Monday, 2 December 2024

VOD: I Saw The TV Glow (dir: Jane Schoenbrun, 2024)

"They can't hurt you if you don't think about them."

A late night low-budget cult TV show, The Pink Opaque, reveals a supernatural world that exists beneath teenage fans' suburban lives in this festival crowdpleaser from A24, as we follow seventh-grade loner Owen through the traumas of his teenage years and beyond.  A downbeat study of emotional repression, the increasing bleeding of the fictional world into Owen's reality and its shattering adult consequences is handled effectively, as are the lo-fi TV-show sequences, but the conceit of the dayglo otherworld is interesting but feels underused and underdeveloped on screen.  This indulgently wispy indie-teen tone poem has a dreamlike quality that captures teen angst and American small-town suburbia in a wistful and reasonably effective manner, with Justice Smith's morosely muted performance almost suited to this role.  It may be a big old metaphor for depression and mental illness with a positive outcome, and the only real mis-step is a music club scene that veers into self-parody with its sung performances, overwrought lyrics and eye-rolling dialogue.  The film never feels as if it delivers fully on its premise, but it is quite interesting nevertheless.
 

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