Owen and Maddy bond over their favourite programme in the film I Saw The TV Glow
The film I Saw The TV Glow focuses on how reality is shaped by our perceptions of it. It poses the question—does reality exist in and of itself, or it is a human construction? It sounds a bit heavy, but its philosophising is delivered with a supernatural and surreal touch.
Owen and Maddy are school friends who bond watching the TV programme, The Pink Opaque. The programme is about two young women who can communicate telepathically while they fight monsters.
“The Pink Opaque feels more real than real life,” Maddy, played by Brigette Lundy-Paine, says at one point. Reunited years later, Maddy encourages Owen, played by Justice Smith, to reappraise his memories of their evenings huddled by the TV set. She implies heavily that both Maddy and Owen have breached the barrier between reality and the fiction of The Pink Opaque.
Once coming to this realisation, Maddy is able to live as her authentic self, and encourages her old friend to do the same. This sense of repressed identity flows through the film—leading me to question whether it was a parable for the experience of trans+ people. There is a sense that since her disappearance, Maddy has turned into a new person—something that Owen refuses to fully interrogate.
One of the frustrating parts of I Saw The TV Glow is how many questions it poses, but doesn’t attempt to answer any of them. And the script felt a bit flat sometimes. I expected more from A24, the production company which is responsible for Midsommar, Hereditary and Uncut Gems. One saving grace was the stunning visuals, which have a wonderful ethereal quality.
Despite this, I Saw The TV Glow at least attempts some big subjects, even if it feels a little rushed. It’s a sidewise glance at identity, memory and reality—but despite all it promised, if this was on the TV, I’d probably change the channel.
I Saw The TV Glow is out in selected cinemas now
Compelling documentary footage, but short on analysis
The new BBC series Corridors of Power—Should America Police the World? begins with scenes of the Nazi Holocaust. It then sets up the idea of US policy makers wrestling with a desire to say “Never again” to genocide while balancing their narrower political interests. It’s not so stupid to suggest that the US has clean hands.
The first episode on Iraq, for example, sets out the way the US first armed and supported Saddam Hussein before turning on him. “Human rights and chemical weapons use aside, in many respects our political and economic interest run parallel with those of Iraq,” reads a state department memo. It distils George HW Bush’s administration’s decision to delay sanctions on an ally against Iran.
But at the same time because it doesn’t frame the specifics in an understanding of imperialism, it’s hugely misleading. US leaders don’t wrestle with moral dilemmas. They start and finish with an attempt to carry forward the interests of the giant corporations, the US state and its military.
This is TV on an epic scale made by Israeli director Dror Moreh—who has produced films critical of aspects of Israeli state policy. The footage is often chilling and extraordinary. Some of the interviews, with the top figures, are revelatory. But you need to remember that US imperialism can never be trusted, is never moral and is never a force for liberation.
Out now on BBC iPlayer
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