It was the most trans movie I’ve ever seen and I don’t know what to do with it.
spoilers
I cried when she aged twenty years instead of going back. And I’m pretty sure the ending means she never went back. What a heartbreaking movie.
I was also really struck by usage of tv screens to act less like corrupting forced and more like windows into people’s essences. The idea that TVs are corrupting the youth is so pervasive even now that the usage confused me at first. I remember seeing the scene from the trailer where the main character is being pulled into the tv, remembering that scene while watching the movie and thinking, “wait, they’re gonna somehow make me root for that happening?”
I think there’s an interesting subversion of delusion happening in general in the movie. In most other movies, but big reveal in the bar would be framed like someone losing their mind. But instead it plants genuine doubt and manages to convince the audience that the world they’ve been inhabiting is not real.
I’m not absolutely devastated like so many people have been but maybe I hyped it up in my head. I managed to avoid spoilers. But emotionally I had heavy expectations for it. I also can’t get it out of my head. It’s just swirling around in there.
I don’t know how anyone can watch it and not see the transness of it, but apparently some people do.
I heard people straight up think that maddy was like, crazy and wrong and trying to get her to commit suicide together, or reading the most overtly trans scenes as being her memories/hallucinations not isabel/owen's so there's definitely a million ways to misinterpret if you aren't looking for the transness.
I was with you in terms of hyping it up a little too much the first time and being sort of let down (but also just astonished and devastated that the movie ended when it did). It was almost more impactful the second time but that is probably due to personal circumstances of mine
as a cis guy i figured it was something along the lines of being trans or just suppressing your true self; defo strongly related to owen in general self-repression. i think it's something not just trans but also certain neurodivergent people who grew up not fitting in will relate to. personally my favorite film of the year so far
I related to it a lot on the basis of neurodivergence as well. Repression is such a tight and uncomfortable bind to be in no matter what the reason. I’d never seen it articulated so well on screen before.
According to the experts there are only two types of movies: 9/11 or trans allegory. I think it's abundantly clear in this case.
I heard people straight up think that maddy was like, crazy and wrong and trying to get her to commit suicide together, or reading the most overtly trans scenes as being her memories/hallucinations not isabel/owen’s
That's the surface level, that's what you're supposed to think on a first-pass, uncritical viewing. The truth is scary and confusing and sounds delusional and fantastical when you've been brainwashed into a very narrow worldview. (Also I took it as you were supposed to interpret those memories as Owen's, but question whether they were false memories being influenced by Maddy's charisma)
They're not missing the point, they're running headfirst into it and getting confused by the wall they refuse to acknowledge exists. They're just not looking deeper than what they're spoonfed.
But that's the point: there is no salvation for those who lose their sense of exploration and wonder and willingness to try new things outside their realm; the people who are unable or unwilling to entertain the idea of "what if the crazy nb is telling the truth?" will never grow beyond the confines of the box they inhabit.
I don’t know how anyone can watch it and not see the transness of it, but apparently some people do.
That would be me. I have a problem where anything I experience I just take for granted, and thus all the gender fuckery is just a normal part of Coming Of Age, right??? (/s)
I mean, looking back it's hard not to see the transness, but it whooshed me when watching.
spoilers
And I’m pretty sure the ending means she never went back.
According to Schoenbrun, it's more about a realistic look at the pace of change, not about guving a definitive resolution to Owen's story:
I Saw The TV Glow spoilers
To get Owen to a place of true self-love and self-acceptance would take at least another movie. I knew that I wanted it to be really honest to the fact that just because you've now finally seen yourself clearly doesn’t mean that the half a lifetime of damage that repression has instilled in you is going to go away. I don’t view it as a cautionary tale or a definitively sad ending; I just think it’s truthful to the fact that if you’ve been taught your whole life to think of yourself as an impostor or apologize for being yourself like many trans people are, that instinct doesn’t go away overnight.
In that same interview, they also said they left an alternate ending "on the cutting room floor" with a little more catharsis and optimism
I Saw the TV Glow spoilers
The script always ended with “I’m sorry.” There was a really cool laser-tag arena in the arcade, and we did this scene of Justice running through it. But the catharsis never felt right; it felt unearned. Owen is just at a point when he’s ready to start thinking about the hard thing, not make it through the hard thing.
One of the major points of the story is how hard it is to come to terms with these feelings, how little there is to go by, how easy "the beaten path" is to fall into, how fantastical and unreal and unattainable any other mode of existence seems looking in from the outside, how messy and uncertain it all is. It makes sense that the ending wouldn't wrap everything up neatly with a Happily Ever After, but that shouldn't be taken as a message that there is no hope.
Regarding the TV screens: in both this and We're All Going to the World's Fair, Schoenbrun uses mass media as the catalyst that sparks the plot and the characters unfolding, but the narratives never seem to cast aspersions on the medium itself. I love this, because it shows media as the mirror in which we see ourselves, and not some external force of evil.
It also enables this beautiful and aesthetic style of filmmaking, where references to media that makes me feel nostalgic are now given the spotlight. At times it almost feels like the movies are less about the characters and what's happening to them, and more about the media from my adolescence and this kind of oneiric reimagination of it.
These stories earnestly show the characters and how they're influenced by media, but not in the sense that it's Corrupting The Youth. They're only seeing some element of themselves that was already there and they just didn't want to look at it. Like I said: a mirror, not a malevolence.
I really appreciate the response! Looks like We're All Going to the World's Fair is next on my list. I wasn’t familiar with Schoenbrun before this, so it’s good to know that some of this is common in their other stuff and that scene is a bit more hopeful than I’d initially thought.
I suppose I can see how someone would take the movie at face value at first.
spoilers
But I also saw this film all over trans TikTok, clocked the pink and blue lighting theme quickly, and ended up thinking that Owen would turn out to be trans within the first couple scenes. Like I said originally, I managed to avoid explicit spoilers, but definitely went in with some expectations.
