It’s the Charlie Kaufman version of Don’t Look Up. This is essentially an exploration of all the different ways we collectively distract ourselves from our own mortality by means of white noise (some examples of the noise this film touches on being excessive consumerism, misinformation, cult of personality, religion, overprescribing and quackery ). I actually really like the dialogue and how the characters are written, it gives the film a very unique voice. Granted, it feels like an academic’s interpretation of Wes Anderson, so it’s wordy, eccentric and dry, but I like that. Sometimes you need to dig in order to understand what’s being said, or what the joke is. It’s very well shot (the second half in particular is very stylish), the acting’s great and it also has one of Elfman’s better scores in recent memory. However, I do think the storytelling is inelegant. There are a lot of tonal shifts that don’t work at all, and the two halves feel way too disconnected. They’re thematically linked, but besides that, they feel like two completely different movies. The second half is also considerably slower and less interesting. Still, I think this is entertaining, and the credits (which include a fantastic new LCD Soundsystem song) are a major highlight.
6/10
