Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Jack Gladney, professor of Hitler studies at The-College-on-the-Hill, husband to Babette, and father to four children/stepchildren, is torn asunder by a chemical spill from a rail car that releases an "Airborne Toxic Event" forcing Jack to confront his biggest fear - his own mortality.
Noah Baumbach's adaptation of Don DeLillo's postmodern novel is visually inventive and tonally singular — a deadpan comedy about death anxiety that feels unlike almost anything else in contemporary American cinema. The cinematography by Lol Crawley is genuinely striking, with the supermarket sequences and the Airborne Toxic Event rendered with dreamlike, saturated clarity. The film's novelty is high: it faithfully channels DeLillo's discursive, anxiety-saturated Americana in a way that feels both faithful and distinctly Baumbach. Acting is competent but uneven — Driver commits fully but the ensemble sometimes struggles with DeLillo's deliberately artificial dialogue. The plot meanders intentionally but loses momentum in the final third, and the ending — including the musical number — divides audiences sharply, feeling abrupt and unearned rather than triumphantly absurdist.