Far more surrealist and avant-garde in approach than horror, Jane Schoenbrun’s sophomore feature, I Saw the TV Glow, is, for better or for worse, going to defy the audience’s expectations. While A24 is marketing the film as if it’s another horror film like Poltergeist or The Ring with creepy televisions, static, and spirits, Schoenbrun has more on their mind than horror movie tropes and routine jump scares. For starters, the film is an exploration of identity and nostalgia, and the film is dependent on a rich mood and atmosphere that anchor the film with its dream state tone that echoes the work of David Lynch and Nicholas Refn.
The film’s setting is the mid-90s, and we are introduced to a shy middle-schooler named Owen (Ian Foreman) who doesn’t have many friends, hobbies, or interests. He tries to watch a TV show called The Pink Opaque that resembles those CW-50-style shows that were big in the 90s, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Deadly Games. Owen is close with his ailing mother (Danielle Deadwyler), but his father (Fred Durst) doesn’t approve of him watching The Pink Opaque because it’s marketed towards teenage girls. Owen only gets to watch a few minutes of the show, as the TV must go off before his stern bedtime. There is an impressive opening where one of the show’s villains, disguised like an ice cream monster, is parked on the street in front of Owen’s homes, indicating that the television show is already part of his subconscious and will stay with him for years to come.
Owen ends up encountering an older girl, Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), who is a few grades up from school, reading a magazine copy about the show. Owen admits he is fascinated with the show, but he hasn’t watched much of it because it’s 9:30 p.m. airtime. The two end up sparking a friendship due to their common interests, and they make plans to watch the show together on the show’s rerun airtime on Saturday, but Owen has to deceive his mom by pretending to stay the night at another friend’s house because there is no way he would be allowed to stay at a girl’s house.
Owen ends up sneaking over at Maddy’s house, and they both become transfixed by the show. Stylistically, Jane Schoenbrun uses some inventive aesthetics with digital cameras and distorted pixelations from the Pink Opaque show that heighten the perspective of what the show would be like to experience at a younger age. The plot of the show is about two teenage girls named Isabel (Helena Howard) and Tara (Lindsey Jordan), who are high school friends who are given cosmic powers to battle a sinister aura named Mr. Melancholy that deliberately speeds up time to undermine other people’s joys.
Time passes a few years. Owen (Justice Smith) is very addicted to the show, and he’s now in high school. His dad still forces him to turn the renegade before the airtime at 9:30 p.m. Luckily, Maddy videotapes the show for Owen, and during an impressive tracking shot in the hallway with an impressive soundtrack by Alex G, there are fonts that show in purple explaining key plot points of the recent reason. Owen ends up entering a door to the photo room, where Maddy leaves a VHS tape of the recent episode. Time continues to pass, Owen’s mother passes, and Owen’s father continues to be strict on Owen watching the show, especially when Maddy draws a feminine neck tattoo on Owen that resembles a cosmic tattoo that the girl’s wearing on the show, which Owen’s father forcefully washes off with streaming hot water that creates a burn mark that also leaves Owen traumatized. More years pass, Pink Opaque is canceled, Owen’s mother passes, and Maddy disappears. Owen ends up working at a movie theater, and he gets teased by his co-workers for being socially awkward.
There are many abstractions in the film that can be read in terms of identity. Owen’s feminine side is more embraced when he’s around Maddy, and he vicariously lives out his femininity through the shows where Owen’s life between the show and reality feels blurred. At its core, though, the film is about the comfort we feel about nostalgia during an era that was even more hostile and ignorant to gender identity and transfeminism as it is now. Sometimes our fondest nostalgia and memories of others shape our perceptions and inner selves of who we are, and Owen becomes so comfortable with it over the years that he uses the show as a form of protection from the cruelties and uncertainties of the outside world.
The film’s final sequences echo the work of Charlie Kaufman, especially in the sense of a surrealist structure that covers many years, like I’m Thinking of Ending Things and Synecdoche, New York. We see Owen aging and working at an arcade where others are joyously living out life as he feels drained, disconnected, and detached. He still streams his beloved show from the 90s that he once watched on VHS tapes, but admits it now feels “dated” and doesn’t hold the impact that it once had. Years speed up, and the comfort Owen once found has even evaporated away. Owen’s life as an introvert, where he found comfort in 90s sci-fi shows, has prevented him from living out life to its fullest. While not all the ideas might ignite, there is a unique cinematic eye to behold in Jane Schoenbrun’s incredible imagination. However muddled and perplexing this film might be, there is no denying that Schoenbrun has assembled a uniquely beautiful movie that leaves an impression well after the credits roll.
I SAW THE TV GLOW is now playing in theaters
Very curious about this one.
This looks promising! Thank you for your review.
Seems interesting!
I thought this was just another cheap horror movie, but it sounds like its more surreal and thoughtful than how the marketing is making it to be.