There was some controversy a few years ago — at least in the comic book world — over how the writer Kelly Sue DeConnick, best known for helping to reinvent Captain Marvel for modern audiences, was described by journalists and commentators online. She’s married to another comics writer, Matt Fraction, and a lot of folks would refer to her as “Fraction’s wife,” before even saying her name, a choice which has just painfully (though perhaps occasionally unconsciously) sexist overtones. So it’s pretty amusing that a whole host of zoomers will now refer to Noah Baumbach as “That dude who is married to Greta Gerwig” and probably be justified in doing so, both in terms of their fame (after all, Gerwig is directing the fucking Barbie meme movie) and because, well, Baumbach’s an old hand at this now, as he’s been making movies since the ’90s — ain’t no power imbalance there now, at least. His latest project, an adaptation of White Noise, Don DeLillo’s classic novel, is perhaps the one book best suited to his talents — crumbling families, national disasters, ridiculous comedy, a stylish era — and it’s fitting that he, out of all of his compatriots in the Twee Cinema, would tackle it. Netflix dropped the first teaser for the project earlier on Thursday, and though it is a scant 58 seconds or so, it’ll make you want to either buy a copy of the book or crack the spine on that one you got years ago in college.
Peep it:
In lieu of posting the Netflix synopsis — which is as boilerplate as you might assume — we’re substituting the jacket description from DeLillo’s novel, which is just a little bit more informative about what exactly the hell is going on:
“‘White Noise’ tells the story of Jack Gladney, his fourth wife, Babette, and four ultramodern offspring as they navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. When an industrial accident unleashes an ‘airborne toxic event,’ a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the ‘white noise’ engulfing the Gladneys — radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings — pulsing with life, yet suggesting something ominous.”
White Noise will premiere in a month’s time at the New York Film Festival, but it’ll arrive in a theater near you and, of course, on Netflix at a yet-to-be-determined date. So if you really want to check it out, you’ll have to cop tickets from autograph-hounding scalpers outside of Lincoln Center.