I Saw the TV Glow

AroView: This intense teenage mind melt from trans-female director Jane Schoenbrun is a boldly surreal “trans horror allegory” that powerfully speaks to the discomfort of otherness.

Rarely have there been two more uncomfortable screen characters than these teens who share an obsession with ‘The Pink Opaque’, a bizarre TV show where their escapist fantasies can take flight. If you can imagine David Lynch remaking Brigsby Bear as a non-binary horror allegory in the pre-internet era, you’d be somewhere in the neighborhood.

“Astonishingly beautiful and vulnerable, I Saw the TV Glow’s surreal art-horror speaks to lonely teenagers, past and present.” ~Katie Rife, IGN

“The film is among the most profound—and, yes, important—pieces of trans fiction that I’ve yet seen, vividly staged with bold, declarative style while remaining beguilingly elusive.” ~Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

“Manages to be enveloping without being inviting and to offer a sense of emotional intimacy without requiring that those emotions be comprehensible.” ~Alison Willmore, Vulture

“This character-centered setup is where I Saw the TV Glow is most affecting, grounded by the tense, tacit bond between two highly guarded people — and given an electric jolt by Lundy-Paine’s fragile, volatile performance as someone certain there’s no accepting place for them outside the rectangular confines of the TV set.” ~Guy Lodge, Variety