I try to see something new every week at the local multiplex. It isn’t always possible, of course. Some weekends I am out of town or something. Other times, since COVID, I just plain don’t feel like going out as much as I used to. That means I am more likely to skip a lesser movie than I used to be, but why did I skip I Saw the TV Glow? It got good buzz, but it looked weird. That was probably the reason I skipped it. It just looked weird, and I have to be in the right mood for weird.
Well, it was on Max, and as I type this, I am still not sure what my “Best of 2024” is going to look like.
It’s 1996, and seventh grader Owen (Ian Foreman for the beginning of the movie but Justice Smith for the rest) meets ninth grader Maddie (Brigette Lundy-Paine), finding her alone and reading an episode guide for a TV series off the Young Adult Channel called The Pink Opaque. The show, the story of two teenage girls with a psychic connection that fight the evil man-in-the-moon from opposite sides of the country, fascinated Owen, and he finds a way to sneak over to Maddie’s house under the auspices of going to a sleepover at a friend’s house. As time passes, Owen and Maddie really get into the show, but their friendship is based entirely around it. Maddie makes it clear she likes girls to Owen two years later, and Owen says he likes TV shows.
Maddie, eventually, decides to run away from home to escape an abusive stepfather. Will Owen go with her? Owen, as a person, is timid, depressed, and doesn’t seem to be able to raise his voice above an apologetic mumble. He doesn’t really want to go, but the thing is, as time passes, he’s given more opportunities to go away with Maddie, and whatever is going on with these two connects to The Pink Opaque, a show that looks like it combines elements of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files with the special effects budget of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Owen is at his happiest when he watches the show, with or without Maddie. Can he find what he’s looking for?
I figure I skipped this movie when it was in theaters because it looked weird. I mean, it’s from A24. All of their movies have a high chance of being weird. But this one? It’s really weird. It’s billed as a horror movie, but it’s not that scary. It mixes in elements of gender identity, LGBTQ+ themes, and the dangers of nostalgia. And it’s clear writer/director Jane Schoenbrun is a big fan of Buffy given the use of the show’s credits font in The Pink Opaque and a small appearance by Buffy castmember Amber Benson. But is the movie good? Well…I guess? This sort of movie isn’t really my thing.
I will give Smith a good shout-out for a great performance. His Owen is a man so beaten down by life that he can barely express much of anything resembling a positive feeling. As the movie goes on and time passes, he’s essentially a shell of a human being, someone who may not even qualify as a person so much as a drone going through the motions, trying to find happiness in a TV show that, by the time the movie is over, has been off the air for decades and maybe in a friendship with someone who likewise disappeared decades earlier. But what does all this add up to? Well, the basic idea may be that it is never too late for someone to make the choice for happiness, but Owen as a character perhaps can’t make that next step for some reason. All I know is I found the movie really weird and not really my thing.
Grade: C+
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