s not quite a full-on pinwheel-arms situation—it’s not as overt as that—but it’s always delightfully panicked and clumsy, especially compared to all the martial artists who regularly surround him.

Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003-2005)

*Attack of the Clones spoilers.*

There are three separate Clone Wars projects on IMDb, and this is the first. It shares certain connective tissue with the Clone Wars that follow it, but this action-oriented short-form serial is definitely just a precursor of what was to come.

After the reveal of Count Dooku’s betrayal in Attack of the Clones, we get a glimpse into some of the adventures and battles that occurred during the Clone Wars, the in-story years between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. While Anakin Skywalker and/or Obi-Wan Kenobi are often at the center of the mini-episodes (and I mean mini, like three minutes long,) a wide range of prequel-era heroes appearances, along with some trademark baddies.

As of this writing, I’ve gotten through the first season of the main Clone Wars series, and it’s clear that the Star Wars animated series leveled up significantly between the two. Even though they share some of the same DNA, not least of which is the voice cast, it’s admittedly not fair to compare the two: the 2003 series has a different, much simpler animation style, and again, each episode is about three minutes long! This isn’t really a series for exploring characters or ideas, or for fleshing out a story.

Because of its highly serialized nature, one adventure might take place over the course of four or five episodes, while others are just single snapshots. It’s a chance to feature lots of battle scenes and fun animated action, wild physics-defying Force moves from our main Jedi, and a bunch of different planets/new aliens. There’s a little story here and there, but mostly, the show feels designed to give us a taste of what the Clone Wars looked like for our heroes (and villains.)

Yep, the gang’s pretty much all here. In addition to Anakin and Obi-Wan, we also get Padmé, Yoda, C-3PO and R2-D2, Mace Windu, and more, including plenty of clones. We also see familiar villains like Palpatine, Dooku, and General Grievous, along with new character Asajj Ventress, Dooku’s apprentice. Special shoutout to James Arnold Taylor, who nails Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan voice, and to the animators who designed Obi-Wan’s clone armor look.

I’ll admit that I’m not the target audience for this series, which is made more to hold kids’ attention and give them bite-sized episodes to whet their appetites. In that sense, I’m sure it got the job done, but I never really got into it. It’s been more fun for me to watch the main Clone Wars series and realize what Star Wars created out of this somewhat flimsy beginning.

Warnings

Violence, scary moments for kids, and thematic elements.