I Saw the TV Glow -SUNday, 18 August 2024 7:00 pm

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Dir. Jane Schoenbrun / 2023 / 100 mins / USA / English / Drama, Horror / Victorian Premiere

Program Strand/s:North America Headliners

Brigette Lundy-Paine and Justice Smith star as teen outsiders whose obsessive pop-culture fandom causes rifts in their realities.

During the pre-internet days of the 1990s, and amid the mess of puberty, high schoolers Maddy (Lundy-Paine, Atypical) and Owen (Smith, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu) form an unlikely bond over The Pink Opaque, a supernatural-themed teen TV series. They meet up for slumber parties when possible, and swap VHS tapes when not – the show allowing them to leave their binary realities and instead escape each week into a world of psychic connection, authenticity and a battle against the Midnight Realm. As they become deeply enmeshed in its fandom, consumed by its lore, it’s not long before they lose track of what’s real and what’s not.

Director Jane Schoenbrun’s lo-fi debut We’re All Going to the World’s Fair – a body horror fable about videogame mania – exploded onto the scene as a Gen Z cause célèbre. Once again, they have crafted a story about the ways that technology and art can be lifelines for outsiders, this time interweaving themes of gender, queerness and identity with elevated twists on genre, music by Caroline Polachek and yeule, and a plethora of pop-culture easter eggs (including appearances by Phoebe Bridgers, Snail Mail, Fred Durst and more). An unpredictable, nostalgic trip to the dark side, I Saw the TV Glow is bound to become one of the most talked-about films of the year.

“Reaches through the screen and never lets go … A remarkable portrait of pop-culture obsession – how it can unite us, change us, and ripple down through our entire lives in ways both uplifting and unsettling.” – A.V. Club

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