White Noise, New and Improved

Noah Baumbach specializes in films about family dynamics, specifically the dynamics of white, upper-middle-class families of artists and intellectuals (or aspiring artists and intellectuals). His other, closely related subject is the drama of artistic and intellectual ambition itself, especially as it pertains to the pain and anxiety—and selfishness and cruelty—of the almost-great, those who are bitterly consumed by the fear of failure and the delusions and disappointments of success.