Summary

Jane Schoenbrun’s film, inspired by 90s pop culture, explores psychological horror, duality, and transgender themes through a sinister suburban lens.

One of the buzziest films coming out of the Sundance Film Festival this year was Jane Schoenbrun’s I SAW THE TV GLOW. Not for nothing either: their cult hit We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and a plot that speaks directly to the pop culture obsessed 90s kids seems tailor-made for festival crowds. Yet, like the characters in the film, there’s a lot more going on here than the surface might suggest.

With cited influences ranging from Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, it concerns two students of Void High School (or VHS to set the mood) who bond over the TV show The Pink Opaque. The insular and constantly fearful 7th grader Owen (Ian Foreman and later Justice Smith) sneaks over to 9th grader Maddy’s (Brigette Lundy-Paine) house to watch episodes, who also tapes the episodes for Owen’s repeat viewings. The show’s abrupt end coincides with some major life changes for one of them, and a stagnation for the other.

You could watch this as an intensely crafted psychological horror film. The impeccable recreation of 90s television, right down to what appears to be the same font used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, will elicit nods and giggles of recognition in equal measure. Yet, given Schoenbrun’s cinematic touchstones, the notion of duality and an undercurrent of darkness are ever-present.

Schoenbrun has stated that they constructed the film, especially the second half of it, as an allegory for the experience of coming out (or perhaps not coming out) as transgender. Pink, blue and white motifs infuse the film, arguably suggestive of the Monica Helms transgender flag design. Indeed, there’s one point where Owen is enveloped in a balloon tent striped in the same colours. There’s other readings possible depending on how you approach this, with some traits recognisable in any trapped suburbanite.

As the ridiculousness of the 90s facade becomes terrifyingly sinister, and the overall vibes becomes increasingly claustrophobic, Smith’s performance in particular is superb. Time rapidly moves forward, and Smith’s singular turn matches his same but different surrounds. The audience remains glued to this sense of inevitable dread in much the same way Owen has since first discovering The Pink Opaque.

I SAW THE TV GLOW offers no easy answers or conclusive endings. Like its inspiration, Twin Peaks, it crescendos with a scream but concludes in a manner more consistent with the isolated Owen’s journey. It is one of those films that we will happily unpick on repeated viewings.