All killer no filler: The Overlook Film Festival premieres some of the best horror films of 2024
I Saw the TV Glow (Zoey Kang/A24)I’ve been following director Jane Schoenbrun since the 2021 release of their debut feature, “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” and have been feeling thrilled for them and the world at large after it was announced that their second feature would be distributed by A24. A true trophy for filmmakers. Getting the chance to see it early at this festival felt like creative vitamins. Like it has quite possibly added years to my life. And I’m already curious to see who will agree, as those people will fall into the category of “my people,” and everyone else . . . will not.
Leaving the screening last night, rattled to my core, I overheard a woman behind me say, “I’m on the fence about that one.” And I had to physically restrain myself from whipping around and shouting, “Well then you’re a fool!” Her comment, mixed in with exclamations of “What??” from certain members of the audience throughout the film, tells me that the heady, LGBTQIA+ to the max nature of this one will be a hard pill to swallow for some. Well then, choke on it. I say. This is, quite literally, one of the best movies I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
To hear Schoenbrun describe the premise for the film themself: “It’s about two lonely teenagers who find each other through their shared love of a strange, kind of scary, kind of sweet TV show [called ‘The Pink Opaque.’] They get together every week to watch it, but when their obsession kind of gets out of hand, their entire sense of reality kind of gets called into question.” And, yes, that’s a perfect blanket synopsis, but a whole world lives within those words that you have to see play-out on screen (preferably a big one) to understand. And even then, it’s more felt than understood. Similar to watching any of David Lynch’s films.
As Maddy wishes for her life to be more like “The Pink Opaque” and makes it so, Owen struggles with his gender identity and the pull between choosing his authentic self over the “easier” path of humdrum suburban life where we see him working at a children’s adventure center, making his family home his own after the death of his mom (Danielle Deadwyler) and a-hole father, played by a sinister Fred Durst. In one scene, a now elderly Owen, still working at the same job he’s had nearly all his life, has a breakdown while tasked with singing “Happy Birthday” to a child, along with his younger-seeming co-workers. “I”m dying right now!” Owen yells out, running to the bathroom to compose himself via cutting into his chest and letting the light of “The Pink Opaque” escape. After this, we see him walking the floor of the adventure center telling customers as they pass, “Sorry about before.” And in a memorable shot towards the end of the film, “There is still time” is written in neon chalk on the road. A reminder to us all to not live and die scared of being who we are.