2024 saw a surge of politically acute horror movies, often with a feminist edge. The second movie from trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (after We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) didn’t get the hype that accrued to more visceral titles, but it taps into something deeply disquieting in ways that reverberate long after viewing.
Back in the 90s, Owen (Ian Foreman) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) are misfit teenagers who bond over a shared obsession with a weird TV show called The Pink Opaque, a supernatural teen series which looks a lot like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But Maddy gets more and more into it, insisting that the show is a portal to a hidden reality… When she vanishes shortly afterwards, Owen doesn’t know what to think. Cut to the future: his life has normalized in ways that are utterly predictable and which lead him back to the brink of breakdown…
I Saw the TV Glow is a major work—a frightening and complex exploration of childhood nostalgia, adult regret, and the ways our identity is shaped by pop culture. […] creepy […] electrifying, with uncommon human tenderness bumping right up against mutated, half-formed monstrousness.
David Sims, The Atlantic
Visceral and intensely moving, this film feels like something you’d stumble across on TV in the small hours and never forget. It might herald a new era for queer cinema.
Laura Vanning, Empire magazine
Schoenbrun blurs the lines between reality and fantasy with an intoxicating, Lynchian flair.
Jen Yamato, Washington Post
Media Partner
Jane Schoenbrun
Justice Smith, Helena Howard, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, Fred Durst
USA
2024
English
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Screenwriter
Jane Schoenbrun
Cinematography
Eric Yue
Editor
Sofi Marshall
Original Music
Alex G
Production Design
Brandon Tonner-Connolly
Art Director
Naomi Munro
Also in This Series
Challengers
Luca Guadagnino (Queer; Call Me By Your Name) snaps back into gear with this sexy, fun screwball comedy masquerading as a sports film. Frenemies Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor compete for the favours of Zendaya, on and off the tennis court.
About Dry Grasses
The latest from Turkish master Ceylan (The Wild Pear Tree) is a complex, multi-layered and ultimately lacerating portrait of an art teacher stuck in a rural backwater he can't wait to escape, accused of inappropriate behaviour by his favourite pupil.
Good One
This movie feels like a perfect short story. 17-year-old Sam (Lily Collias) gamely heads out on a camping weekend with her recently remarried dad (James LeGros) and his newly divorced buddy, Matt (Danny McCarthy). They bitch. She absorbs.
I Saw the TV Glow
Two misfits are sucked into the deranged world of a supernatural TV show. Trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun taps into something deeply disquieting in ways that reverberate long after viewing.
Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Radu Jude takes two days in the life of a stressed Romanian p.a. and gives us an urgent, pissed off, sourly funny polemic on the state of late capitalism. Exploitation, discrimination and hypocrisy are his targets; dialectics are his dynamite.
Close Your Eyes
Twenty years after the film he was directing fell apart when the leading man disappeared, Miguel (Manolo Solo) agrees to reopen the mystery for a TV show... He needs the money, and he's ready for a reckoning. A late masterpiece from Victor Erice.
Thelma
We've seen geriatric vigilante movies before but June Squibb, who recently turned 95, is definitely pushing the envelope. Squibb is a delight as a still independent senior scammed into posting bail for her beloved slacker grandson. Comedy of the year.
All We Imagine as Light
What Wong Kar-wai did for Hong Kong, Payal Kapadia does for Mumbai: the Cannes Grand Prix winner is a romantic heartbreaker about three nurses at different stages of life. It's a future classic.