Film Review - I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

With an overwhelming number of positive reviews for the US public, my expectations for I Saw The TV Glow were especially high. Distributed by A24, Jane Schoenbrun’s latest film sets out to be an audience favourite, at least judging from initial reactions so far. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and was also screened at the 74^th Berlin International Film Festival. Most recently, the movie was also part of the selection for the Sundance London Film Festival.

We start in 1996 when Owen (Justice Smith) first meets Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paise) at school. The two immediately bond over The Pink Opaque, a young adult show that sees two teenagers, Isabel (Helena Howard) and Tara (Lindsey Jordan), fight monsters through their psychic connection in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer style. Maddy invites Owen to her house to watch the show together and they are both mesmerized by it. Owen continues sneaking out to watch the show with Maddy until she disappears the same day The Pink Opaque gets cancelled. As the film goes on, the line between Owen’s real life and the actual show gets more and more blurred.

The production design of the film is particularly impressive creating a very unique aesthetic that speaks both to the original 90s setting of the movie as well as to the magical atmosphere of the show within the show. The actors also do an excellent job at portraying the complex characters that we see in the film and all of their emotions as well. While some of the scenes are brilliant by themselves, they do not always work together as a whole, making for a film with an excellent premise that could potentially have used more work to refine the final product.

However, I did not connect with this movie as much as everyone else seemed to. Its narrative felt too disruptive with the constant time jumps and various narratives – the fictional TV plotline and the actual film’s story – constantly overlapping. The first act is also far too slow to set up the premise as the final revelation and outcome quickly become predictable. I was also not a fan of the voiceover, while useful to position the viewers into the story, it also easily became too expositionary as the film went on as it started explaining plot points to the audience rather than showing them on screen. Ultimately, that is why the second half of the movie appeared particularly slow to me as it led up to an ending that left things too open for my liking.

The final scene is open to interpretation, which may please some people in the audience, but when it comes to the rest of the film, its allegory is as clear as day. The movie tenderly speaks to the concept of realizing and actualizing one’s true identity with the TV programme acting as a metaphor for gender dysphoria and trans identity. This metaphor works well within the context of the film but it becomes a little too obvious by the end of the film, giving the audience very little to actually uncover for themselves.

ittedly, I was probably not the target audience for I Saw The TV Glow which will most likely resonate a lot more, as evident from the recent discourse around it, with the trans community. I also have to it that, while I may not have been the biggest fan of the film, I kept going back to it to re-analyse and re-assess its scenes in the days that followed my first screening. This alone is an incredible accomplishment: maybe it is not my favourite film of the year, but it is not one I will easily forget about.