I Saw The TV Glow
Astoundingly original and devasting filmmaking is sparked by Jane Schoenbrun’s subliminal horror.
In a version of the early 000s, introverted Owen bonds with a girl called Maddy over a supernatural tv show called The Pink Opaque, Buffey esc show about two girls who have special powers to battle different monsters of the week working for the moonfaced monster Mr Melancholy. Years after the show ends and Maddy mysteriously disappears, Owen is forced to look back on his memories of the show and question how real it really was.
There is an exciting midnight spookiness to I Saw The TV Glow, as director Jane Schoenbrun takes you on a neon coloured cerebral odyssey of realty, fiction, and identity in an unexpectedly fresh and haunting form. It would be easy to describe elements of the film as "Lynchian" which it most definitely is, but there is something most singular about the style from its use of carnivalesque neon colours and glows, as well as the intricate editing and pacing, but overall, Schoenbrun's directing is phenomenally confident and intelligent. Schoenbrun gets to play with the genre on intoxicating and atmospheric mood, but the real ‘horror’ comes in the thematic revelations that the character’s uncover about one’s identity and body.
Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine both play these isolated outcasts almost like alien beings with much shy awkwardness but genuine heart and humility for finding themselves and each other. Paine is the scene stealer with a killer confidence and command of the screen that nearly engulfs the film in several scenes. Owen and Maddy’s bond over the TV show offers a nostalgic charm to reminiscing over the tv shows and characters that made us, Schoenbrun’s script brings an affection to this relationship but equally unearths a nightmarish consumption of fiction and screens that can be the only friends kids may have.
I Saw The TV Glow is a sparkling example of cinema doing what it does best, bridging an other’s experience. Sometimes it’s impossible to describe how people are feeling and what that they feel like which is where expression and art come in, feeling like you are living the wrong life or living in the wrong body is a challenging concept to understand if you are not in that person’s shoes, but through this dreamy Twilight Zone story, Schoenbrun crafts a deeply powerful and empathetic experience webbed in a smart, mysteriously captivating narrative, which feels truthful and unique. Movies are machine that make empathy alright.
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