Customer Reviews

Noise

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Low-budget, independent, but not overly artsy. Like others of its kind, it has a slightly unsteady, surreal feeling to it, lacking the glossing-over that one is accustomed to from mainstream Hollywood movies. To be honest, this film isn't entirely successful at pulling off its genre, and there are better, more developed films with the same basic idea but a greater amount of introspection and polish (in terms of acting, script and storyline). But Noise isn't half-bad - it's just not a full meal.

It's disturbing, rather graphic at times - watch out for a few (thankfully brief) explicit sex scenes, as well as moments of violence. But mostly, the screenplay is supposed to work on a psychoanalytical level... or at least that's my rationalisation for why some characters constantly talk like they're either psychics or psychiatrists. This makes for an awkward script filled with a lot of presumptions, although I suppose it's just an attempt to give the film an eerie, penetrating aspect.

The premise: a young woman, Joyce, moves into a new apartment after a failed relationship. The tenant above her space is insane (read: very eerily eccentric) and won't stop blaring loud music in the wee hours of the morning. Joyce's sleep suffers for this, and she seeks various ways to put an end to the disruptive noise, growing increasingly desperate and increasingly unhinged.

The ending... well, if you've seen movies of this genre (psychological, abstract, probing into human nature and whatnot), you can probably guess the ending, keeping in mind that this is supposed to be a psycho thriller/drama.

All this being said, it could've been a more intelligent film, but (like some other "deep," cerebral, abstract movies) Noise chose instead to end on a rather unsatisfying, trailing-off note.

A good watch if you don't mind the occasional explicitness and a medium amount of coarse language - but, if you are more for fast-paced action and a concrete plotline with everything laid out and explained, this may not be the film for you. Whatever you do, don't show it to young children... Noise shows a much darker side of humanity.

You'll love this film if you are looking for something different. This film defies the predictable and carries the viewer into a plot free to surprise us giving us a satisfying cerebral experience. Noise has the complexity, the nuance, the depth, of some of the best films I've seen. I highly recommend it to those looking for a change of pace from your typical Hollywood film. Trish Goff's performance was remarkable considering this was her first effort and she is literally in every scene. Ally Sheedy was fantastic as the antagonist.

Noise is the *kind* of movie I generally like and search for --independent, low budget and not overloaded with special effects and other Hollywood gimmicks. A psychological thriller like this has to rely on the fundamentals --character and story-- to keep the audience's attention. While I did find Noise interesting, and at times engrossing, for me it fell short in some important respects. The starring role is played by the unknown Trish Goff, who does a good job as Joyce, an unstable woman who moves into a new apartment after a traumatic divorce. This apartment is supposed to be in New York City, but given the paltry view of the streets (except for one shot of the Empire State Building), we can be sure it was filmed elsewhere. This may seem like a petty quibble, but it bothers me that so many films do this. If they can't film in New York, fine, but why say it's New York then?

Joyce is pushed over the edge by Charlotte (Ally Sheedy), a very noisy and apparently deranged upstairs neighbor. I found the Charlotte character to be the film's weakest point. Ally Sheedy plays her as a kind of generic movie psychotic whose sole raison d'etre is apparently to torment Joyce. While Goff, with her almost disconcertingly thin body and wide-eyed expression, manages to convey a real sense of someone on the edge of a breakdown, Sheedy's character is less believable and seems to belong in another film, perhaps a comedy. I just couldn't buy her madwoman routine here.

There are other aspects to the film that are less than believable. A woman's group Joyce joins to help get over her divorce contains an unlikely amount of cattiness and trash-talking. At one point, Joyce takes out a personals ad in Charlotte's name. She does this as a counter-harassment measure, but it backfires and brings out the nymphomaniac in Charlotte. To me, this was an obvious and contrived excuse to spice up the movie with some gratuitous sex. If this weren't enough, there are a couple of scenes where Joyce has erotic encounters with men she just met. Having to make both of these women fill their time with casual sex suggests a lack of confidence in what is supposed to be the real story. Given that no plausible motive is given for either Joyce's or Charlotte's behavior, especially towards the end (in movies like this, well-meaning friends always ask the very sensible question, "why don't you just move?" but the victim never listens), we can see why they felt the need to divert us. Noise has an interesting premise (which evokes some better films such as Roman Polanski's The Tenant), but only partially delivers.

What a great ride. This film had great unexpeted twists especially if you have ever lived in an apartment and wondered who you were living with. If anyone knows Trish Goff personally, get her to an assylim. She's either a great actress or just nuts! An Indie well done.

When Joyce Chandler (played by Trish Goff) gets herself an apartment in New York (one in her price range), she probably went in thinking she could finally get over her divorce and other issues and move on with her life, which is regrettable because it seems that her psychotic upstairs neighbor has other plans.

From the start, Charlotte Bancroft (played by Ally Sheedy) makes it her personal duty to make Joyce's already miserable life even more miserable. Joyce loses sleep due to the blasting music coming from upstairs and has other problems as well. Eventually, things escalate, and the aftermath may or may not be pretty ugly (no spoilers here).

As you've probably already noticed, I have given Noise 1-star. I make no apologies on this account. I am very familiar with independent films and low budget films, and I don't usually think of independent and low budget in the same sentence with the words bad or awful or unpleasant, but this is one of those exceptions. It's not because the movie was independently made or that it had a low budget; these things didn't bother me. What bothered me was the main character, Joyce Chandler. She's the one the viewer spends the most time with, and, boy, is she unpleasant. She's moody and miserable, not to mention rude to everyone around her, and I was miserable just watching her.

Every facial expression she makes is one of torture. Every word out of her mouth is said with a moody, unhappy tone. And she makes no effort whatsoever to do anything productive with her life. The buck stopped with buying the apartment. Yes, she tries to make nice with Charlotte Bancroft and stop the nightly disturbances (and she has a right to do this), but Joyce herself is not someone I enjoyed watching or even felt sorry for after a certain period of time had passed. There is a point made in the film about how this character is on the brink, and it's stressed quite a bit. And I understand this, but I can't stress my dislike for this character enough. Aside from her, the dialogue isn't too realistic. Everything about this movie is...off. It's not an entertaining viewing experience. It's more like watching two awful people try and destroy one another. I just hate the characters (though you're really not supposed to like Charlotte, of course), the dialogue, the pacing of scenes, and the whole movie, at least, for me was just a bad experience. Once the credits started rolling, I felt awful. I don't like when any movie leaves me in a bad mood. This one does, and not in the way a film like this should or the way a sad movie would or any other similar situation. It is, simply put, an overall unpleasant viewing experience.

I suggest passing this one up.

I accidently saw this movie on tv in the early morning while being very bored. So I started watching it and couldnt get myself to change the channel. This was a indepentdeant low budget movie , of mostly dialog. But i held my attention. This suspense movie had me watching to see what would happen next. THe main plot of the movie is a young lady moves into a apartment and her neighbor just keep making to much noise with her sex and music and what not. This noise just keep build up and up and ruins the young ladys life. The ending is very surprising. It wouldnt hurt to watch this movie.

I just saw this movie on TV at night. This movie doesn't make any real sense. Any smart person with half of a brain would just move out of that apartment from that noise and wacky neighbor. Also most girls in real life wouldn't go home with some random weird looking guy she meets in a seedy bar after giving bad "come on" lines and have sex with him at his place! The bar scene doesn't really work in modern times. But then she was drunk and traumatized after seeing her wacky neighbor half dead in a pool of blood. After all that, what her wacky neighbor really wanted was to make the main female character her personal assisstant at her company. Later on she becomes like her wacky neighbor after killing her. How ironic! The circle comes complete.

I just want to say that I loved it so much when Joyce slit Charlotte's throat in the middle of Charlotte's abusive rant. That could possibly be my favorite movie moment ever. I watched that clip over and over. And then Joyce got away with the murder. What a happy ending. I had contempt for Joyce until she got her revenge. This sort of thing happens all the time in real life, where a bully tries to ruin your life and it gets to the point where you don't have much choice but to fight back very hard. I really hate people that try to ruin other people's lives, and I'm so glad that Charlotte got what she deserved. This movie portrays a very realistic life situation and has a very happy ending. I loved it.

This movie is unbelievably bad. From the poor acting, to the ridiculous actions the characters take, to the laugably stupid, hanging ending, to the ultra cheeze whiz dialogue ( who WROTE this abomination of a screen play?! YUK!)...The idea was a decent enough one, what happens when you have a nutjob living above you in an apt, but the absolutely ridiculous way this movie unfolds had me laughing at how stupid the thing was. I watched in fascination, just because the whole thing was so bad, it was sort of like watching a trainwreck or a scary movie, you can't look away! LOL ....Contender for worst movie of the last decade.

I REALLY DIDNT EVEN WANT TO GIVE THIS MOVIE ONE STAR, VERY BAD DONT EVEN WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY, AND IF YOU DO MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO KIDS AROUND...............