Sydney Film Festival – I Saw The TV Glow review
We sent Addy Fong to check out I Saw The TV Glow at Sydney Film Festival. Here’s what she made of it:
‘I don’t like men or women, I just like watching movies.’
In a society often too curious about one’s sexual identity or preference, I applauded, sitting amongst the edges of a sold out cinema enchanted by this line of dialogue uttered by the film’s protagonist Owen in Jane Schoenbrun’s I saw the TV Glow a coming-of-age, surrealist, horror film that explores themes of gender identity, gender dysphoria, and the affects of trauma and grief on one’s memory.
The story surrounds Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lund-Paine) who bond over watching their favourite TV show The Pink Opaque a late night show about a two teen girls who fight monsters with their psychic powers. The show itself is a distraction to troubles happening in Maddy and Owen’s personal lives throughout the film, and so for them, a form of escapism. Schoenbrun’s I saw the TV Glow parallels the disconnect between self, identity, and unexplored sexuality one of which on a deeper level, can also be found in real world when the feeling to mask or perform inhibits some due to the dominance of heteronormative relationships and misleading gender based assumptions.
In the car a teen Owen timidly asks his father if he can stay up to watch The Pink Opaque. ‘Isn’t that show for girls?’ His father responds. Covered by the shadows cast by passing street lights and trapped within a moving vehicle, Schoenbrun’s scene is a visual representation of teens like Owen and Maddy who feel trapped by the difficulties of growing up different. Toxic ideals and stereotypes of what society defines as masculine or a feminine do not help, and the remark Owen’s father makes echoes the attitude many people have in our society.
Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow is a creatively bold film incorporating live action animation, creative use of lighting and sound design, a film within a film, and a mesmerising music piece that had me enchanted from the start. I loved Schoenbrun’s creative visuals, the way faces were lit in this film, the use of practical lighting such as a TV screen to illuminate faces, faces such as Owen’s who, previously was not as common to be seen on screen.
The representation of characters that differ from the norm is a joy to witness and I Saw the TV Glow is a creative retelling of the a boy struggling with his grief, the loss of his mother, the loss of his friend, and the eventual loss of childhood. The layers of meaning contained within the film about a boy watching films parallels my own personal joys of attending the cinema as form of escape, trapped within the throws of nostalgia is this comfort found in familiarity. The simplicity and comfort of watching movies and TV shows provides both an escape and for many like myself a form of refuge.
For more info on Sydney Film Festival, go here.
Review by Addy Fong.
