Independent entertainment company A24 has had a busy 2024 with releases like MaXXXine, Humane, and Cuckoo. Adding to the loaded schedule, on May 17th they released I Saw the TV Glow; starring Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 2018, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves 2023) as Owen, Ian Foreman (Ordinary Joe series, Let the Right One In series) as a younger Owen, Brigette Lundy-Paine (Atypical series, Bill and Ted Face the Music 2020) as Maddy Wilson, Helena Howard (Madeline’s Madeline 2018, Shoplifters of the World 2021) as Isabel, Lindsey Jordan (in her feature debut) as Tara, Danielle Deadwyler (Till 2022, Parrell 2024) Brenda, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst as Frank, Conner O’Malley (Palm Springs 2020, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies 2022) as Dave, Emma Portner (Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2021) as Mr. Melancholy/Marco/Amanda/Evil Clown, among others. Additionally, appearing as themselves are Phoebe Bridgers, Haley Dahl, and their band Sloppy Jane, as well as Kristina Esfandiari, and her band King Woman.
Introduced to a mysterious late-night TV show – a vision of a secret, supernatural world – teenage Owen’s reality begins to crack. With this in mind, I Saw the TV Glow on its Face is chaotic and deep; like someone journaling, complete with little jots and accompanying side sketches that must be watched with memories of what we felt like being a teen. Soon, you learn the doodles and jots emulate the color wording used in the dialogue for the show, The Pink Opaque, in which Owen and Maddy share a common connection. For the next one hundred minutes, you explore themes of existentialism as individuals, our place in society, and so forth as it pertains to teens into young adulthood. Death is an early topic dealt with by our protagonists. The lines of reality and fantasy are blurred almost from the first frame as Maddy feels so deeply about the show that depicts her life as she sees it and pulls Owen… who has his own skeletons.
Writer/Director Jane Schoenbrun (A Self-Induced Hallucination 2018, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair 2021) began work on the script for I Saw the TV Glow three months after they began undergoing hormone replacement therapy, amid what they described as “overwhelming calamity” following having come out transgender. In featuring the transgender themes, Schoenbrun deliberately avoided making transitioning or coming out explicitly central to the plot, opting instead to write the story as an allegory to distinguish it from other films on the topic.
Schoenbrun used The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the ’90s as a template with the mythic and forward female-centric leads. Also worth noting, Schoenbrun credits a recurring Twin Peaks: The Return dream they had for I Saw the TV Glow’s inspiration in that the show ended in an unresolved cliffhanger. Of course, this frustrated them, hence, how I Saw the TV Glow plays out.
Eric K. Yue’s (The Giant 2019, A Thousand and One 2023) cinematography is flashy and understated practically in the same frame like it does not know which reality it wants to be, perfect to convey Dysphoria; which happens to most teens sometime between twelve, up to eighteen or nineteen when most kids are expected to start adulting. For transgender people, the feeling of being different and not feeling secure in their skin can start as early as childhood. For I Saw the TV Glow’s purpose, Owen starts just before puberty to his young adult years.
As interesting as the visuals are, they could disorient audiences so much they have a difficult time following the jumping narrative. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 51% barely hit over half the audience in the right spot, says this might be the case. Most want their message handed to them nowadays…and, their Horror hardcore, balls to the wall. Critics were much more forgiving with 84% feeling the nuances, the heart within the Horror, psychological and visual.
This brings us to the PG-13 rating. PG-13 horror movies get a bad rap as watered-down versions of their R-rated brethren. Sometimes, this is warranted, others it is not. In I Saw the TV Glow’s case, it is warranted. Given the subject matter, it was done so that more eyes could technically see it; since R-rated movies get stigmatized with fewer plays.
Breaking the fourth wall has always been a way for the film to make the audience directly involved. The Deadpool franchise is notorious for breaking the fourth wall with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool always having something to say to the audience about the movie’s goings-on. I Saw the TV Glow uses the technique to create an intimacy between, mainly Owen, and the audience for a two-fold reason: One, Owen feels like he has someone to confide in without judgment, and two, the audience can have someone to relate to if they are on the same journey. There is always strength in numbers.
Made for a reported $10 million, I Saw the TV Glow drew in approximately $5.3 million worldwide; which in Hollywood speak means one and done, and this is interesting considering Schoenbrun has made noises that they would like to revisit the I Saw the TV Glow world a few years down the road. With the movie available to stream on Max since Friday, September 20, 2024, it is yet to be determined if the powers that be will see if there is still viable gas in the tank. Until then, Cryptic Rock gives I Saw the TV Glow 4 out of 5 stars.
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