I Saw the TV Glow

2024

Action / Drama / Horror / Mystery

65
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 71% · 235 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 71% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 5.8/10 10 42133 42.1K

high school friendship loss of sense of reality sexuality identity obsession

Plot summary

Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate Maddy introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.

Director

Dan Schoenbrun Photo
Dan Schoenbrun

Top cast

Justice Smith Photo
Justice Smith as Owen
Michael C. Maronna Photo
Michael C. Maronna as Neighbor 1
Brigette Lundy-Paine Photo
Brigette Lundy-Paine as Maddy
Fred Durst Photo
Fred Durst as Frank
720p.BluRay 720p.WEB 1080p.BluRay 1080p.WEB 1080p.WEB 2160p.WEB
920.04 MB
1280*690
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   fr   es  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 25
920.12 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   fr   es  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 18
1.85 GB
1920*1036
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us   fr   es  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 31
1.84 GB
1920*1040
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us   fr   es  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 98
1.67 GB
1920*1040
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us   fr   es  
23.976 fps
1 hr 40 min
Seeds 37
4.45 GB
3840*2160
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
N/A
Seeds 63

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by nerrdrage 7 / 10

fascinating and thought-provoking

I can understand if this movie is divisive because it doesn't meet the audience halfway. You have to stick with it and figure it out.The ostensible story is, two alienated teenagers who find a tenuous connection to each other via a cultish series called The Pink Opaque, which is a bit like Buffy the Vampire Slayer made by David Lynch.By the end, the theme emerges: how people suffocate their own lives by ignoring or cutting out their own hearts.The story could have been told just by depicting Owen's sad, stunted life. The fantastical elements are there to make the theme more obvious, not to mention far more entertaining.This isn't a horror movie, unless you see the horror of a sad, wasted life. The segment where Owen re-watches The Pink Opaque on "streaming" is particularly chilling in its implications.
Reviewed by chungjose 7 / 10

Great atmosphere and nostalgia.

I am a straight white man, and I liked this movie. I watched it this evening. After letting it sink in and after dwelling on it, I came here. I skimmed the user reviews. First of all, if you didn't finish watching the movie, then you shouldn't review it.A lot of people who didn't like it criticized the acting. To me the acting felt like awkward teenagers being awkward teenagers.A lot of the people who did like it saw it as a queer/trans allegory. Rock on, good for them.I saw it as a reminder of the awkwardness of being a teenager, trying to make new friends. The obsession with a TV show reminded me how sometimes a TV show can become your identity and can sometimes help you survive said teenage awkwardness. (For me it was The X-Files.) Go in with an open mind and let its atmosphere draw you in.
Reviewed by Chukwudi2000 7 / 10

It's Not For Everyone

I clearly had a different experience from most people who saw this movie. I liked it. Unconventional films like this remind me how unique film is as a medium of storytelling. Stuff like this movie, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, and Beau is Afraid have given me entertaining, cathartic experiences I never knew I needed.But I also understand why they are divisive. When you look at things purely in terms of plot, a lot of them sound uninteresting, but that's because you're not supposed to do that. These movies aren't telling us a story in a conventional way, they aren't here to hook us the way stories normally do. It doesn't surprise me that they usually fail to make as much money as others.This film is heavily trans coded, so a lack of connection would probably hinder your appreciation of it. I think it stands on its merits regardless, but knowing this made it more enjoyable for me. That's why Owen wears a dress with the Pink Opaque tattoo and there's this palpable tension between them and their father about their gender.I also think you'll enjoy this movie less if you interpret some scenes too literally. My interpretation is that this entire film is kinda like one long episode of The Pink Opaque. The awkward dialogue is intentional, it's supposed to reflect the world of a cheesy cult classic airing on the Young Adult Network.I interpreted the Pink Opaque to represent a life of joyful authenticity and being unapologetically yourself. Owen's reality represented a life of melancholy behind a mask. That's why they crash out at the birthday party at the end and just walk around apologizing to everyone. They ignore the light inside themself that makes them different for the sake of others and reject the Pink Opaque.Last thing, I think Owen exists in a surreal, Kafkaesque type of dimension where they do have the same psychic powers as their alter ego in the Pink Opaque, but they fail to do anything about it because they're too complacent.I can see why trans people would identify with them. I can see why so many marginalized groups would.
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