Now that he’s dead, all us habitual moviegoers live in the shadow of David Lynch if only because Lynch was the predominant filmmaker of the last 40 years or so whose vision was not only unique but impossible to get away from. It wasn’t his style so much as his particular view of the world as a scary place, which informed even those scenes that conveyed his child-like appreciation of creative endeavor. Jane Schoenbrun, in their second feature, I Saw the TV Glow, gives off a similar vibe, not in the material or even in the creepy atmosphere they create, but in the way they explore possibilities no one has thought of before. Set in the 90s, Schoenbrun’s movie fixates on that point in time when video had become not just an alternative world for some people, but the whole world, a transition that would eventually morph into the screen obsessions we currently can’t avoid. The Japanese title of Schoenbrun’s film is more descriptive of the movie’s intent: I Want to Enter the Television.

The narrative is nothing more than a life trajectory that rejects self-analysis. We first see Owen as a teenager who is so obsessed with a certain late-night TV series called The Pink Opaque that he sneaks out of his house at night to watch with an older, disaffected girl named Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine). The series is never explained in any thorough way, and the viewer only sees snippets, but it seems to be a Lynchian production in that it has occult doings and insecure young people figuring out their sexuality. Owen (Justice Smith) becomes so smitten that over the course of adolescence and beyond he continues watching the show long after it’s cancelled and he himself has started contemplating his own gender fluidity. As a teenager, Owen uses The Pink Opaque to come to terms with his boring, conventional suburban milieu, a situation that apparently had already defeated Maddy, who becomes cynical in the process. The pivotal moment in the film has Maddy asking Owen if he prefers girls or boys, and Owen answers matter-of-factly that he prefers TV shows, meaning he recognizes in TV characters those insecurities he feels himself but lacks the capacity to deal with in a natural, organic way. He can only identify and feel them, so when he gets older they’re still there, gnawing at his soul.

Though Schoenbrun successfully puts across the emotional turmoil of Owen’s life, the scary stuff—meaning the touches that Lynch seemed to pull off by instinct—often feels forced, and as the movie progresses Owen’s disconnections become less distinct. I understood that Owen felt his life had run up against a wall, but couldn’t make sense of it. Perhaps I Saw the TV Glow requires multiple viewings in order for any sense to come into it, but Lynch famously rejected sense, which is one of the qualities that made him great as a filmmaker. I think Schoenbrun hasn’t achieved the kind of inherent confidence that comes with a mindset that’s as free as Lynch’s was, but they’re on their way. 

Opens Sept. 26 in Tokyo at Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho (03-6259-8608), Kino Cinema Shinjuku (03-5315-0978), Human Trust Cinema Shibuya (03-5468-5551).

I Saw the TV Glow home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2023 Pink Opaque