In 2022, I reviewed a movie titled We’re All Going To The World’s Fair. I hated it. It was actually my number 1 worst movie that year. According to some other reviews, I just didn’t get it. Anyway, the writer/director for that movie released another movie, I Saw The TV Glow, which isn’t a sequel but it is the second part of a trilogy they will be releasing. I’m not sure I got this one either.
Owen (Ian Foreman) is a lonely 7th grader who meets Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), a 9th grader, while his mother is voting. Maddy is reading an episodic guide about The Pink Opaque, a late night television show aimed at young adults. Unfortunately, Owen’s father (Fred Durst) won’t let Owen watch the show claiming it is for girls. Owen lies to his mother and sneaks over to Maddy’s house to watch the latest episode. Two years later, Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy have bonded over the show. Maddy tells Owen she is going to run away. She asks Owen to go with her but he bails at the last minute. Shortly after Maddy goes missing, The Pink Opaque is cancelled. Eight years later, Maddy reappears, telling Owen that she has been living inside the show. She tells him how she paid someone to bury her alive then she woke up as Tara, one of the show’s main characters. Again, she tries to get Owen to come with her but he doesn’t. Instead, his life continues until he has a breakdown at work.
After I finished I Saw The TV Glow, I felt the same way I did at the end of World’s Fair. Normally I don’t look up other movie reviews before I write mine because I don’t want to be influenced by their opinions. However, I did look up some reviews since I saw so many saying that people missed the point of World’s Fair. It seems that TV Glow is an allegory for being transgender. I am not in that community so perhaps that is why the point of the movie went over my head. If you are in the community and you have watched this movie, please let me know your thoughts about it. I would love to know if there were signs that I missed.
With all of that said, can I recommend TV Glow? For me, the movie was extremely slow. I can’t say that I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. Perhaps I just shouldn’t watch any more Jane Schoenbrun movies. They don’t seem to be for me.
Rating: C