I Saw the TV Glow

A mystery where the answers are inside the main character, they just don't know where to look — a movie that's a bit hard to unlock on first viewing. Yet once the full scope of the story becomes clear, its themes have a powerful impact on the viewer.

Like their first film, 2021′s internet-spiked horror We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, I Saw the TV Glow is a film of mirrors and trap doors. It is just as much about identity as it is obsession.

I Saw the TV Glow is one of the best films about identity I’ve ever seen.

At times I’m not sure I fully understood it. But I’m sure that I won’t forget it.

In every magnificent musical choice and moving monologue, a flood of meaning is bursting free.

Almost like a thesis film, but it does have a feeling for teen angst that stayed with me afterward.

Schoenbrun seems increasingly interested in creating a relatable, nostalgia-rich world than filling it with much in the way of substance.

I Saw the TV Glow is audacious in its execution, introspective in its narrative and interesting in its aesthetic, but it’s also a bit of a schlep, more ambitious than actually entertaining.

All I can say is that the movie increasingly struck me as a dreary jumble of ideas and impressions to which I said, "no thanks."

"I Saw the TV Glow" is slow-moving, hypnotic and sort of boring. Yet it burrows under your skin in a way that off-center movies often do.