'I Saw the TV Glow,' So You Don't Have To (But You Still Might Want To)

By Thom Ernst

Rating: B-plus

Director Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow is making quite a stir along the art house circuit. Still, despite accolades and plenty of evidence suggesting that something close to genius is at work, it’s unclear if the film will stir audiences in return.

The film’s enthusiasts—a growing brood of admirers—will argue in favour of the movie’s visionary, almost apocalyptic take on the flailing state of media, or something along those lines. But no one, not even one who gets giddy in the presence of the weird and the obscure, is likely to mistake I Saw the TV Glow for a fun movie.

Ian Foreman and Brigette Lundy-Paine can’t believe what they’re watching.

The producers of The Fall Guy can rest easy knowing the chances of Schoenbrun’s film eroding their summer box office returns are slim. And though I Saw the TV Glow does live in a freakishly bizarre world, it’s a bit ingenuous to label the movie as a horror film. 

It’s not just the TV that glows in Schoenbrun’s film. So too, do the residential streets covered in glow-in-the-dark chalk sketches, the neon-charged lights from arcades, and the transforming shift of light that occurs when one is beneath the dome of a playground parachute. But what makes Schoenbrun’s world so unsettling (and fascinating) is how the world she creates is perceived through the eyes of its central protagonist, Owen. 

Ian Foreman plays Owen as a young boy. Foreman has a quick charm that radiates off the screen even when Owen is in quiet retreat. More than just passing credit goes to Foreman (and subsequently to Justice Smith as Owen as a young man and Brigette Lundy-Paine as Maddy) for the film’s emotional impact. The impact works in tandem with Schoenbrun’s vision and Eric Yue’s crisp cinematography

The story covers a decade in the life of Owen, a socially awkward introvert drawn to the older, more independent, and possibly more troubled Maddy. The teens bond over a television show called The Pink Opaque, an entry-level horror anthology. But when the series plotline takes a deviant shift to the macabre, it is abruptly and mysteriously canceled. Around the same time, Maddy disappears, leaving nothing behind but a burning television set. 

Creepy. But not scary. But scary isn’t the kind of horror film Schoenbrun makes. 

Schoenbrun has been making films in one capacity or another for nearly a decade. And yet, for some, Schoenbrun will be a fresh name. Her IMDb page reveals a short-but-impressive list of work from short, to documentary to feature. In her brief time. Schoenbrun has carved a niche that is arguably shared with such film artists as Jonathan Glazer, Gaspar Noé, and Leos Carax.

I Saw the TV Glow demands the audience's attention. I can’t say that, even with all synapses firing, I was able to catch every (maybe none) of the nuances Schoenbrun was tossing out. But it’s at times like that when I find it best to relax and experience the film rather than struggle to make sense of it.  

I Saw the TV Glow, directed by Jane Schiebrun, stars Ian Foreman, Justine Smith, and Brigette Lundy-Paine. I Saw the TV Glow is currently playing at selected theatres.