I SAW THE TV GLOW (2024)

Streaming on Max from A24!
Directed/Written by Jane Schoenbrun.
Check out the trailer here!!

A pair of teenagers bond over a late night show called “The Pink Opaque” on a teen network that definitely isn’t Nickelodeon and plan to run away from their dreary lives. Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) goes through with it and runs away from home. But Owen (Justice Smith) chickens out at the last minute. Ten years later, Maddy returns and has wild claims about their connection to each other and their connection to the TV show.

I SAW THE TV GLOW is another film I would categorize as not-quite a horror film. That said, it is a well-made and super high concept endeavor that deserves some love. Owen and Maddy live in a world where teens are mopey and suburban life is pretty bland. So I guess it’s pretty much the real world. Those who are annoyed with the mumblecore movement that rose in the Oughts, might have some trouble digesting this one. It definitely wallows in the angst and hatred for all things establishment. But like the tv show itself that the kids obsess over in the film, I remember loving movies like Pump Up The Volume, Where the Day Takes You, and the River’s Edge and other teen rebellion movies of the 80’s and 90’s and feeling they spoke to me. But upon returning to them, i realized a lot of the coolness I attached to them was the situation I was in at the time and the films much cringier upon a rewatch. Though I still undeniably love them.

That’s kind of what I SAW THE TV GLOW is all about. Aside from the multiversal concepts and dream logic, it’s about never being able to go home again. It’s about missing out on once in a lifetime opportunities and the regret that never leaves. And being a kid at heart myself, I found this to be a heart wrenching movie. By the time the credits rolled by, I found myself yearning for those simpler years and if the movie touched me in such a way and caused to much introspection, it’s doing something right.

Like most good stories, one can look at I SAW THE TV GLOW through many critical lenses, but one in particular stands out to me. If you look at I SAW THE TV GLOW through a gender studies lens, there are plenty of metaphors to dissect. Owen basically says he likes to watch tv and has no interest in the opposite or any sex. Maddy says she likes girls. Both feel like outcasts, but the two bond over this weird little show. When Owen refuses to go with Maddy, he chooses not to embrace what most likely would have been an asexual lifestyle, and instead gets married and has kids, living a much more traditional suburban life. The whole film sets up this dichotomy between Owen’s desires to fit in while Maddy embraces an alternative lifestyle and trying to get Owen to follow her. Not that the story is a clean cut metaphor about sexuality, but nothing in that area is clean cut, so the strange relationship between these two lost souls feels appropriate. The best part is that it deals with these complex human relationships without any kind of preaching or shoving some kind of agenda down the viewer’s throat. Maddy and Owen simply are what they are and bond because of that otherness they both feel.

One thing I have caught myself doing in my own writing is creating a character who’s inactivity is the main action of the story. It’s that passive type of character that many feel to be off-putting and wishy-washy. Owen, is that character in I SAW THE TV GLOW. The main decision of the film is not to act, but to not act, which makes him a character that is hard to like and associate with, even though many of us choose not to act most of the time in real life. But that’s not dramatic or heroic or bold, so it is not often used in many a modern story. Again, though, I SAW THE TV GLOW is mainly about regret and Owen not acting when he could have is the main point of the film. It works, but it makes for a more introspective film. It also will leave some with a feeling of “what the hell did I just watch” or even a feeling of a wasted 90-minutes. But I think with a little thought about it and a willingness to open up with the characters, I SAW THE TV GLOW is a worthwhile film. But I do understand if some feel the opposite.

Brigette Lundy-Paine is the standout in I SAW THE TV GLOW. She is a tragic character that might be nuts or maybe she’s on to something with her wild claims of alternate realities. Lundy-Paine walks that line well, leaving you wondering which she is—badshit or enlightened? Justice Smith is harder to like because of his passive nature, which I explained a second ago, but still offers up a memorable performance.

In the end, I SAW THE TV GLOW is a tragedy that left me feeling deeply sorry for these two outcasts. It makes for a powerful watch. Not the most exciting all the way through and definitely not for everyone, but if you are willing to embrace your inner freak, you might get something about this vaguely horrifying barely horror-type film.