J'ai vu la télé briller

I can understand if this movie is divisive because it doesn't meet the audience halfway. You have to stick with it and figure it out.

The ostensible story is, two alienated teenagers who find a tenuous connection to each other via a cultish series called The Pink Opaque, which is a bit like Buffy the Vampire Slayer made by David Lynch.

By the end, the theme emerges: how people suffocate their own lives by ignoring or cutting out their own hearts.

The story could have been told just by depicting Owen's sad, stunted life. The fantastical elements are there to make the theme more obvious, not to mention far more entertaining.

This isn't a horror movie, unless you see the horror of a sad, wasted life. The segment where Owen re-watches The Pink Opaque on "streaming" is particularly chilling in its implications.

I am a straight white man, and I liked this movie. I watched it this evening. After letting it sink in and after dwelling on it, I came here. I skimmed the user reviews. First of all, if you didn't finish watching the movie, then you shouldn't review it.

A lot of people who didn't like it criticized the acting. To me the acting felt like awkward teenagers being awkward teenagers.

A lot of the people who did like it saw it as a queer/trans allegory. Rock on, good for them.

I saw it as a reminder of the awkwardness of being a teenager, trying to make new friends. The obsession with a TV show reminded me how sometimes a TV show can become your identity and can sometimes help you survive said teenage awkwardness. (For me it was The X-Files.) Go in with an open mind and let its atmosphere draw you in.

Bridgette Lundy-Paine delivered their lines like they were being fed to her through an ear piece. The terrible acting completely took me out of the universe the director was trying to convey. There were too many boring, drawn out monologues delivered monotonously without emotion, it almost became comical. It's really hard to connect to characters who show no resolve whatsoever. There were interesting themes but they were poorly executed, wish there was more emotional depth. There are so few actors with lines that these poor performances stick out like a sore thumb. Film has the vibe of a CW show written by an angsty teen who loves LED lighting.

No judgment. Definitely not a traditional "horror" film, but scary none the less. I was a freshman girl in 1996. This is what it felt like.... Fighting to get to the next season of our lives. Fighting to be understood and to understand ourselves. We were in such a hurry to grow up we didn't fully appreciate our youth. Some of us didn't make it. I did and I wonder which outcome is better. We die quickly or we die slowly. This film made me feel very seen and also scared for the next generations. Some things are better and some are way worse. If we do it or not our teenage selves die... it's all about if we become something better. The question is "What is better?"

'I Saw the TV Glow' is about a pair of middle school kids in the '90s who get a little too involved in their favorite cable TV show.

Justice Smith and Bridgette Lundy-Paine play two loners who have nothing in common except an obsession with the show "The Pink Opaque". We see vignettes from the show which is about two young girls using their super powers and telepathic connection to fight an evil villain who looks like the Man in the Moon. Apparently, this TV show has generated near 300 episodes.

The two main characters of 'Glow' don't seem to have any kind of life outside of watching 'The Pink Opaque'. Transfixed in the 'TV Glow', these two exude low energy and that's the overriding vibe of the film. Not a good thing.

The first half of 'Glow' is watchable as a vague sense of dread builds. I wondered where this was going, ready for the ride; but 'Glow' doesn't go anywhere interesting.

It's an odd little movie that approximates that moment when you're about to fall asleep with the television on.

I found the most interesting scenes to be the faux episodes of 'The Pink Opaque' with its intentionally cheesy era aesthetics.