With the release ofNoah Baumbach’sWhite Noise,the breakthrough novel from one of the most celebrated authors of the last 50 years has finally been brought to the screen. At the heart ofDon DeLillo’s darkly humorous 1985 novel is the story of an American family coping with (among other things) an airborne toxic event. While this disaster does force them to evacuate their home, they’re unable to escape the creeping ennui of contemporary life in America — or get beyond the surfaces, screens, and simulated nature of their realities, priorities, or relationships with one another.
Starring Adam Driver, Great Gerwig, and Don Cheadle,White Noisehas divided critics and fans, but the same could be said for the source material (and DeLillo’s entire body of work). In many ways, Baumbach and his cast have accomplished the best effort to date to capture the balancing act that makes DeLillo’s work so essential: informed, thought-provoking cultural commentary wrapped in a shell of dark, absurdist humor.
Undeniably, DeLillo has been at the leading edge of fiction since the 1970s, exerting massive influence on entire generations of artists and writers. So, why haven’t more of his award-winning novels, short stories, or plays been brought to the screen?
Don DeLillo’s Fiction Should Be Perfect for Film Adaptation
With a sharp, deadpan wit, DeLillo’s satirical macro-explorations of cultural commentary create sweeping backdrops for his studies on the micro-effects of an individual’s interactions with the ever-increasing velocity and veracity of media, politics, entertainment, academia, and community. DeLillo is an important writer whose “work has illuminated our age without explicitly setting out to do so,” as Josh Zajdman noted inTown & Country. And pop culture has always been a key component to DeLillo’s oeuvre. His characters often obsess over movies and TV — and his themes are drenched in every manner of Americana — while his imagery, dialogue, descriptions and phrasing are all engrained with dry comedy and satire. With all of this in mind, the question remains: Why have only a few of his works been adapted for the screen? To find an answer, a closer examination of the existing film adaptations of his work may help.
Related:White Noise, Explained: A Satirical Exploration of Death, Consumerism, and Misinformation
Game 6 (2005)
WhileGame 6(directed by Michael Hoffman)is not an adaptation of one of his novels, DeLillo actually wrote the screenplay. The story follows successful playwright Nicky Rogan (played by Michael Keaton) around Manhattan on the day his latest production is set to premiere. As Nicky interacts with his semi-estranged daughter, wife, mistress, friends, and a host of others, a pair of stressful specters inject a mounting tension throughout the story. One is a notorious, anonymous play-killing critic (Robert Downey Jr.). The other is Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, set to be played that evening. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, Nicky has been conditioned to expect his team’s collapse, even when victory is assured.
Nicky’s day builds toward these twin tragedies: his play bombing and his team losing. The scenes ofGame 6are loosely strung together like a series of short films, with one main character and a series of reoccurring guest stars. And while the New York Mets' victory over the Red Sox in the actual Game 6 remains one of the most improbable, fantastic moments in baseball history, when Nicky skips his play’s premiere to watch the game, the Sox defeat sparks him to lash out by finding and killing the phantom critic. Instead of a murder, however, the two men bond over the layers of pain and disappointment in their shared love of the Red Sox — and the critic admits that the play is Nicky’s best work to date.
Aspects ofGame 6sometimes feel like a compilation of DeLillo moments from different works set to film. For instance, NIcky gets stuck in inert traffic while heading crosstown to get a haircut (which is also central to the story ofCosmopolis), and a ruptured asbestos-lined steam pipe inGame 6creates an airborne toxic event (albeit on a smaller scale than the one inWhite Noise). However, despite all this — and DeLillo’s direct involvement — whileGame 6delivers a subtle, nuanced story of entangled yet disconnected elements, it never fully captures the humor, absurdity or gravity of DeLillo’s story and dialogue.
Cosmopolis (2012)
Robert Pattinson delivers a balanced performance inCosmopolis(directed by David Cronenberg) as Eric Packer, a detached billionaire speculative currency investor whose world is twisted inside out over the course of a day mostly spent in and around his limousine. In some ways, parallels in content, theme, and imagery makeGame 6andCosmopolisexist almost as a companion pieces to one another. But whereGame 6fails to capture the gravity of DeLillo’s ideas,Cosmopolisis almost crushed under their weight.
Through all the interactions, monologues, and observations,Cosmopolislacks even a hint of humor. When Packer and his mistress/art dealer Didi Fancher (Juliette Binoche) discuss his desire to buy the Rothko Chapel and have it installed — walls and all — in his Manhattan apartment, there is never an ironic nod to either the absurdity of his desire or the absurdity of art as an industry where transactions exist as proxy for aesthetic consensus on quality.
Related:Upcoming Book to Screen Adaptations We’re Excited to See
Further, in the final scene where Packer confronts his would-be assassin (Paul Giamatti), the dialogue finds them sparring and jabbing at each other without ever landing a punch. They seem to just speak at one another about the meanings and motivations behind violence, identity, and fate, with weary, dense statements that carry no energy, tension, or hint of the dark humor DeLillo so subtly threads through his stories.
Cronenberg’s adaptation ofCosmopolisdelivers a story with no real beginning and even less resolution. It’s slick and attractive — with gorgeous production design. But watching the film is like witnessing a succession of well-tailored characters deliver obtuse proclamations woven together like a patchwork of ideas that disappear as quickly as they take shape.
Never Ever (2016)
If the fault ofCosmopolisis that it takes itself too seriously, then perhaps Benoît Jacquot’s adaptation of DeLillo’s novellaThe Body Artistdoes not take itself seriously enough. Adapted by Julia Roy (who also stars as Laura in the film),Never Ever(À Jamais)is a slimmer version of the source material, but accomplishes its sparse sleekness by abandoning much of the conflict and deeper exegesis on identity from DeLillo’s story.
Many had high hopes for the film, especially as it starred Mathieu Amalric (Quantum of Solace,TheFrench Dispatch) as the doomed Jacques Rey, who haunts the memories, home and creative process of Laura. Jacquot’s film is beautifully shot, with both Amalric and Roy delivering solid performances. But in the end,Never Everwants to come off as a “highbrow kind of romantic ghost story with psychological thriller undertones, but falls laughably short of its goals” (viaThe Hollywood Reporter).
Next in Store for DeLillo on Film
Aside from a few short films that are difficult (at best) to view, these four are the only movies based on the writings of Don DeLillo. And while each has its own merits, onlyWhite Noisecomes close to depicting the many facets of concept, comedy and commentary inherent in the works of DeLillo.
WhereasGame 6was unable to deliver the overt gravity of DeLillo’s observations,Cosmopoliswas unable to deliver his subtle punchlines. And if anything is clear after looking more closely at all the adaptations of DeLillo’s work, it’s that bringing the nuance which makes DeLillo’s writing so important and enjoyable to film is no easy task. But this doesn’t mean Hollywood is done trying.
According toDeadline, Ted Melfi (Hidden Figures,The Starling) will be the next filmmaker to take a swing at bringing DeLillo’s words to the screen. Melfi has been announced as director of the upcomingUnderworld, with Uri Singer producing. Singer also producedWhite Noiseand has optionedThe Silence, another DeLillo novel. So while there is no shortage of activity around DeLillo novels,Underworldwill present a unique set of challenges due to its sheer scope.
DeLillo’s epic, 1997 National Book Award-winning novel (that many consider his masterpiece) is a long, entangled tapestry of America in the second half of the 20th century, weaving together baseball and the waste management industry along with anonymous highway killings and cold-war nuclear proliferation. In adapting a writer as era-defining as DeLillo to the screen, one has to consider: Would a limited streaming series be a better format than a feature-length film — to allow for the full complexity of ideas to breathe and to give the multiple storylines room to unfold and be told with a more appropriate depth and pace?
