Movies

I don’t think I Saw The TV Glow will work for everyone, but man did it work for me. Incredibly great, unique style that felt like a weird kind of nostalgia for something that doesn’t exist. It’s dark and sometimes existentially bleak, but I wouldn’t classify it as horror. It’s something else completely. It’s very much its own thing. And that’s something I love about it.


I’ve read a lot of people say Buffy is what the Pink Opaque is referencing, but my mind immediately went to Are You Afraid Of The Dark? - especially in the scene when Owen watches it as an adult and it looks completely different. That was my experience with Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

The trans subtext / metaphor is apparent to me, and I think when you read the whole thing that way it really unlocks. But I also think it’s such a well layered movie that you don’t necessarily have to read it that way. Although that would be denying the inherent queerness of this film.

Also I gotta say, I felt Twin Peaks vibes in a lot of it. The two musical performances instantly reminded me of The Roadhouse from the Return. The scream at the end reminds me of the scream and release of tension and dread that capped off The Return. Also the concept of nostalgia itself - it’s embedded in The Return and heavily slathered all over this film.

I just really loved it. I had weirdly high expectations for this and it actually delivered even though I did think it was going to be more of a horror film.
 
Bennnnn said:
I don’t think I Saw The TV Glow will work for everyone, but man did it work for me. Incredibly great, unique style that felt like a weird kind of nostalgia for something that doesn’t exist. It’s dark and sometimes existentially bleak, but I wouldn’t classify it as horror. It’s something else completely. It’s very much its own thing. And that’s something I love about it.


I’ve read a lot of people say Buffy is what the Pink Opaque is referencing, but my mind immediately went to Are You Afraid Of The Dark? - especially in the scene when Owen watches it as an adult and it looks completely different. That was my experience with Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

The trans subtext / metaphor is apparent to me, and I think when you read the whole thing that way it really unlocks. But I also think it’s such a well layered movie that you don’t necessarily have to read it that way. Although that would be denying the inherent queerness of this film.

Also I gotta say, I felt Twin Peaks vibes in a lot of it. The two musical performances instantly reminded me of The Roadhouse from the Return. The scream at the end reminds me of the scream and release of tension and dread that capped off The Return. Also the concept of nostalgia itself - it’s embedded in The Return and heavily slathered all over this film.

I just really loved it. I had weirdly high expectations for this and it actually delivered even though I did think it was going to be more of a horror film.
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I haven't seen it but he review I read compared Pink Opaque to a cross between Are You Afraid Of The Dark? and The Adventures Of Pete & Pete.
 
Mr. McKittrick, after very careful consideration, sir, I've come to the conclusion that your new defense system sucks. RIP Dabney Coleman.

war-games.jpg
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
It’s done pretty poorly in theaters. Gotta recoup as much as they can before it’s completely forgotten.
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How is this logic going to play out long term though? Why will people go to the theater if they know that they only have to wait two measly weeks to catch it at home? Tom Cruise and Christopher Nolan can't save cinema all by themselves!
 
Indymisanthrope said:
How is this logic going to play out long term though? Why will people go to the theater if they know that they only have to wait two measly weeks to catch it at home? Tom Cruise and Christopher Nolan can't save cinema all by themselves!
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Yeah, it’s two points on the same revenue chart for these giant companies.
 
Uncut Gems in IMAX this Wednesday! It'll be my first experience watching it.

Also, they just announced the next A24 IMAX screening will be the director's cut of Midsommar. They already screened Midsommar last fall - which I thought was supposed to be the director's cut but it wasn't. So...considering this is one of my all time favorites and I still haven't watched the director's cut, I will be headed to the theater for it.
 
Bennnnn said:
I don’t think I Saw The TV Glow will work for everyone, but man did it work for me. Incredibly great, unique style that felt like a weird kind of nostalgia for something that doesn’t exist. It’s dark and sometimes existentially bleak, but I wouldn’t classify it as horror. It’s something else completely. It’s very much its own thing. And that’s something I love about it.


I’ve read a lot of people say Buffy is what the Pink Opaque is referencing, but my mind immediately went to Are You Afraid Of The Dark? - especially in the scene when Owen watches it as an adult and it looks completely different. That was my experience with Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

The trans subtext / metaphor is apparent to me, and I think when you read the whole thing that way it really unlocks. But I also think it’s such a well layered movie that you don’t necessarily have to read it that way. Although that would be denying the inherent queerness of this film.

Also I gotta say, I felt Twin Peaks vibes in a lot of it. The two musical performances instantly reminded me of The Roadhouse from the Return. The scream at the end reminds me of the scream and release of tension and dread that capped off The Return. Also the concept of nostalgia itself - it’s embedded in The Return and heavily slathered all over this film.

I just really loved it. I had weirdly high expectations for this and it actually delivered even though I did think it was going to be more of a horror film.
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TenderLovingKiller® said:
I haven't seen it but he review I read compared Pink Opaque to a cross between Are You Afraid Of The Dark? and The Adventures Of Pete & Pete.
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ayayrawn said:
I Saw the TV Glow is incredible. One of the movies that just feels important for it's place and time. Go see it.
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What a dang movie. I was very unsure going in; off the age of the actors/characters and the relative newness of the filmmaker that this would be a zoomer text, with very little for me to relate to. Ditto with the trans allegory; I thought I was walking into something that simply wasn't for me.

I was well proven wrong: the movie's set mainly in the 90s/00s and concerns characters who would've been a couple years older than me. The film is so steeped in a relationship to media which I recognized in my own adolescence. My parents were very freaked by Stranger Danger, the Satanic Panic, and the Dark Influences media could have on children; so they banned a lot of ultimately-anodyne material from our house. I had several friends who I glommed onto purely because their parents were more lax, and I could go over and see the Forbidden Stuff. Same went for being the middle child between sisters: I was exposed to a lot of toys and media marketed for girls and grew up confused why my dad was so alarmed I'd want to play Barbies.

The Pink Opaque felt like an amalgam of lots of shows from the time. Ironically, I never delved into Buffy (I blame an annoyingly-obsessed acquaintance, and later the curdling of Whedon's stock), but there's plenty of X Files in there (monster-of-the-week vs. mythology eps), Are You Afraid of the Dark, Eerie Indiana, So Weird, Ocean Girl, and Ghostwriter, to name a few.

Walking out, I had trouble characterizing the film as horror. It felt like short shrift to distill something to emotionally dense into genre. But the more I think on the ending, the story does build to a sense of ambiguous horror; Owen is left trapped in a life he doesn't much care for (he's literally going through the motions living in his childhood home with a wife and kids too unimportant to show onscreen, working the same entry-level job for jock losers who don't seem to age while he's far more wizened and broken than one would think 20 years could do). I found the last scene almost silly with the makeup and scenario, but when the credits rolled and I realized that was the ending, I was floored.
 
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