by Jeffery Rahming, Contributing Writer
Recently, there’s been nostalgia for a time when TV shows were important. Sure, now we have an ever-growing backlog of “must-watch television” that comes out every week. But there’s an undeniable difference between shows of the past that you watched for most of the year, and now, where we have eight episodes you watch in one day only to get the next season five years later. The relationships people formed with shows were fundamentally different when they took up more of their lives. For many kids, the TV set was the only place they could see other lifestyles outside of the suburban box. In I Saw The TV Glow, writer/director Jane Schoenbrun examines the relationship between the shows we watched growing up and who we are today.
Schoenbrun introduces us to Owen (Justice Smith), a shy kid with no friends and parents who don’t understand him. His only “friend” (and that’s stretching it) is a girl named Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), and the only thing they do together is watch The Pink Opaque, a TV show about two teenage girls connected by psychic powers battling monsters of the week As Owen’s life goes on, the lines between the TV screen and the real world start to blur, forcing him to confront truths about himself he never wanted to look into.
The film touches on how we connect to others and ourselves through art. There are already debates over whether Schoenbrun thinks relating to TV shows is good or bad, but that misses the point. I Saw the TV Glow is more about identity, how we wrestle with it, and how the media we consume can speak to deep truths within us for better or worse. There is a very obvious and specific metaphor that gets clearer as the movie goes along, but anybody who’s ever struggled with feeling like an outsider can relate to this story.
Schoenbrun is a meticulous director. Every frame of this film is immaculately composed and purposeful. The set design alone captures the feeling of dissociation. The story mainly occurs in mundane environments like schools or a supermarkets, but everything is slightly off or askew. That, combined with the saturated, neon color palette, makes everything feel like a vivid dream that isn’t quite right. It’s less of a straightforward narrative as much as it’s a continuous ’90s haze that just kind of washes over you and draws you in. As the show and life blend together start to take over, our storytelling gets more and more abstract, and even includes some musical guests, much like a classic show from that era. At times it can get confusing, but Schoenbrun weaves the tapestry of the movie so that all makes sense eventually.
Justice Smith has repeatedly proven himself to be a phenomenal actor, and this performance only further solidifies him as one of our best young stars. He has the monumental task of playing repressed and transparent at the same time. His panic attacks, his little tics, and his closed-off demeanor feel so natural you forget you are watching a performance. He holds the whole film in perpetual tension, a ticking time bomb that never got the opportunity to explode. Even when he ridiculously plays a 14-year-old version of himself (he’s 28), he still somehow pulls it off. Lundy-Paine, as his counterpart, is also quite good and really gets a chance to shine when the movie reaches its climax.
Overall, this is a great movie, but the most exciting aspect is that it feels like the announcement of a new kind of voice in cinema. Schoenbrun captures a unique feeling from their background and establishes themselves as an auteur. I Saw the TV Glow is an instant cult classic. It will stay with you long after you watch it and maybe give you an existential crisis if you’re in need of one.
Rating: Liked It
I Saw The TV Glow is currently playing in theaters
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