I Saw The TV Glow | Jane Schoenbrun, 2024
One of the first images in Jane Schoenbrun’s second film is of a young boy walking beneath a billowing, multi-coloured parachute in a school hall. A film of vivid interiors, in which the light from outside changes the shape of the inside. A cult late-night TV show leaves an indelible mark on those who find it, and its images linger even as life moves on. TV offers a way to escape reality, but its glow illuminates parts of yourself that would otherwise remain unknowable. Time passes, the show becomes a memory, and the once-vibrant interiors become confusing and oppressive. The softness of the sun-kissed parachute gives way to the harsh neon lights of an arcade as it becomes clear that running away from the things you were once afraid of may have been a mistake. Now, there’s no monster of the week, nothing left to fight. It’s all been buried and lost to time. But the emptiness remains. The sadness, the fear, the discomfort in your own skin. And now it’s too late to change it.