I Saw the TV Glow - Review (Non-Spoiler & Spoiler) 

That's fantastic and probably sums up some of the ideas of this movie. They seemed to view this terrifying TV show as a shelter from abuse, this is something I'm sure many can relate with.

I saw in the street near the end!

I would VERY heavily argue with her on that. Even if he did manage to turn things around, the shit he goes through would leave deep, life-altering scars that would take longer than the time he has left to truly heal from, not to mention that the very final shot/sequence (after he leaves the bathroom) implies he actively is choosing NOT to take advantage of that time. At best, it's a pitch-black stormcloud of an ending with an *extremely* thin silver lining.

​@@MilkyWayGrump You're right that Owen lost a lot of time and this will result in their later years having additional complications that there may not be time to fully resolve. At the same time, the message "There is still time" is a powerful one. At the end of the movie, Owen is only about 40/45 years old, judging by the on-screen time cards (despite him looking like those years have taken an outsized toll). I've known so many LGBTQ folks who only come to this realization about themselves in later life: 50s, 60s and well beyond. It's certainly ideal to get there sooner, but it's a hopeful message, in my mind, to think that a person could experience even one day of being their authentic self, versus none at all.

@@MilkyWayGrump But also, the beauty of a movie like this one is that it leaves a lot of room for differing interpretations. So it's in no way my intention to shoot down your perspective.

I realize this recently. He proves to himself that there is something better out there in the bathroom scene. He may be on his way to taking action as the movie ends.

And I'm happy to share my love of movies with everyone else! The only thing that makes me sad is that hating things seems to draw a much larger crowd these days. I wish, at least, that there were as many out there who wanted to celebrate the movies and not just spread anger.

❤yeah...i wish it was different as well. I think the only way to change these sorts of things aside from a mass change in humanity and some form of a great awakening or something might some kind of Journey to the Center of the Earth exploration thing into the heart of the algorithms that power out society. like maybe finding when they got changed and maybe finding the heart of where they are now and changing them to that alternate better world.❤

@@DanMurrellMovies I agree, it’s so frustrating. It must be some kind of human desire to tear things down. What’s even the point if there’s not something to celebrate in return? But you have an audience that’s able to appreciate that kind of sincerity and joy, and I hope there’s comfort in that.

"You see son... it's like a motherfucking chainsaw." "... what?" "See? You're getting the hang of it!"

Thank you so much for watching and for the very kind words. They are much appreciated

YES, Dan is definitely a head above other critics!!! 🙌🏼 🙌🏼 🙌🏼 My trans friend and I watched it together and we both absolutely FELL IN LOVE with it for different reasons! (I know the commenters who shun movies like this are gonna be SHOCKED that non-trans viewers will also love it, lol)

@@yoshimasu_k agree 1000%. Who can’t relate to feeling so connected to a piece of media that it speaks to them more than actual people do? Especially as a teen. Very traumatic watch if you’ve ever struggled with finding your identity in any way!

@@turnipss RU-vid will only let me like your comment once, so 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👻📺🌛

Yes! I’d love to see his take.

I've seen it twice.

Replying so this gets boosted, it’s an incredible movie more people should see.

Signal boosting for this as well. I think you can rent it now on streaming. saw it theatrically it was a fun time.

It's not too late, there's still time.

Having seen it, I'm honestly not sure. I don't know the album, but from skimming the wikipedia page for it, the only thing I can find in common is that it's by the Cocteau "Twins" and the show is similarity about two people with a strong bond. Beyond that, I don't know if there's anything in common. Could be a complete coincidence

For all it's worth, I didn't even know the director was non binary. The most I got was that I heard from a friend that the film was very much trans. But like even then, I think I would've figured it out instantly with all the dresses, Owens imagining themself as Isabelle, and basically every word written in the script

I think this falls under the category of "who is this movie for?" As a trans woman, the trans parallels were incredibly obvious to me, as it likely is for most other trans people. It's possible that Schoenbren may have made this film primarily for a trans audience and didn't care as much about making sure it resonated with cis people because that wasn't the intention. I'm also not the director, so I really can't say for sure.

SPOILERS - - - Personally, I saw the ending as Owen recognizing his true self (restroom scene) BUT deciding to continue the self-repression and leading a miserable existence ("I'm sorry") - and it abruptly ends because perhaps this incident at work has happened before and will likely happen again with the same outcome. 😊

@@yoshimasu_k That's interesting. I read everything after the 20 year jump as a lie. Living in the big house while working at fun zone, having a family they never show, still unpacking the balls. It's like they fast forwarded and had lines with no real meaning. I thought the "I'm sorry" stuff was him in a daze saying it to others while meaning it to himself and his friend. The gasping for air being him finally near death in his true body and maybe he was finally ready to take the steps his friend had tried to get him to do before, but without something more showing that I wasn't able to fully get there.

I like that it's like that, it's a jump of faith, you feel like your life will end if you take it and you have no ways of knowing the outcome

Season 6 doesn't exist yet, it's the possible future

the time jumps/20 year time jump was to show how he continued to live his life as he always had, repressing his true self and living a life he would ultimately always be unhappy with. i.e him starting a family and all of that, while still not being his true self. which was shown by the breathing as the movie went on. he became more miserable as life went on and was reaching a point where life was completely suffocating and unhappy that it was literally killing him and he could barely breathe or catch his breath anymore. the ending then showed that after so much time it finally clicked in his head and he pretty much broke and couldn’t hold it in anymore. hence the bathroom scene, opening up his chest, was seeing his true self again that he had shut down and never allowed out. the problem then and the reason it ended the way it did was to then show that even though he had finally realized he didnt want to keep it all inside anymore and wanted to be his true self he felt he needed to apologize to everyone. thats why none of the characters never even looked at him or anything bc it wasn’t about them or that scene where he screamed but only just about him finally coming to terms with himself and his life. ultimately trying to portray that he could’ve always just been himself and no one else would have really cared or gave it any thought. yet he never saw it that way so it tormented him his entire life. and yet even after all that, again, in the end of it all he still felt the need to apologize to everyone bc of it. which is why the ending is so devastating

That's what Gender dysphoria feels like, the horror of the film is the existential horror of living with a repressed gender identity.

And that's completely fine.

👍❤️

I think that the metaphor definitely won't only resonate with trans people -- clearly it resonated with you! But I do think there can be a deeper level of resonation with the experience many trans people go through, in regards to themes of disassociation, fear of transition, fear of regret, suppressing your identity, and the isolation that can come with it. As a trans person, I very much resonated with it in these ways, but I think that it should be expected that others will find ways in which it resonates with them, since trans people are first and foremost *people*, and stories like this are about aspects of a somewhat shared human experience.

The main thing is that the film doesn't only depict the experience of isolation, but the experience of feeling like you are being slowly suffocated to death, which is far more a *person who represses a profound aspect of their identity* thing. While the text is almost explicitly trans, the experience being shown isn't necessarily trans, but it is about identity and has a lot of intersections that are fairly specific. That being said, I think a lot of the themes of the film, and of transness are relatable to everyone. I have a friend who's trans and I can relate to a lot of what she goes through and feels in my own way.

Adding to what other commenters are saying, but much of the intensity of the film, particularly in the audiovisual and fantasy-horror aspects, is a metaphor for the life sucking, soul killing force that is gender dysphoria. Now, not every trans person experiences dysphoria (some not at all, some maybe all a little), but that feeling of incongruency of one's gender identity and gender assigned at birth manifests as a kind of erasure of the spirit; to conform to a world that wants your identity vaporized due to a lack of understanding, phobia, hatred, and malice can be described, and more importantly felt, as a bifurcation of one's truest self. To straddle between and act of self-disappearance and an act of true self love must be excruciatingly exhausting. This aspect of the film is why it is both universal (to feel torn between identities and life choices is a very human experience), but also exceptionally trans, as the specificity of living under a thin veneer of conformed, but entirely untrue, gender expression to avoid the overwhelm and consequences of living life as a fully out trans person results in a more realized and grounded version of the fantastical and heartbreaking experiences the characters go through (for example, being reborn after being buried alive).

@@mitchellgenesse2866 beautifully expressed.

Yes In a way he is Mr melancholy because he always made him go to sleep at night. He refused Owen to find his own identity, hence break the simulation (moonlight realm)

🤣😆