THIS REVIEW IS PART OF BLITZ’S CONTINUED COVERAGE OF THE 71ST SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL, 5-16 JUNE. READ THE REST OF OUR REVIEWS HERE.  

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I left my packed Sydney Film Festival screening simultaneously bewildered and entranced by Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw The TV Glow (2024) – a hypnotic and nostalgic portrait of the ways in which media consumption becomes intertwined with the loneliness, horrors, and beauty of navigating personal identity.  

Following previous experimental projects, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021) and A Self-Induced Hallucination (2018), Schoenbrun continues to explore the unsettling realms of technology and media through queer, adolescent lenses in this highly anticipated A24 release.  

I Saw the TV Glow follows misfit teenagers Owen (Justice Smith) and Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine) who are obsessed with 'The Pink Opaque', an ominous, late-night television show featuring friendship, supernatural adventures, and battles against nightmarish enemies. When the show is suddenly cancelled, the pair are confronted by distorted realities within their quiet hometown and inner psyches. 

Without the frequent jumpscares of a typical horror film, scenes range from strange to deeply unnerving. As a horror amateur, but psychological thriller enthusiast, I found that Schoenbrun maintains the perfect level of creepiness, without requiring me to sleep with my lights on for the following week. 

I Saw The TV Glow oozes 90’s retro nostalgia from its neon palette to VHS effects and post-production doodles. With minimal lighting in some scenes, the glowing television screen illuminates otherwise barely visible subjects, visually illustrating 'The Pink Opaque’s' grasp over the teens as their sole source of light. Colourful frames and peeks into the campy world of the show are contrasted by suburban settings which appear straight out of r/liminalspace. The town’s movie theatre, supermarket, and high school use fluorescent, flickering bulbs to swallow audiences into ghostly atmospheres.  

via Sydney Film Festival

“Sometimes The Pink Opaque feels more real than real life.”   

I have always found myself turning to various forms of media – whether it be movies and shows, music, books, or even digital spaces – as a source of comfort. From my perpetual rewatching of favourite films to countless hours spent among online fandoms, I Saw The TV Glow felt like a personal reflection into my own tendencies to cling to the stories, worlds, and art of media which I deeply resonate with. Throughout the film, there are these visceral, almost agonising, reactions by Owen and Maddy to 'The Pink Opaque,' as they indulge in the outlandish show to escape their melancholic realities defined by isolation and uncertainty. 

While I largely connected to the film’s exploration of complex relationships with media, its strong queer themes and allusions to transgender experiences simply could not be left unmentioned from this review. Through various press interviews, Schoenbrun asserts the film’s purpose as an outlet for the complexities and struggles faced by LGBTQ+ youth in the journey of self-discovery.  

“I realised it was an attempt to talk about how the process of realising you needed to transition and how starting the transition felt… The metaphor at the centre of the film hinges on something being wrong, almost like an identity or a path being foreclosed in the moment.” said Schoenbrun in a recent discussion with The Guardian.  

For much of its audience, I Saw The TV Glow’s nuanced and poignant illustrations of sexuality, gender, and identity have been the film’s most compelling characteristic. 

“I saw myself up there on the screen in a way I never thought I’d see in a film. My exact experience with dysphoria had been perfectly, devastatingly articulated.” wrote user @mesh509 on Letterboxd.  

via Sydney Film Festival

I was first introduced to I Saw The TV Glow through its distinct original soundtrack, playing Yeule’s cover of 'Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl' on repeat for weeks prior to my screening, despite a complete unawareness of the film’s premise. Featuring rising indie stars – Caroline Polachek, Jay Som, and Bartees Strange, to name a few – the soundtrack blends nostalgic shoegaze riffs and synth-pop with vivid electronic tones. Polachek’s Starburned and Unkissed captures the record’s moody, yet glistening sound, beginning with gentle vocals which build into a loud and hazy chorus. Alex G returns on the score, having worked with Schoenbrun on We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, creating haunting backdrops to the film’s most vulnerable and exhilarating moments. Audiences are momentarily transported to the crowds of on-screen performances in cameos by Sloppy Jane, Phoebe Bridgers, and King Woman, who exude an air of seduction and charm.  

However, I Saw The TV Glow falls short in parts of its dialogue and writing by extension. Many crucial moments are presented through expository conversations between characters, but they deserve the same vibrant, visual storytelling as the rest of the film. Furthermore, I yearned for a greater focus on costuming and makeup, with the 90’s setting and nature of 'The Pink Opaque' begging for equally distinctive styling. Instead, despite the film’s $10 million budget and A24-level access to creatives, I was underwhelmed by its tame fashion and makeup choices. 

Among the likes of Get Out (2017) and Midsommar (2019), I Saw The TV Glow’s originality, unique direction, and delicately unnerving imagery render the film a crucial addition to the contemporary art-horror catalogue. Jane Schoenbrun evokes an internal reflection on whether we are living as our true selves, urging audiences that between all the television static, there is still time.  

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Jeanette Lim is a second-year Law and Media (Communications and Journalism) student who is obsessed with concerts, matcha lattes, and Ayo Edebiri. When she’s not cramming university essays you can catch her making hyper-specific playlists, op shopping, or capturing life on her film and digital cameras.  

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