There’s so much that can be said about a film as breathtaking, original, and insightful as Jane Schoenbrun’s sophomore film, I SAW THE TV GLOW If you’re like me, and you keep up with a lot of different trans film critics and follow a ton of trans people on letterboxd, you’re also likely like me in the way that you’ve read more than your fair share of criticism and analysis of this film.
When I first saw this film I was initially disappointed in myself for not "getting" it. I was horrified by the prospect of Isabel having to bury herself to escape, and that being posited as some grand metaphor--as the only way out! I expected something to be said about proximity to whiteness being suffocating (as conveyed through Isabel's relationship with her father, and even the cold veneer of her only friend). The lack of catharsis at the end didn't help, even though The Pink Opaque promised tenderness and a new place to call home. Did the passage to get there have to be a grave?
Thank you for writing this; I hadn't sought out many perspectives on this film after watching it. It may have been my aversion to the white queer zeitgeist I fell out of a few years ago, and my discontent with the popular reading of the "bury yourself" metaphor. I wish Isabel's Blackness was acknowledged in such readings. I wish her story was read through an explicitly intersectional lens. I wish she found a way out that didn't hurt.
When I first saw this film I was initially disappointed in myself for not "getting" it. I was horrified by the prospect of Isabel having to bury herself to escape, and that being posited as some grand metaphor--as the only way out! I expected something to be said about proximity to whiteness being suffocating (as conveyed through Isabel's relationship with her father, and even the cold veneer of her only friend). The lack of catharsis at the end didn't help, even though The Pink Opaque promised tenderness and a new place to call home. Did the passage to get there have to be a grave?
Thank you for writing this; I hadn't sought out many perspectives on this film after watching it. It may have been my aversion to the white queer zeitgeist I fell out of a few years ago, and my discontent with the popular reading of the "bury yourself" metaphor. I wish Isabel's Blackness was acknowledged in such readings. I wish her story was read through an explicitly intersectional lens. I wish she found a way out that didn't hurt.
appreciate your brevity in sharing this, thank you. <3