To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video I Saw the TV Glow has proved itself an unexpected frontrunner among this year’s must-watch movies as it hits cinemas. The suburban horror flick, from trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, opens with a 12-year-old Owen (Justice Smith) whose life is turned upside down when his older teen friend Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) introduces him to a late-night supernatural TV show, The Pink Opaque. Each week on the show Isabel and Tara defeat a new enemy, and it quickly becomes an obsession for Owen and Maddy who are dealing with their own troubled family lives and existential crises.
The unsettling 90s era film – soundtracked by Florist, Caroline Polachek, Jay Som, Sloppy Jane – peels open the protagonists inner vulnerabilities as it progressively blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. It also features cameos from chart-topping artist Phoebe Bridgers and Buffy star Amber Benson and has been praised for its subversive and powerful allegory for the trans, and queer experience. As it stands, the one-hour 40 minute movie sits at an impressive 84% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes as the glowing reviews roll in ahead of the UK release.
‘That the film’s allegorical excavation of queer trauma is so precise and so acute marks Schoenbrun as a once-in-a-lifetime filmmaker, and I Saw The TV Glow as the best film of 2024, if not the decade,’ Movie Marker reflected in their five-star review. Meanwhile, the Guardian’s five-star review described the movie as ‘claustrophobic, unwholesome and brilliant’ which deserved ‘cult classic status without the cult’. This was echoed by Empire magazine who hailed the movie as an ‘awe-inspiringly original film’.
‘The film is anchored by astonishing performances. Brigette Lundy-Paine brings an authentic adolescent rage to Maddy, a thin veil over her vulnerability, while Justice Smith is simply a revelation,’ the review continued. And the Seattle Times poignantly reflected : ‘It’s like you’re watching someone make a painting of a dream that, while they now understand it, is full of pain and uncertainty when they first pick up the canvas.
’ The praise was reflected by fans on social media as well. ‘I Saw the TV Glow is a gorgeous, atmospheric film that explores and expresses trans/queer identity in a wholly unique way,’ @carolinekwan wrote on X. ‘Felt like I couldn’t move as the credits rolled.
Decade definer, for me,’ Dexetro editor @frewfilm echoed. wow. I SAW THE TV GLOW is the best display of New Jersey suburban life Iâve ever seen in a film.
Absolute masterpiece pic.twitter.com/mjlLfg1mPD I SAW THE TV GLOW is terrific.
A love-letter to lonely 90âs kids who spent more time with Goosebumps and X-files than they did with friends. A movie for everyone who grew up in the suburbs wishing they were anyone else somewhere else. Really blown away by I SAW THE THE TV GLOW.
Just a boldly original vision into self-discovery and haunting metaphors for the trans experience, exploring the internal conflict of questioning and accepting one’s true identity in ways I have never seen articulated on screen. Shaken⦠pic.twitter.
com/jW8yrbUUan This is Jane’s sophomore feature after their 2021 queer horror, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair which also received praise for its refreshing addition to the genre. Speaking about the filmmaking experience to Interview magazine , they described the vocation as a ‘almost a religious experience’. ‘Getting to direct a film is such a privilege and a luxury.
It’s as if my church is being on a movie set,’ they added. In particular, Jane wanted to challenge mainstream ideas of the trans experience often crafted by ‘cis people from a completely voyeuristic perspective’. More Trending The richest actress you’ve probably never heard of is worth $3,000,000,000 The Grease cast member you didn't realise was John Travolta's relative Netflix’s number one ‘corny’ rom-com is hitting fans in the heart Explosive Netflix thriller with Liam Neeson dubbed ‘his best film since Taken’ The 37-year-old director added to Vanity Fair: ‘Or they were crafted by trans people trying to make themselves legible in a way that cis people can make into a Hallmark card.
‘I very proudly identify as nonbinary. I don’t think my relationship to gender is something that I completely understand. It’s actually quite comforting to embrace incoherence.
’ I Saw the TV Glow arrives in UK cinemas on Friday, July 26. Got a story? If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.
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