Everything Else Is Noise — NYFF Review

Everything Else Is Noise is a fitting title for writer, director, and cinematographer Nicolás Pereda’s new film. Sound is what carries the film, whether it’s the blaring horns of a traffic jam or the incessant barking of a neighbor’s dog. Not only does the film essentially function as a chamber piece, with only a few characters largely confined to one location, but it’s also a work of docufiction, blending elements of documentary and narrative filmmaking. Despite its genre hybridization, it also feels like a riff on the French New Wave. It devotes nearly the first five full minutes of its succinct 71-minute runtime to an overhead shot of a traffic jam, calling to mind the infamous scene from Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960). These stylistic choices make Everything Else Is Noise a fascinating filmmaking exercise, even if they do not always make for an especially entertaining film.