I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

Slow, hushed and deliberately uncomfortable: I Saw the TV Glow will lose a good chunk of its audience before it pays off. Stay with it, and it hits hard. It’s 1996, and Owen, a lonely kid, bonds with another outsider, Maddy, over The Pink Opaque, a spooky late-night show about two girls with a psychic link who battle a villain called Mr. Melancholy. The show airs past his bedtime and his dad doesn’t approve, so Owen sneaks over to Maddy’s, and she records the ones he can’t catch. To Maddy, the show feels more real than her own life. Then she disappears. Jane Schoenbrun turns that setup into a story about identity and the fear of never becoming who you really are, and critics praised how truthfully it speaks to the trans experience. The look is gorgeous, all glowing screens and rich, heightened color. A 7.6 because it’s brave and haunting, and worth every uncomfortable minute. $269 says you look up a show you loved at twelve tonight and find out whether it still holds up.

What works: It’s a striking, deeply personal film about identity, with a dreamy visual style and a fictional TV show that feels eerily real.

What doesn’t: The pacing is glacial and some scenes feel deliberately leaden, which will push plenty of viewers away.

Who it’s for: Patient viewers who like slow-burn, art house horror, and anyone who ever felt more at home in a TV show than in their own life.