There are more than a few vectors of entry into writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow. Primarily though: if you grew up in (or have nostalgia for) the 90s, were obsessed with the cultural detritus of the period, and were convinced it had some special message; maybe you felt this marked you as an outcast, different in some way that was hard to define. This film takes a firm grip on that fervour—and disappointment.
I Saw the TV Glow follows the maturation of Owen (played mainly by Justice Smith, with a nuanced performance) from a boy at loose ends to a pained teenager to, however briefly, an adult. He’s close with his mother (Danielle Deadwyler) and vaguely, wordlessly menaced by his father (Fred Durst!). Seemingly trapped in the suburbs, a fateful encounter with outsider Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine, well-cast) clamps Owen’s mind on a way out: the TV show “The Pink Opaque”, a construction of Schoenbrun’s imagination, but also a true-to-life artifact. Even if you never watched one of these supernatural teen-oriented programs, you know the type; and even if you’re upbringing was not as challenging (or confusing) as Owen’s, it’s possible to feel a kinship with what he’s going through. We were all young once, and Schoenbrun ably captures that exact sentiment as her protagonist moves through the stages of his life. Well, “moves” is perhaps an overstatement; what the film captures is a sense of stasis and dread, of a world out of joint for reasons both mysterious and obvious (to us, anyway). This makes Schoenbrun’s film somewhat inevitable, but not ineffective.
To the film’s credit, I Saw the TV Glow goes beyond easy nostalgia to a more disquieting place. What’s shown on screen isn’t necessarily upsetting, but the tenor of the film’s images, whether filtered through that 90s’ television patina or coloured by Schoenbrun’s technique, sustains something solid. Like the cancelled TV shows from which it draws, the film loses its way by the end, yet remains difficult to forget.
