‘I Saw the TV Glow’: A Profoundly Singular and Devastating Trans Allegory

It is very rare to walk into a cinema to watch a film and leave feeling like you just had an experience that changed you as a person. This type of experience is something that every avid film enthusiast hopes for every time they sit down to watch something. However, many even great films don’t reach the level of connection reserved for these types of experiences, it’s something much deeper and borderline metaphysical. The last time I felt this particular type of experience was when I watched Charlotte Wells’s Aftersun. When the credits of Jane Schoenbrun‘s I Saw The TV Glow began to roll, I sat in complete silence as I attempted to pull myself together, but I immediately knew I had just had one of those experiences.

I Saw The TV Glow opens with Owen (Ian Foreman), a young social outcast living in the suburbs who feels a draw to the TV advertisements of a show called “The Pink Opaque” (which very much brings to mind Buffy The Vampire Slayer) but is unable to watch the show as it airs past his bedtime. This changes when he meets Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), another social outcast who is deeply obsessed with “The Pink Opaque.” Maddy invites Owen to watch the show at her house, and after staging a sleepover with someone who used to be a friend, Owen is finally able to see the show that has been burrowing its way into his mind. A few years later, Owen (played for the rest of the film by Justice Smith) receives VHS copies of “The Pink Opaque” weekly from Maddy. However, soon the lines between reality and fiction begin to blur for the two teens.

Before I continue with this review, I want to say that I will be writing about my reading on the film. If you wish to walk in and come to your own reading of the film, then I would recommend stopping and returning to this review at a later point. If you prefer to have some context on a film that could be seen as confusing or dense, then maybe I can prepare you for your first viewing. I won’t be spoiling narrative beats, but solely writing about the things that I think this film is about.

I Saw The TV Glow is a horror film about being trapped in a body that you don’t belong in and not knowing (or, more importantly, not acknowledging) it even as you are literally suffocating. It’s about the facade of the American suburbs, and the all-too-common rot that resides under the surface in a way that brings to mind David Lynch‘s Blue Velvet. It’s a horror film about a generation who has disassociated themselves using the ever-present and evolving methods of technology that offer an escape from the often painful or overwhelming reality. This is a film for younger people, that is made by an incredibly bold and thoughtful younger filmmaker — a filmmaker who understands all of these feelings on a molecular level.

Jane Schoenbrun burst onto the independent film scene in 2021 with We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, an incredibly interesting film about the deeply problematic relationship between younger people and technology. They are clearly fascinated by the process of disassociation and uncoupling with reality due to obsession with devices. I already considered them to be a filmmaker to watch after I saw We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, but after their latest work, Schoenbrun is a force to be reckoned with and one of the most exciting voices in filmmaking. They’re proof that a diversity of filmmaking voices is powerful and necessary so that we can experience stories like this one.

Formally and tonally, this film is as good as it gets. Schoenbrun’s vision is very specific and they have a firm grasp of the time and place that this film portrays. I love films that take things or locations that are common parts of people’s lives and make them scary. The opening scene of Jordan Peele’s Us comes to mind where a theme park on the beach that normally would be associated with fun feels deeply sinister and frightening. Schoenbrun is able to pull off this imagery throughout: a carnival, a street in the suburbs, and a fun center for children all act as masks for a palpable sense of dread and isolation.

Another major factor for this film’s success is the two lead performances. Brigette Lundy-Paine is great as Maddy. They capture a haunting portrait of a teen whose only sense of purpose, joy, and respite from a truly isolated existence is a television show. Lundy-Paine takes a character who in lesser films is often reduced to a punchline and they inject a depth and tragedy that is truly impressive. Justice Smith is an actor who I have seen in multiple projects, and I have even liked in projects such as Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and the horror video game The Quarry. However, here he gives what is firmly the best performance of his career so far, as well as one of the, if not the best performance I have seen in 2024. This is a film about isolated people, but with Smith’s performance, you can feel the sense of loneliness radiate off of Owen. This is a much more ambitious film in its scope of time than I expected, and each period in Owen’s life is performed beautifully by Smith. There were even a few moments in the final ten minutes that I found difficult to watch because he was too good.

I Saw The TV Glow cements itself as a landmark film in queer cinema. The vision that Schoenbrun beautifully captures here is as singular, harrowing, gutting, and intensely moving as any film I can think of. There are a shamefully small amount of transgender or non-binary storytellers in any medium of storytelling, and what this film confirms is that the voice of a filmmaker like Schoenbrun isn’t only possible, it is vital. I Saw the TV Glow puts you directly into the shoes of a character who burrows a beautiful part of themself so deeply inside that it literally suffocates them. They are screaming in agony, but no one is listening to them. Their hostile environment of suburban America forces them to believe that they are meant to be confined to a normal life there, even while everything inside of them is clawing at the walls to escape. The devastating tragedy is the unseen and unacknowledged beauty inside.

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