Film Review—White Noise: A Wake-Up Examination of Lethal Internal and External Challenges

Though it is tedious, taking the time to see this prescient film questioning the so called “best and brightest"  will be worth your while.

by SaraKay Smullens, MSW, LCSW, DCSW, CGP, CFLE, BCD

    The 2022 film White Noise, written and directed by Noah Baumbach, is billed as a comedy-drama. But make no mistake: Baumbach’s achievement is a timely, deadly serious, and I believe brilliant depiction of life—one where Baumbach digs out closely guarded intimate fears and denied external realities. Like life itself, the film moves so quickly at certain points that the viewer feels breathless. At other times, it seems to drag interminably. 

     Yes, there are some scenes that produce smiles (not primarily because they are funny, but because they hit home). There are giggle-chuckles that are due to “absurdities’—steroid manifestations—of life truths. They are the blown up, exaggerated mirror images of struggles we know well about our family and friends, our clients, our world, ourselves. This film illuminates a social worker’s challenge: Until we face ourselves and what complex societal challenges ask of us, we cannot understand our clients. We will be unable to hear what they are trying to tell us. 

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