Critic Reviews

As a follow-up to his striking 2002 directorial debut, "The Believer," this second obsessive study in fanaticism by writer-director Henry Bean has its own delirious integrity and outsider-art charm.

A satisfyingly screwy New York story.

The black comedy Noise may be a one-joke movie but it's a resonant one.

Noise is never quite as smart as it tries to be. But as summer and its mouth-breathing blockbusters loom large on the horizon, there's something touching about a movie that even tries.

Bean's touch is unsteady, and Noise is certainly odd, but the movie is alive with the creative madness of New York.

Robbins plays David with the self-assurance that there's no combination sexier than smart, funny and self-righteously angry.

Bean fills in some empty spaces with heady thoughts about the nature of power and beauty, but the movie's real appeal lies in the simple but by no means inconsiderable pleasure of watching Tim Robbins take a hammer to a parked car as it wails pointlessly, deep into the night.

The movie has enough big-city wickedness and merry cruelty to keep things skittering unpredictably.

Eccentric and generally entertaining.

Amusing but marginal diatribe against aural assault in Manhattan.