I appear on “CTV News at 6” with Andria Case to talk about the best movies and television to watch this weekend. I’ll tell you about the wistful kid’s flick “IF,” the surreal film “I Saw the TV Glow” and the sweet and silly “Dolly Parton’s Pet Gala” on Paramount+.
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at )
I join “CTV News Toronto at Five” with host Zuraidah Alman, to talk about the biopic “Back to Black,” the sentimental “IF,” the horror film “The Strangers: Chapter 1” and the surreal “I Saw the TV Glow.”
Watch the whole thing HERE! (Starts at 14:45)
I join CP24 to have a look at the biopic “Back to Black,” the sentimental “IF,” the horror film “The Strangers: Chapter 1” and the surreal “I Saw the TV Glow.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
I sit in with CKTB morning show host Steph Vivier to have a look at the biopic “Back to Black,” the sentimental “IF,” the horror film “The Strangers: Chapter 1” and the surreal “I Saw the TV Glow.”
Listen to the whole thing HERE!
I sit in on the CFRA Ottawa morning show with guest host Graham Richardson to talk the new movies coming to theatres and streaming including the biopic “Back to Black,” the sentimental “IF,” the horror film “The Strangers: Chapter 1” and the surreal “I Saw the TV Glow.”
Lsiten to the whole thing HERE!
“I Saw the TV Glow,” a new existential drama starring Justice Smith, and now playing in theatres, is a coming-of-age story about someone who never quite comes-of-age.
When we first meet Owen (Ian Foreman), he’s an awkward, suburban seventh grader drawn to Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), a ninth grader obsessed with a young adult TV show called “The Pink Opaque.” He’s interested in the series, an “X-Files” for teens with a villain called Mr. Melancholy, but it’s on after his bedtime.
The pair share a love of the show—he clandestinely sleeps over at her place to watch the show on the weekends—and troubled home lives.
In “The Pink Opaque” they find an escape.
Jump forward two years. Owen, now played by Smith, still can’t stay up late enough to watch the show, so he voraciously consumes it on the VHS tapes Maddy makes for him.
On the eve of the show’s cancellation, Maddy disappears, leaving Owen at the mercy of his cruel stepfather Frank (Fred Durst). Years later, she re-enters his life, with a wild tale of where she has been, as his grip on reality slowly slips away.
“I Saw the TV Glow” owes a debt to the surreal stylings of David Lynch. In their telling of the story director Jane Schoenbrun embraces Lynchian themes of appearance vs. reality, surrealism and often impenetrable storytelling. It can make for a confounding experience, as the exploration of pop culture’s effect on identity and individuality reveals itself in increasingly inscrutable ways.
“I Saw the TV Glow” is audacious in its execution, introspective in its narrative and interesting in its aesthetic, but it’s also a bit of a schlep, more ambitious than actually entertaining. It is not a feel-good movie, and has no aspirations in that direction, but as the storytelling becomes opaquer, the film loses its way, revelling in Owen’s awkwardness and mundanity rather than what makes him interesting. The result is a movie that confuses impenetrability with depth.
