I Saw the TV Glow

Grade: A

There are still movies being made that are so unique, sui generis, and of their own kind that they make traditional conventional normal ones seem ordinary and inferior in comparison. I’ve previously said that about Tár, The Florida Project, and Birdman. I can add I Saw the TV Glow to that list. The closest thing I can compare it to is something from David Lynch, particularly Mulholland Drive. You don’t know what everything means, but the less it makes sense, the more you can’t stop watching. It looks, sounds, and feels spectacular, and you are mesmerized. It’s a bold film that unflinchingly presents itself, and makes no apologies for the way it does.

Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun came out as trans and non-binary within the last few years, and wrote I Saw the TV Glow after what’s called the “egg crack” moment, described as “when you finally see yourself clearly in a way that makes it hard to unsee.” The film goes for broke. It’s one of the few that is all in, and will get either your A or your F. Four stars or zero. It would feel odd and disingenuous to give it anything in between. People will hate it, and I wouldn’t blame them, but the ones who will connect with it will do so in a major way. I’m hearing that it’s already helped people go public with their “egg crack.” There have been “I’ve never said this out loud before…” type posts and comments from people who have just seen this. One of the main characters is trans. The words “queer,” “gender,” “trans” and the like are never said in the movie, yet it’s always present in a way. A back burner is still a burner.

You could interpret it that way, a different way, or you could just take it in as a weird little movie, and not think too much about dissecting it. That’s fine too. I could write many paragraphs about how it made me feel, before even getting into the plot, but I’ll go ahead and lay the foundation for you. It’s simplistic. It’s what we draw from it that’s complex. It’s the mid-1990s. One night at a school event, Owen, a 7th grader, sees Maddy, grade 9, reading a book. It’s an episode guide to a TV show on the Young Adult network. The show is called The Pink Opaque. Maddy is obsessed with the show, and Owen gets sucked into it too. He goes to her house a few times to watch the first airing of the new episodes. He tells his mom he’s going to another friend’s house for a sleepover, and goes to Maddy’s house instead. After that, Maddy leaves him VHS tapes of episodes she recorded for him. There’s no romance involved. Maddy likes girls, and according to Owen, he likes…TV shows.

The Pink Opaque, it’s been reported, was inspired mainly by Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Secret World of Alex Mack, and Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. I can see all of that, and it also felt very Twin Peaksy to me. It’s about a couple of teenage girls who have a different monster to take care of each week. They have powers, the villains look unusual, and it’s as surreal as the movie that contains it. Maddy mysteriously goes missing right after The Pink Opaque is abruptly cancelled after 5 seasons. (It reminds me of the way Twin Peaks got snuffed out, when there was obviously more story to tell.) Maddy comes back after about 8 years, and says she’s been…guess where.

Justice Smith (The American Society of Magical Negroes, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu) plays Owen from 9th grade to age…I won’t say. Brigette Lundy-Paine is quite captivating as Maddy. They have a craft and control of the text; they remind me of an acting teacher I had at the Atlanta Shakespeare Company, with their delivery. They have an amazing monologue, which is a perfect example of a director utilizing every filmmaking element to its full potential to create cinema magic.

The cinematography is the best I’ve seen all year. The colors pop, right down to the neon chalk on the suburban street. It dwells on what it finds interesting; a couple of times, a band plays a song, that serves as a bit of mini-intermission or commercial break, if you will. The soundtrack is all new songs, written for the movie. Normally, when I finish watching one, the first thing I do is check my texts/emails/all social media notifications, etc. You know – catch up on what I missed in the outside world. I didn’t look at any of that stuff for quite a while after my screening – and if you really want the trippy experience of the film to continue into real life, see the latest possible showing, so you’ll be left to drive home in a ghost town, pushing midnight. I can see I Saw the TV Glow, like Mulholland Drive 23 years ago, becoming a mini-obsession for viewers. I will see it again at least once more this year. It’s my Pink Opaque.

I’m glad I don’t have to be odd and disingenuous here.

Grade: A