I Saw the TV Glow Review: An Otherworldly Experience!
It has been 25-30 years since the mid 90s/early 2000s era, making this period of time feel like a distant and hallucinative memory. For many of us, the memories we have of our childhood are a mix of melancholic nostalgia and joyful remembrance of a “simpler” time where our rose colored glasses paint it as a dreamlike period that feels like it was an alternate reality.
Some of the most distinct memories from childhood, especially in the 90s/early 2000s were the television shows that ranged from zany cartoons to grainy produced fantasy TV shows. Sometimes, these shows had us glued to the screen. They had a possessive quality to them, making them impossible to look away from. They gave us the ability to escape for 30 minutes into new worlds.
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I Saw the TV Glow begins with this same sentiment as we meet Owen (Ian Foreman), a seventh grader (later played by Justice Smith) who is enthralled with Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) a ninth grader whom he meets reading an episode guide to the young adult TV show The Pink Opaque. Curious about the television show, Owen and Maddy watch it together one night creating a bond between them that resembles Isabel (Helena Howard) and Tara’s (Lindsay Jordan) in the show, causing them to come to terms with whether The Pink Opaque is more than just a TV show.
Director Jane Schoebrun’s is a new and powerful voice emerging in cinema. I Saw the TV Glow continues to distinguish Schoebrun as a one-of-a kind filmmaker through their immersive cinematography (executed by Eric K. Yue), VFX, and score that allows the audience to lose themselves in the decade spanning landscape. Watching the film mirrors the experience of Owen and Maddy watching The Pink Opaque, in which everything around us disappears and all that’s left is a bittersweet sensation of jumping into a nostalgic atmosphere that feels safe yet unsettling all at once.
Four Favorites with writer-director Jane Schoenbrun 📺
I Saw the TV Glow is in select US theaters now via @A24 pic.twitter.com/CYDsKroN9M
— Letterboxd (@letterboxd) May 4, 2024
The film is a deeply layered and complex experience where all can be understood by Schoebrun’s storytelling skills yet it will take multiple viewings to internalize the magnitude of the story’s power. I Saw the TV Glow moves slowly hearing mixed things about it, calling it pretentious and boring… so naturally I want to check this one in its execution, which plays out beautifully and deeply like a friend telling you their most internalized thoughts and revelations, just waiting and wishing to be fully heard.
The theme of escapism from the darkness of reality through television shows for Owen and Maddy is linked to the ideas of how childhood memories often seem to have a euphoric feeling attached to them. However, there is a sense of depression that is felt knowing that those moments will never be able to be recreated or those feelings of nostalgia will always feel greater than the reality we are currently in. Schoebrun explores the concept of memory and feelings versus reality and truth and the line that divides them and also allows them to blend together, bringing up the philosophical concept of what true reality is.
At the heart of I Saw the TV Glow is an allegory for the pain of living life without letting your true insides shine through. It is a story that is all about the trans experience and having to kill the version of yourself that others see in order to finally live in the world as your true self. It brings up the idea that one does not have to be on the outside looking into a world they would rather be a part of.
The strength to decide to shatter the illusion others see and let yourself be truly seen the way you wish is an amazing idea Schoebrun explores in a highly skilled cinematic fashion. Owen is constantly seeing himself as an inconvenience to the world and his fear of never allowing himself to enter “The Pink Opaque” restricts him from any kind of happiness. I Saw the TV Glow will likely be hailed as one of the best films about the trans experience while continuously showing Schoebrun as a brilliant force in cinema.
‘I Saw the TV Glow’ Rating – 4.5/5
Follow Steph (the Author) on IG – @cinemasteph_7
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