There are two movies living inside of I Saw the TV Glow. That’s an apropos description based on the more salient and deeply felt story that director Jane Schoenbrun wanted to tell. In that movie, the characters and, indeed, the entire aesthetic of Schoenbrun’s richly created world of high school angst, adolescent uncertainty, and familial trauma is a metaphor for coming to terms (or not) with trans identity. The second movie, which lives on top of that exploration of gender and body dysmorphia, is a mediation on obsession with pop culture artifacts and the blurring of reality and fantasy that can come with that obsession.
