I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun, 2024) • Page 11

Finally watched this last night and I cannot keep thinking about it

 

Can’t wait to watch again, being trans and also losing a parent young, this one really hit home. I didn’t care for Worlds Fair but I’m going to give it a rewatch

 

As strange as it may sound, I think from a pacing standpoint, this is much more accessible than World's Fair. That one took a second watch from me to really appreciate. It is glacially paced, but not without purpose, and it fares a lot better when you know what to expect going in.

 

this is shipping out

 

Nice. I ordered it the day it dropped and can’t wait for all the bonus shit.

 

Ordered. I had to.

 

WHERES MINE

 

IT'S HERE

 

Damn, didn’t know they already dropped the Blu Ray. Cool because I’m due for an A24 store haul.

 

Absolutely loved this, wow

 

same. it's amazing.

 

I just saw this and had a few drinks after with the group I saw it with - definitely a bad choice. one of the saddest and most existentially haunting movies I've seen in some time, truly wrenching stuff. I can't remember the last time I even stepped out of a theatre mid movie but I nearly had to step out at the "mommy!" scream, holy shit

in contrast to that this was oddly one of the most beautiful films I've seen in ages. just the combination of lighting and the already iconic soundtrack instantly draws you into that hazy, half-awake dream space that's somehow unsettling and comforting all at once - really incredible filmmaking by Jane in the framing and mood of this. and then as a child of the 90s and a diehard Buffy fan I really found myself connecting with all the TV watching scenes in this. truly don't know if I've ever seen a movie that better captured that nostalgic, unreal feeling of watching TV as a child and how the memories blur with your childhood over time

definitely will need to sit with this for awhile to decide how I felt about the ending and some of the themes I certainly didn't pick up on. there's a lot of beautiful ambiguity and generousness to interpretation that this movie allows the audience to bring to it. for example even though I absolutely saw the trans allegory, as an asexual person who didn't have the vocabulary to describe what he was for nearly 20 years and who only experienced relationships through television and movies, Owen's line about thinking he liked TV shows and feeling like somebody emptied him out inside when he thought about romantic relationships cut me to the fucking core man

 

This is a pretty key aspect of the film for me. There’s this way that the film captures the experience of connecting to a thing in media, but not having the tools to understand what that thing is. And, not having that until it’s “too late,” but with the hopeful promise to the audience that it isn’t and doesn’t have to be “too late.”

 

Feel your last paragraph the exact same way

 

same (although i'm gay, not asexual)

 

Yep. The ending is harrowing and when I first saw some people call it "full of hope" I had a hard time buying it, until I realized they weren't talking about Owen.

 

i still don't get the "hopeful" ending. who else could they be talking about?

 

the audience. it's a cautionary tale

 

I transitioned when I was almost 30 so I can appreciate the message that it's never too late, however when I watched this in theaters I found the ending to be so bleak

 

It is bleak, that’s why it’s a cautionary tale. The hope isn’t onscreen, it comes from understanding the message of the film and using it to create positive change in one’s own life.

 

Yes. The ending is definitely “be your true authentic self, otherwise your frustration and anxiety will manifest in a way that has you apologizing to strangers the rest of your life for stuff you shouldn’t”.