Jane Schoenbrun\u2019s second narrative feature is a gnawing search for belonging in the static spaces between analog pixels. They stir dreamlike logic into scavenged memories, especially in a scene early in the film that grasps at how the medium of television\u2019s celestial radiance can grant wide-eyed salvation in even the darkest room. A young Owen (Ian Foreman) gains permission from his mother Brenda (Danielle Deadwyler) to ostensibly\u00a0sleepover at a classmate\u2019s house. Instead, he ventures across manicured suburban lawns at night to visit Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), a cynical older girl he only just met at school, and Maddy\u2019s friend, who are watching the teen show \u201cThe Pink Opaque\u201d on the Young Adult Network. Twist curls and a beaming smile mark Owen\u2019s innocence, as well as his obvious desire for friendship and community. As surreal images of the show\u2019s grotesque monsters and slippery mythology wisp pass him, he isn\u2019t afraid. He is enthralled. That dopamine surge of recognition haunts Owen, and it\u2019s one of the film\u2019s many telling moments that has persistently beckoned me to return.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI Saw the TV Glow\u201d mostly takes place during Owen\u2019s older teenage years, when arresting questions of identity, sexuality, and personhood often occur with urgency. A transformative Justice Smith takes the reins of Owen, playing this outcast with the wounded rawness of a permanent scar. Owen\u2019s young adult years are stained by personal loss and his on-again, off-again friendship with Maddy, which takes shape\u00a0through and around their shared love of \u201cThe Pink Opaque,\u201d a show that feels like a throwback to \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer.\u201d The show provides a window into the crushing angst Owen feels but cannot name, while his direct addresses offer intermittent grounding for his self-sabotaging. The push-pull manages to lull the viewer into a quiet trance before unmooring them into a state of unbridled panic.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Whether he knows it or not, from the moment he first catches sight of Maddy reading an episode guide to \u201cThe Pink Opaque,\u201d\u00a0Owen is searching for himself. Though his late-night visit to Maddy\u2019s house is initially a one-off, his fascination with the show hasn’t diminished when he reconnects with her two years later. Rather than sneaking out to Maddy\u2019s place, she leaves him VHS recordings of the episodes, with titles like \u201cHomecoming to Get You\u201d and \u201cThe Trouble with Tara Part 1\u201d scribbled in pink ink, in their school\u2019s dark room for Owen to find. Owen passionately watches these installments to the point of barely breathing, digging deeper and deeper into himself and the series\u2019 mythology.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a story within the story, \u201cThe Pink Opaque\u201d is equally unshakable: Its premise involves two telepathically linked girls (played by Helena Howard and Lindsey Jordan) fighting villains dispatched by the big bad, a malformed monster in the shape of a moon named Mr. Melancholy, on a weekly basis. Schoenbrun films these episodes\u00a0with a winking playfulness that initially suggests a kind of silly pastiche before softly revealing deeper, abstract truths about Owen and Maddy. In the show, Owen and Maddy see their mundane suburb, whose assimilative conventionality of gender norms and atrophied dreams is itself suffocating, reflected back at them through a queer lens. \u201cWhat about you? Do you like girls?\u201d Maddy asks Owen on the school bleachers. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d a shy Owen replies. \u201cBoys?\u201d presses Maddy. \u201cI think I like TV shows,\u201d delivers an unvarnished Smith. \u201cWhen I think about that stuff, I feel like someone took a shovel and dug out my insides. I know there\u2019s nothing there, but I\u2019m still too nervous to open myself up to check.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jane Schoenbrun\u2019s second narrative feature is a gnawing search for belonging in the static spaces between analog pixels. They stir dreamlike logic into scavenged memories, especially in a scene early in the film that grasps at how the medium of television\u2019s celestial radiance can grant wide-eyed salvation in even the darkest room. A young Owen …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[45,48],"class_list":["post-1179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama-movies","tag-drama","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}