Review of the Movie “I Saw the TV Glow” – Eviralnews

Jane Schoenbrunn’s works, more than anything else, are about the most fundamental aspect of encountering a visual content; It means the very act of “watching.” While watching the two feature films that the 37-year-old American filmmaker has made so far, we look at people similar to ourselves! People who have crawled into a corner of their loneliness and their faces are illuminated by the light of the screen in front of them.

Schönbrunn sees this situation as scary from different angles. His first feature film, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, emphasized the “loneliness” aspect of the viewing experience in order to find terrifying factors, and the absurd strangeness of today’s isolated human life in the village. It depicts the world. Humans who, instead of being together, are locked inside their solitary islands and consume images and sounds of each other’s lives as entertaining content; to break the deafening silence of their loneliness.

The movie “We’re all going to the World’s Fair” directed by Jane Schoenbrunn

The basic horror factor of the watching experience in I saw that the TV shines but is “passivity”. Cinema and television are non-interactive mediums. When we watch a movie or series, we see the predetermined fate of the characters and we cannot leave an impression on what is going on in front of us. Schönbrunn’s camera, many times, instead of portraying what is happening inside the screen, shows a person who is pathetically dumbfounded by the images in front of him. But what if this person is not following an entertaining content or a fictional story, but staring at his own life?

The main character of I saw TV shine is Owen (played by Ian Furman and Justice Smith); An introverted, quiet boy who is obsessed with a 90s girls fantasy TV series called Pink Opaque (a melancholic version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Owen’s parents – especially his violent father – do not allow him to stay up late and watch this series; But his acquaintance with a girl named Maddie (Bridget Lundy Payne), who is a big fan of the series, changes the situation. Owen goes to Maddie’s house one night and finally manages to watch an episode of Pink Opic. As a rule, this incident should change the course of Owen’s life; But the script of I Saw TV Shines is, in essence, about big changes that never happen!

The color palette of the film is dominated by pink and blue. Schönbrunn makes a symbolic use of the meaning of these colors in relation to the concept of “gender identity”. Pink is related to the female gender and blue is related to the male gender. White also – according to the transgender flag – represents the space between the two; Non-binary, gender non-binary, intersex, or those undergoing “gender transition.” During a long shot of Owen walking, he walks through the middle of a corridor with opposite blue and pink sides.

I Saw TV Shining is a very personal film for its director. Jane Schoenbrunn is a nonbinary trans person who was born with a male physique and was inspired by her own experience of gender reassignment to write her second film. , is tied to the concept of gender dysphoria and, on a larger scale, gender identity. The connection of the work with these thematic ideas is evident in the symbolic system and color theory of the film; But the first layer of the text also has clear references to it.

The fundamental horror factor of the experience of watching TV shines is “passivity”.

Owen’s interest in a series with obvious signs of femininity is the clearest manifestation of his internal fit with the female gender. This series is also scary for a child of Owen’s age; Prohibited content that should not be overlooked. In other words, watching “Pink Opic”, Owen encounters a truth that scares him. Schönbrunn’s film finds its most creative ideas about the truth of Owen’s existence by creating correspondences between the objective reality of the characters’ lives and the fictional world of “pink opic”. On the surface, we are faced with a familiar “story within a story”; But Schönbrunn, in looking at the layers of “reality” and “imagination”, finds a different perspective that is both original and an intelligent expression for the main theme of the text.

Not all visual metaphors in “I Saw the TV Glow” are emphatic. In this fleeting moment from the beginning of the film, young Owen’s trembling finger approaches the white doorbell of his friend’s house, but never reaches it; Just like his experience with “gender matching”.

“Pink Opic”, just like I saw the TV shining, has two protagonists; Isabel (Helena Howard) and Tara (Lindsey Jordan). The first is a girl with dark skin and the second is white. The similarity of Tara’s face to Maddie and the same skin color of Isabel and Owen make the two fictional characters similar to the representatives of two lonely teenagers in the “Pink Opic” world; But for the correspondence between these two real and imaginary couples, we find more documents in the film.

The first time we see baby Owen, he is the highlight of watching the promotional teaser for Pink Opic. In this teaser, in a meaningful way, there is no mention of Tara and the images are exclusively dedicated to Isabel. After Owen meets Maddie and during the first night when the cautious boy stays at the bold girl’s house, Tara’s head and head are also found in the “Pink Opic” world! After the first experience of watching an episode of their popular series together, Maddie, during a late-night conversation with Owen, apart from expressing her love for Tara, also describes Isabel in a meaningful way: “Isabel is afraid. He is a kind of main character; But it’s also kind of boring!”

A clear visual expression of the oneness of Owen and Isabel using the Disalow technique

Ironically, this description is also true of Owen! I saw that TV shines, it has a completely passive protagonist, whose conservativeness and excessive caution is nerve-wracking and pathetic to watch. He reveals his secret date with Maddie, after reuniting with an old friend, he considers telling the police or his father, and by the end, he’s too terrified to bring himself along on the difficult Maddie/Tara journey.

The world of the work has an active hero like Madi who wins over the challenges imposed on her life, crosses the boundaries of two worlds and regains her true identity; But Schonbrunn tells the story from Owen’s point of view. A suffering and thin creature who is an “absolute spectator” of events. It is as if the safety of the passive experience of watching is his defense mechanism against the truths that he cannot face directly. The television screen, for Owen, is a shining window to the world in which he yearns with all his heart. A desire that remains suppressed forever.

In the middle of the narrative, when Owen has not yet fully given up the chance of redemption, we see a view of him looking at the exit door of his workplace and the abandoned shopping carts behind it (above). At the end of the film, however, we see the reverse of this view (bottom); Owen is completely trapped in his life of humiliation and has no way out

Schönbrunn sees gender adjustment not as a journey to a new destination, but as a return to a familiar place

Schönbrunn’s meaningful choice to set the perspective of his narrative is directly related to the central theme and genre coordinates of the work. If I Saw TV Shining was a teenage fantasy adventure about the liberating journey of gender “change”, it should have centered its narrative on a charismatic and active protagonist.

A hero who starts his journey from a point and ends at a further point. He overcomes obstacles and achieves his goals. But Schönbrunn’s terrifying creation is more than a fantasy story about “change”, it is a surrealist nightmare about “non-conformity”. The final station of the narrative of I saw that the TV shines, is not “liberation”, but “suffocation”! For this reason, the text of the film has a protagonist like Owen; One who, like Isabel, “is afraid of what is within.”

I saw that TV shines on gender, using an originality and elegance that is not seen in the work of cisgender filmmakers. Schönbrunn sees gender adjustment not as a journey to a new destination, but as a return to a familiar place. This is the genius of the text I saw the TV shining. This is not the story of Maddie becoming Tara and Owen not becoming Isabel; Rather, it is the story of Tara’s return to her original identity and Isabel’s eternal burial inside Owen’s body.

Schönbrunn shows the change of reality and fantasy in his work through the use of different image dimensions and formats. While we’ve always seen Pink Opic images in the old format of a 1990s TV series (above), after the film’s major plot reveal, Isabelle’s burial, it’s depicted in a clear wide shot (below).

In the last episode of “Pink Opic”, Isabel and Tara finally have to face the main villain of the series; A creature ironically named Mr. Melancholy! He had already caught Tara and buried her in the ground and made a similar plan for Isabel. He captures the young girl, rips her heart out of her chest and puts her body alive in the grave.

From the very beginning of “Pink Opic”, we have heard that Mr. Melancholy wants to trap the two girls in a place called the Midnight Realm, and during his final speech, we finally get an idea of ​​the nature of this place. “Midnight Realm” is the real world and the prison that Mr. Melancholia plans to lock Isabel in, Owen’s life!

Apart from the colorful snow-like mass that sets the backdrop for the film’s surreal images, this shot from the scene of Owen’s second visit to Maddie’s house has another important element; A bright aquarium that shines green light into the darkness of the room. The color green conveys the calmness of the refuge of the two lonely characters in the film, represents their rebirth, and with its mysterious and magical character, refers to the gradual emergence of surreal elements in the world of the film.

At this point, everything about the symbolic system of the text seems clear. Mr. Melancholia is the embodiment of the “gender confusion” that transsexuals must contend with the constant weight of its presence. Winning this fight will result in reclaiming one’s original gender identity (Maddie takes on a non-binary appearance and realizes she’s been Tara all along), and failure results in banishment to a nightmarish life in an opposite body. with his gender identity (Isabelle is forever imprisoned in Owen’s male body). Owen’s memories of living in the real world are nightmares created by Mr. Melancholy to torture Isabelle!

In many scenes, the tone of the film is cold and dry, beyond the point of creating the necessary disturbing mood of the narrative.

Isabel’s burial alive seems like an accurate metaphor for the experience of being a transsexual, before gender reassignment. True gender identity never completely dies in Owen’s being. In Owen’s life, something always goes wrong. He knows very well that a part of him is not in his place; But he does not have the courage to face this truth directly. As a result – according to the characteristics of a work in the horror genre – he is condemned to the miserable and pitiful life that we see at the end of the film. Where no one hears the deafening scream of his inner turmoil and the surrounding world ignores his constant sense of shame.

After Maddie’s disappearance, Owen’s life is left in ruins. In this ironic scene, the presence of a small blue balloon next to Owen represents his humble coexistence with his irrelevant male body.

Despite this interesting metaphorical system and Schönbrunn’s creations in surrealist imagery, the experience of watching I saw the TV shine is not as gripping as the filmmaker’s first film. If Schönbrunn had in his previous ultra-cheap production, relying on still images from webcams, achieved a novel visual form that suited the isolation of his lonely characters and created an authentic atmosphere, I saw TV shine, with a considerably larger budget. , provides a more standard visual strategy.

Among the stylistic elements, the soundtrack of the film benefits from a remarkable elegance. Apart from the constant sound and noises related to the television – a disturbing sound that is always present in the subtext of Owen’s life and calls him to accept his true identity – the music album I saw the TV shining has an effective function in shaping the mood of the film. In the bar scene, live performances by well-known artists such as Phoebe Bridgers and King Woman—aside from a direct reference to Twin Peaks’ Roadhouse—add dramatic emphasis to the scene’s important narrative reveal. The quiet and melancholic indie-rock soundtrack of the film plays a significant role in the formation of the melancholic mood of the film.

But with a general look, the motor of the vision that the TV shines, turns on late. Many of the details at the beginning of the narrative (such as Owen’s relationship with his sick mother or the mechanism of the ceremony in which he finds Maddie on the sidelines) have no function in the dramatic course of events. It is only from the fortieth minute of the film and after the disappearance of fashion that the most interesting ideas of the story/style of the film appear. In addition, Maddie/Tara’s long speech at their final return to school, while mirroring Owen’s camera-facing bits of narration, feels almost imperceptibly pretentious, influenced by Bridget Lundy Payne’s over-exaggerated performance. Also, in many scenes, the tone of the film is cold and dry, beyond the limit of creating the necessary disturbing mood of the narrative.

This coldness is part of a larger limitation of Schönbrunn’s approach. The daring American filmmaker, in the two works he has made to date, has seen his characters more than beings with intellectual and psychological subtleties, a platform to express his interesting thematic ideas. Similar damage can be seen in the depictions of the film. By emphasizing the image of the ice cream truck and the chalk drawings on the street floor – in an effort to intensify the mystery of his work – Schönbrunn overcrowds the symbolic system of the film; without having outstanding and satisfactory dramatic impressions of these ideas. These limitations stop I Saw TV Shining from being an interesting film before it achieves anything big. However, the subtlety of Schönbrunn’s original look makes me remain enthusiastic and curious about his future.