343 – White Noise (Festival Fever!)

What this episode covers

Festival Fever comes to an end this week with a look at the last major film festival of the year, the New York Film Festival. In 2022, Noah Baumbach follow-up up his biggest Oscar success, Marriage Story, by tackling Don DeLillo’s unadaptable novel White Noise. The satire stars Adam Driver as the leading professor in “Hitler studies” whose family faces chaos and confusion from a cataclysmic disaster known as the Airborne Toxic Event. Prestigiously opening NYFF (after also opening Venice), the film left many scratching their heads. This episode, we talk about our hopes for Baumbach’s upcoming Jay Kelly and the history of NYFF openers. We also talk about the film’s closing sequence set to LCD Soundsystem, Greta Gerwig’s acting return in the film, and the film’s large budget. Topics also include 2022 Original Song, Little Hugs (which we incorrectly call Huggies), and the film’s production design.