White Noise: Release date of the Adam Driver film, cast and plot details

Noah Baumbach’s latest film outing gets the Adam Driver treatment in this dark comedy.

Adam Driver is returning to the big screen in White Noise - a film that's set to land on Netflix this year. With a stellar supporting cast and direction from Noah Baumbach in his eleventh directorial outing, this is set to be a film to watch out for. This is also the second time Baumbach has collaborated with Driver - casting him as the lead in Academy Award winning Marriage Story, in 2019. Here we uncover the release date of White Noise, premiering at the Venice Film Festival alongside The Son starring Hugh Jackman and the anticipated Don't Worry Darling starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh.

Not the only exciting film to watch out for on Netflix, you can currently stream Day Shift filmed across sunny and recognisable locations, and featuring serious vampire action. Viewers are asking for the Look Both Ways ending explained - Lili Rheunhart’s character did look both ways, but which reality did she stay in?

White Noise: Release date 

White Noise will be released in selected cinemas on November 25, 2022, it will then arrive on Netflix - just over a month later - on December 30, 2022. Those with a Netflix subscription will be able to watch White Noise for free (as part of their membership).

Buzz around the upcoming Noah Baumbach film has come about following the release of the first trailer on August 25. White Noise will also see it's world premiere opening at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2022. It will then also serve as the opening film for the 60th New York Film Festival taking place on September 30.

Speaking to Indiewire, Venice International Film Festival chief Alberto Barbera said “it is a great honor to open the 79th Venice Film Festival with ‘White Noise'. It was worth waiting for the certainty that the film was finished to have the pleasure to make this announcement”. 

Director Noah Baumbach added, “It is a truly wonderful thing to return to the Venice Film Festival, and an incredible honor to have ‘White Noise’ play as the opening night film. This is a place that loves cinema so much, and it’s a thrill and a privilege to join the amazing films and filmmakers that have premiered here”.

White noise: Plot 

Set in the 1980s, the plot centres around the life of college professor Jack Gladney, played by Adam Driver. Gladney is well known in academic circles for pioneering the field of Hitler studies at a liberal arts college - he is now in his fourth marriage. His life is disrupted when he and his wife are forced to face their fear of death when an airborne toxic event happens in their town - a chemical spill creates potentially lethal clouds. 

Gladney gathers his four children and sarcastic wife, to fight through heavy traffic and seek safety. The film dramatises a contemporary American family’s attempts to deal with everyday mundane conflicts, while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and how to find happiness when surrounded by uncertainty. It is said to be a cultural commentary critiquing American consumerism, and other institutions such as academia and marriage. 

Why is it called White Noise?

The cloud of toxic fumes engulfing the Gladney family lives is a metaphor, or visible version of the white noise that can so easily engulf modern living - including TV and radio noise, sirens, microwaves, and ultrasonic appliances. These can be part of life yet also present something ominous, as represented by the cloud. 

According to Shmoop, the constant input of media and the other every day distractions are just one meaning of the title, and it also refers to Jack and Babette’s ever present fear of death. Jack Gladney wonders if death is nothing but sound, and Babette muses whether death is electrical noise that would be heard for ever, or something that you’d hear when death is imminent. 

White Noise: Cast 

• Adam Driver as Jack Gladney
• Greta Gerwig as Babette Gladney
• Raffey Cassidy as Denise
• Don Cheadle as Prof. Murray Siskind
• Jodie Turner-Smith as Winnie Richards
• André Benjamin as Elliot Lasher
• Lars Eidinger as Arlo Shell
• Sam Nivola as Heinrich
• May Nivola as Steffie
• Alessandro Nivola (unconfirmed role)

The film's Twitter account has also been keeping fans regularly updated with news. They recently made an announcement about music for the film, saying "Babette’s face says it all. We are excited to announce LCD Soundsystem has recorded an original song “new body rhumba” for WHITE NOISE – marking the band’s first new original recording in five years. The single will be released later this year".

An excited fan added that track could find itself in an "Oscars race for best original song" such was their enthusiasm for the news.     

Is White Noise based on a true story? 

No, White Noise isn't based on a true story, but on a book of the same name by Don DeLillo, first published by Viking Press in 1985.

White Noise is the eighth novel by DeLillo, and won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction following its release. The book is considered a great example of postmodern literature, thought to be the breakout piece of work bringing DeLillo to the attention of a worldwide audience. 

White Noise by Don DeLillo £8.39 | Amazon

Read the book that inspired the upcoming Netflix film starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig 

White Noise wasn't DeLillo's first choice for the book title. He'd wanted to name it Panasonic, with "pan" meaning "all" as a way to describe the noise of modern living being everywhere. However, the name was already trademarked by the electronics company, who blocked the use of the name for the title. 

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