I Saw the TV Glow & the dark side of nostalgia | Intercut Explains
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2024
- Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow is one of the 2024 movies that will define the year in cinema, but how do we define its impact? @AmandaTheJedi joins Art & Zach for a spoiler-filled discussion of the trans allegory at the film’s center, Justice Smith’s haunting performance, as well as the ways that nostalgia can be a source of comfort and a trap.
I Saw the TV Glow SXSW Review - • I Saw the TV Glow | Fi...
TIMECODES...
00:00 - Intro
02:45 - The role of nostalgia in TV Glow
09:01 - VHS and tactile media
15:05 - Icons of the 90s
16:15 - Justice Smith's heartbreaking performance
18:12 - I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack & use of music
20:36 - Trans allegory & empathy
27:39 - The feeling of emptiness & is TV Glow horror?
31:21 - I Saw The TV Glow ending analysis
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I understand why many cis people interpret "I Saw The TV Glow" as a movie about nostalgia, but there's a damn good reason why so many trans people see it as a story about repression. This film perfectly captures the experience of dysphoria like no other. It portrays the existential horror of knowing something is fundamentally wrong but being too afraid to acknowledge it, as doing so would make it unbearably real and turn the existential into body horror.
Owen uses an inhaler throughout the movie, more frequently as he grows older. This is because his "true" self, Isabel, being suffocated and buried alive. This can also be seen as Owen repressing his dysphoria, burying his true self, Isabel, and using medication (like antidepressants) to alleviate the suffocating symptoms of dysphoria. Also, the scene where Maddie and Owen need to bury themselves to become their true selves serves as a pretty direct metaphor for transitioning and burying your past self.
From the very first time we see young Owen, he's surrounded by the colors of the trans flag, with neon pink and blue prominently featured throughout the movie. Owen’s increasing detachment from his mother after the first timeskip may be dissociation brought on by puberty. Owen's father dismisses his request to watch "The Pink Opaque" with the remark, "Ain't that a show for girls?" This moment show the shame and judgment Owen feels, mirrored by Mr. Melancholy, the man in the moon, who is a constant observer and judge.
And let’s not forget the moment where Owen wears a dress and smiles at Maddie watching him in the mirror not with judgement, but with kindness.
There's countless more moments like these which trans folks understand and identify with because we have lived out these moments ourselves, and that is where the real horror of this movie comes from; I Saw The TV Glow shows us the best case scenario for what would have happened if we kept denying. But despite all of the dread and horror of that, it tells us that "There is still time". Because if there was still time for us, then there is still time for Isabel.
It's about both. And more. No great film is just about one thing. Nostalgia definitely plays into the themes of the film, but it's not the primary theme, I agree.
I definitely picked up on the trans message within the film but like you said there are a lot of different queer experiences people can connect to in the film outside of that as well. (This is not at all meant to take away from that part of the movie because I am really glad there’s such a great and successful movie centered around the trans experience)
I know for me what I connected to most was Owen and Maddie’s talk on the bleachers about whether or not Owen liked girls or boys.
That comment from Owen about knowing there’s nothing there when talking about romance and attraction, but being too afraid to look and knowing that his parents know something is wrong with him hit harder than any other scene from a movie I’ve watched this year.
I read it very much as an expression of asexuality and/or aromanticism and as someone who identifies as asexual myself that was the first time I had ever seen that aspect of myself portrayed on screen and the struggles that come with it as well.
I don’t know if there’s a movie that better portrays that all consuming, suffocating stagnation of feeling so out of place- knowing you’re out of place compared to those around you- and in response forcing yourself to fit what other people expect of you than I Saw the TV Glow.
Definitely the movie that will stick with me the longest out of any movie I’ve seen so far this year.
I think there is something to be said about Owen repeatedly breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience, like he doesn't believe the TV show was anything more than a TV show... and yet he knows he's in a movie?
I think it's a multi-purpose device. One, it's adopting the trope of talking to the camera a lot of older shows did. In essence, it's homage. Second, it's another layer of unreality, of blurring the lines, that works to support the narrative of dysphoria the film is centered on.
saw it for the first time at SXSW and seen it 6 more times since then. i already loved World's Fair, but this movie REALLY blew me away. life changing shit. never seen anything like it and i'm so happy that the rest of the world gets to experience it now. it's been so heartwarming seeing how it has touched so many people over the past month since its theatrical release. everyone needs to see this movie.
It's Synecdoche, New York for kids!
When I stepped out it took me a bit of time and discussion to know what to make of it. It impacted me but couldn't grasp why cuz I thought it'd be a more direct in its message, but it wasn't. Now, all I can say is the last piece of media that had me like stopping in my tracks throughout the day and tearing up as I remember is the first season of a show that's not that good retroactively (should've been a miniseries)
What show I’m curious
31:55 ngl I experienced something similar in a dream the night after watching the movie 😮
The comments people left saying it has "mixed politics" about trans identity honestly makes me question what they were even talking about. And from other trans/queer people, no less. Personally, as a trans woman 1yr into her transition, I couldn't relate more to Owen/Isabelle's journey.
And by that I mean stuff like someone claiming that "The film portrayed self-h*rm as cathartic". Which... no. Absolutely not.
A film about hot button topics like this will always draw criticism. If a trans or queer person didn't vibe with the film, I can see it. I don't agree with the more negative criticisms I've seen, but considering I'm not queer, I don't feel it's my place to engage in their interpretation and challenge it. At least not when the film is so fresh. But I've seen far more trans and queer people loving the film and analyzing it positively than negatively.
But I do think there is a mindset in that community that does not like, at ALL, any kind of queer story that isn't lighter, happier in tone.
Hopefurly it's the last time Justin plays a teen
Danm I like it alot BEAUTIFUL JUST BEAUTIFUL IN JESUS NAME AMEN
trying to hide media proof of one’s lesbianism by putting it inside a copy of… d.e.b.s. is kinda counterproductive 😅
I strongly disagree with the idea that this movie is explicitly about the trans identity and cannot be about anything else. It is intentionally left ambiguous. It is explicitly supposed to ALLOW for a trans interpretation and also explicitly supposed to allow for other interpretations. Owen wears a dress at least once on a drunk night and is essentially a reincarnation of a girl, but neither of these facts necessitate a trans interpretation. The movie never indicates that Owen identifies as a woman or wants to live as a woman. Sure, maybe the director says that's what this story is in interviews, but if it's not in the movie then it's not a part of the art. There are so many other interpretations. I personally resonate with an interpretation that the Pink Opaque represents the glow and vibrancy of childhood, and Owen's choice to reject the Pink Opaque is a choice to reject the radiance and intensity of childhood and accept a dull life as an adult. Once he makes this choice, The Pink Opaque becomes cheesy, but he still gasps and aches to return to the vibrancy of childhood. But at that point, it's too late.
Where did we say it cannot be about anything else?
@@IntercutPod I'm sorry, maybe I misunderstood, that was just my impression when watching. It seemed like you were saying that the trans interpretation is "the correct interpretation" - I would describe it as a correct interpretation, but among others
I mean....we literally see Owen in a dress...twice.
So yeah, it's overtly a trans themed film - or more accurately, a dysphoria themed narrative. That's not to say any ones interpretation of the film needs to be utterly restricted to that track, but it's obvious that's the main "point" of the film.
As a straight cis person, I connected to the film on a more broad level in that I think it's potently, uncomfortably accurate in depicting what it's like to be a closed off, repressed kid - to be walled off and awkward and unsure of how to connect, despite an obvious desire to do so. But our bids for connection can result in profound relationships, even if it's based on something as simple as sharing love for a show.
It feels so raw, so true in this regard. All of a sudden I'm crying when Owen and Maddy have their first conversation. Just the way that scene is written, performed, shot...it's like I stepped back in time to experience those kinds of tenuous, scary, but tender connections.
@@nope5657 Wearing a dress doesn't make someone trans. There are no explicit trans themes as far as I noticed in the film. It's all metaphor.
@@purekinema 🙄🙄🙄
They really got their token queer to talk about the queer movie smh. cancelled.
Too artsy fartsy tbh