Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow” and its gorgeous imagery has stuck with me ever since my first watch.
The bizarre depictions of self-discovery build a sense of being out of space and time with rich, dreamy lighting that casts an eerie glow on adolescence in suburban America.
The film is drenched in pinks, purples, greens and blues, and it looks like it was made to be reblogged as Tumblr gif sets, had it only been released 10 years earlier.
As an employee of the Downer Theaters, when I overheard audiences describe their experiences with the film, it created an image in my mind of an unsettling and abject horror movie that absolutely must be experienced.
The horror in this movie is not outright, instead it wrestles with a more existential and human fear: speeding through your own life as a passive participant.
Time moves at both a dizzying and a slow, syrupy pace in the film.
The movie follows Owen (Justice Smith) from childhood as he stumbles through the fearful self-discovery of adolescence, and as he bonds with Maddy (Jack Haven) over their shared interest in a monster-of-the-week style TV show called “The Pink Opaque.”
Owen’s memories of his life start to meld with the characters on the show, creating questions about which reality is “real” life, and he is increasingly haunted by the feeling of living in a simulated reality.
This film is worth seeing for its loving homage to 90’s media alone, and its visually stunning rendition of early digital media.
“I Saw the TV Glow” is reminiscent of media like the film “Videodrome” and the TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
The film narrows life down to the spheres of public, private, and corporate, and focuses on the suffocating constriction of the rigid norms these spaces uphold.
“I Saw the TV Glow” is a beautiful, heart-wrenching exploration of the existential pain of self-repression.
As an employee of the Downer Theater, I can say that I have never seen another movie bring in so many people for re-watches.
Although, the movie is not explicitly transgender, its message was deeply resonant with this audience, and it found its still-beating heart in queer viewers.
Ramona Peetz, an English MA student at UWM who works in the film industry shared her thoughts about watching it in a theater with others:
To watch something that felt so personal to me in a dark theatre with other people felt perverse yet undeniably compelling. The full gamut of responses to the film; laughter, mockery, horror, impassioned praise, open sobbing, and utter confusion; has made me feel both totally alienated from and completely seen by other movie-goers. Some of you will leave the film disappointed that you wasted an hour and a half. Some of you will need a moment to collect yourself before you leave. And many of you will leave a different person. I implore you to find out which type of person you are.
-Peetz, Milwaukee Film employee
As the film insists: There is still time.