Sometimes calling a film “challenging” is code for “I don’t like it, but I don’t want to sound stupid or uncool for not liking it.” My challenge with I Saw the TV Glow is that almost everything I dislike about it is done on purpose, and effectively. As a piece of art, I can’t deny that it works. Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun transported me to a realm of deep, humming, ambient despair, and I did not enjoy my time there. I Saw the TV Glow is a “mood,” an atmospheric journey with loads of bixsexual neon lighting and a very hip soundtrack. It’s received loads of praise from other critics, which I will not directly contradict. But I found I Saw the TV Glow to be an unforgiving slog, a film that occasionally piqued my interest but ultimately left me disappointed.

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I SAW THE TV GLOW ★★ (2/4 stars)
Directed by: Jane Schoenbrun
Written by: Marco Perego, Rick Rapoza
Starring: Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, Helena Howard, Fred Durst, Danielle Deadwyler
Running time: 97 mins.

This horror-infused coming of age story opens in the mid-1990s when quiet kid Owen (Ian Foreman as a preteen, Justice Smith as a........

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