I Saw the TV Glow – REVIEW

I really don’t have a good clue of where to start off with this one. Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun really hit the consciousness with 2021’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, a lo-fi, borderline-Lynchian psychological drama that’s slowly become one of my favorite movies of this decade so far. I’ve even got the limited edition Blu-Ray from Vinegar Syndrome, which admittedly says a lot about me. Ever since World’s Fair, I’ve been wanting to see what Schoenbrun would have up their sleeves, and it’s a bit of a doozy. I didn’t even know until a few days before I Saw the TV Glow released nationwide this weekend that Emma Stone was a producer on this through her Fruit Tree banner, who’s been on a hell of a run, which includes not starring *and* producing my favorite movie AND show of 2023, Poor Things and The Curse. So, my expectations were nothing short of high, and even then, I’m pretty sure they were not only met but exceeded.

Justice Smith plays Owen, a teenager just trying to make it through his life in the suburbs when his classmate, Maddy, introduces him to her favorite show: The Pink Opaque, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer-inspired show where teenagers use their psychic connection to fight monsters every week to stop a demonic being from invading Earth. Without spoiling anything, how Owen sees his life and his reality as a whole begins to crack in the pale glow of the television screen. Also, if you can put together one of the first shots of the movie (and what I think is a pretty obvious meaning), you know what movie you’re in for. Again, not gonna spoil it, but I’ll mention the topic later.

I felt the same way about World’s Fair, but I Saw the TV Glow cements the idea of Jane Schoenbrun being a unique, singular director working right now on this scale. Where I think this shines the most on the visual side is the show within the movie, The Pink Opaque. While the movie does end up being critical of having the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia of something you’ve watched growing up or something at a young age, the recreation of the 90s teen/young adult show that would pop off on the CW is near-perfect. Helena Howard and Lindsey Jordan (a.k.a. Snail Mail) kill it in the minimal screen time they have as the main characters in the show. The rest of the main cast also kills it, especially Smith. I’ve seen him appear as supporting roles and leads in big franchises where he’s been pretty fun, but I would’ve never imagined that he has this sort of performance in him. It’s also most likely my favorite performance of the year so far, especially when it comes down to the final moments of the movie. I also really enjoyed Brigette Lundy-Paine’s performance as Maddy, where I think the main allegory of the movie and overall themes are the most present.

Right off the bat, I have to say that I’m not transgender. At this point in time, I don’t really plan to. However, I am queer. I’m bisexual. Not entirely sure if I’ve said that in writing before, but yes, I am. I do know people, one of them I consider to be a close friend of mine, who is transgender and knew them pre-transition. In I Saw the TV Glow, Maddy does feel trapped in this world and, without spoiling the movie, uses The Pink Opaque as an escape from everything in her world. Of course, this can be spun around to be about nostalgia for something (where there is validity to that thought process), but I think it’s very intentional that The Pink Opaque is mainly being used as an analogy for transitioning. I’m fully aware that I can’t relate to this or will ever even experience it, but if I, a bisexual white man, can pick up on this, I could only imagine how striking this must seem to transgender men and women who do end up watching this. That’s not to say that I didn’t pull something away that I could personally relate to, though.

Again, I’m not going to spoil it, but the last 10 minutes of the movie has really stuck with me. At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of the route it took, which I think a lot of people who just watch this on a whim would end up thinking. As the days went on, though, my take on I Saw The TV Glow stewing in my mind, more thoughts and details occurring to me as I talked with people who have seen it, something clicked: not taking your dreams and life goals seriously is a fate worse than death. Along with everything I’ve mentioned above, making this connection in my mind and reading into it added a much more ominous, existential, and deeply personal layer to the movie. This layer did also end up making me think that Schoenbrun is the closest we’ve ever come to a new David Lynch-like figure, if there would be such a thing. That’s not even including nods to Twin Peaks: The Return, which is wonderful to see start influencing film.



While I was undoubtedly on the fence at first, I’ve never felt more confident calling a movie a modern masterpiece than I Saw the TV Glow. If We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (as amazing as that is) was the beta test to bring in the audience, I Saw the TV Glow is the real deal. In my mind, it cements Jane Schoenbrun as someone who I’d drop everything to watch if their name were attached to a project. I also think I Saw the TV Glow will be revered as a queer cinema hallmark, a movie that ended up moving the needle in the way that something like Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning eventually would. If this isn’t for you, it’s not for you, but for the people out there that this does click together for, I think it’ll be a massive achievement.

♡

I Saw the TV Glow is now playing in theaters, and if this follows the release patterns of past A24 movies, it will be released digitally this summer. It will stream on Max later this year, most likely before some sort of physical release.