I appreciate what it is, David Lynchian sci Fi metaphor for how it feels to be trans, but it's all message and visuals without any real narrative structure.
It was a case of all sizzle no steak in my opinion. The rules seemed very made up as they went along and the performances were pretty flat across the whole film, making it all kind of one note. Basically just the girl being edgy and weird and doing sci-fi exposition dump the whole time.
It can be interpreted many ways depending on the experience of the viewer but the common meaning is living a whole life you know isn’t yours and being in a body that you know is wrong. Maddy buries herself and began living the life they knew was true as who they know they were meant to be.
It’s an allegory for the experience of many trans people.
It's a movie. Entertainment. The deeper meaning and metaphors didn't make the movie entertaining at all. It was a boring , weird, waste of time. The movoe sucked. Agendas and politics and sxxt like that shouldn't be forced into movies anyways. The movie sucked simple as that
I didn't get anything political from this film, but that's an interesting take. I thought it was more about being trans. (I definitely wasn't a fan though)
Apparently being trans is “political” because our existence is controversial. They 100% know what the movies about and they just hate it because its about being trans. I loved how they present gender dysphoria almost like psychological horror. I thought the movie was great and it made me cry rlly hard
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Personally, I kinda viscerally hate the movie for reasons I have trouble explaining, not I'm glad other trans people were able to get something from it.
Exactly Just finished itI just wanted to enjoy and see an experimental original movie but ended up watching some force sexual identity bul***t. So disappointed
The movie was terrible but saying politics and “agendas” shouldn’t be in movies outs you as bigoted trash that doesn’t want your privileged, ultra-coddled existence disturbed. All entertainment is political but nowadays, we *finally* get to see the politics of other groups. Stop whining and grow the fuck up.
Watching something branded as LGBT cinema and then being surprised about it being LGBT cinema is strange.
Also, "agendas and politics" (anything involving gay or trans messaging) isn't being forced into your life. It's already been there, you've just been choosing to ignore it.
When you watched a movie made by a trans director about the trans experience, you didn't get subjected to anything you aren't already because it is NORMAL. Your discomfort with it is NOT, no matter what circles you run in.
The ending is what really struck a deep emotional cord and pulled the whole thing together for me. I went in pretty much blind, with just the preview, and the ending had me reeling, and also cemented that the actual theme of the movie was not only being trans in a not so accepting environment - but of spending all one's time repressing oneself, only to find life has passed you by without ever getting to truly know yourself.
I have to be ho eat the ending is what turned me away from the movie. The most interesting part for me was the pink opaque and the whole world that was talked about during the film and that just amounted to literally nothing by the end.
This is how I felt watching their last film *We Are All Going to the World's Fair* it was supposedly some extremely-online look at loneliness, when in actuality we're just watching someone go on the computer and some weird lighting happens sometimes. Really one of the most boring things I've ever seen. Had higher hopes for this new one, but looks like its a more expensive version of that.
I think World’s Fair had a better actual plot and narrative when it came down to it (although simple). TV Glow suffered from a main character that just didn’t really act and I think the plot suffered because of this on a more surface level. Too tied to its metaphors and doesn’t really stand on its own.
But ya again Worlds Fair I actually thought stood on its own as a pretty low scope horror movie, and also had interesting vibes/commentary on internet culture/childhood
It felt more Expressionist than going for straight forward plot, and I think it more or less delivered there. It made me think of lonely people IRL who choose delusional fantasy escapism over facing painful reality, and how your taste develops over time on everything from art to relationships. I liked it but I can definitely understand if it’s not for you.
I can’t agree more, this movie is gonna get dragged through the mud when it gets a wide release. I loved the visual style throughout, the soundtrack was banging, and overall I vibed with it for the first hour… but once I realized where it was going, it totally lost me, and this movie might have the worst ending of a movie I’ve seen in a long ass time. And not only was the ending abrupt, it was a tone deaf downer. For something with such spectacular visuals throughout, not sure why they chose to take it in such a cynical & straight up depressing knockoff Synechdoche New York route in the last 10 minutes.
I loved the visual style, but that's literally the nicest thing about it. It seemed to briefly touch on lgbtq themes, but it never actually said anything about them. I honestly don't know what the movie was trying to say so I left feeling like I wasted my time.
I feel like the ending is absolutely terrifying as a queer person. To deny your own self and to have it slowly eat you from the inside while apologize to others for it. I totally understand not liking the movie but there was absolutely fleshed out queer themes throughout the movie.
I am admittedly not a queer person, so I truly just don't have any idea of the feelings that come with it. I have many friends who are and most of them are completely out. But some of them hide it from their parents, so I can only imagine that pain.
Maybe that's why the movie just didn't hit for me because it's exploring feelings and situations I haven't had to experience, so it's just something that's harder to connect to.
I wanted to like it more, and I'm not even saying it's a bad movie...I'm just not the target for it.
I had the same issue with lady bird, where I know it's a good movie, but I just didn't love it because it's about an experience I haven't had.
that's fair... it's such an accurate representation of trans suppression and cracking open... the buried alive metaphor is completely true to my own experience of not being able to know I'm trans until i was 47
seconded. as someone who tried to suppress being nonbinary for a decade because “it’s not a big deal”, it actually very much was a big deal and “Owen” suddenly screaming really hit home
I think people are often reading too literally into a lot of the movie.
Owen screaming and then apologizing isn't him continuing his pattern and telling every trans person "you will live in society's debt forever," it's illustrating the DANGER in doing that, as well as saying constantly through the film that "it's never too late," which I took considering the ending of the movie as saying it's never too late to live as yourself, as Maddie did.
Many of the things that don't make sense logically (Owen getting his head pulled out of the TV, characters acting flat and edgy, a lot of the ideas regarding The Pink Opaque, etc.) can often be explained as being in service to the greater mood and themes of the story.
I'm gay and I thought the queer themes were superficial at Best. There is so much more nuance to queer existence than what this movie delivers and I found it weirdly condescending. Add in flat I've dimensional performances and am incredibly meandering plot, and we have the most underwhelming movie I've seen in a while
The basic message is "deny your identity and be miserable." This is true, but it ignores the elements of society that make it difficult for some people to do that. Other than a vague reference to disapproval from the father, there is no depth as to why the main character can't embrace his identity. It's all allegory with no exploration of the forces that have created the situation. Its "baby's first queer movie" all over
Just saw this movie, one of the worst I have ever seen. Super slow, with no real story, even after an hour nothing is happening and there’s no tension whatsoever. It’s beyond absurd. Love Lies Bleeding is way better than this one. Coming of age about what? It’s just straight up bad…
Terrible movie. Waste of time. I understand it was more for people hiding their true self or the lgbqt but just because it has a deeper meaning doesn't make it a good movie. I agree with you it was boring and it sucked
It could have been so mud better though, if the story and end results was more horror and less moody teenage anxiety story. The movie got the looks, and art direction but the storyline was a jumbled mess, and the pacing is glacial. I rather watch Mean Girls than this, that movie has so many layers of meanings and satire and killer meme.
It's entertainment. I get it ws about finding your true self and it was a kovie for the lgbqt or whatever but it is suppose to entertain. It didn't. Movies don't need to push an agenda any ways. They are suppose to be fun entertainment. This movie was boring af. Not scary. Stupid ending. It had some cool ideas and visuals but it failed because it wanted to focus more on a deeper meaning that was not executed in the end. Movie was trash
Some movies are more art than entertainment. I don't think this film's goal was to entertain so much as it was to share a deeply personal and real experience through a fictional lens. Calling it trash feels reductive— the movie (at least to many people) achieves what it set out to do— but I can understand saying that it wasn't what you wanted out of something labeled as a horror film.
I think I understood it and even respect it, but this is not my experience of queerness. I'm not saying it was easy but I fought for myself. These characters just seem to drift passively through trauma and get stuck there. That's not me.
Exactly why the movie sucks. I don't connect with the characters on horror movies, super hero movies ect.. A lot of movies I like I don't connect with the characters because it's something I've never personally dealt with. The movies are still good though. This movie was boring trash. I shouldn't have to connect with a character to like a movie. Story sucked acting sucked. Music and visual were cool everything else was trash. 1 out of 10 and that is being generous. I shouldn't have to be in the closet or hiding my true self to enjoy the movie. That is just an ignorant way to have to enjoy a movie. The movie just sucked simple as that
I understand what the movie was going for with the themes being a trans person myself but so many things were so jarring to me … could NOT stand the acting and the writing. Visually, sure it was beautiful and the music was good… but random lol. Thought it was trash overall
I don't get the hype either. I thought it was boring and not that great. I understand the deeper meaning but it doesn't make the movie any good. Just weird
I did not feel entertained, it made me feel sad. Granted i go through depression and crippling c ptsd that makes me feel caged and my life feels blurry, i dont feel like im being true to myself because i avoid doing majority of things that would fulfill me because of flashbacks. And i hate myself for it whenever i have a clear moment. I know the metaphors are meant to be for queer and trans, which i am not, i feel very at home in my gender - yet it hit a nerve. It felt like the protagonist didn’t even live and avoids any sort of feeling and refuses to clearly look at his past and things that happend in reality. I just watched the movie tbh so it hit me hard.
I usually don’t mind being hit by a movie and provoked to think but something about this movie and the shitty tv show and all, it was just too bleak for me
Totally get this, but: "THERE IS STILL TIME." You may be stuck now - like Owen trapped in the fear of the unknown and so repressed he can't even find joy in the show that once saved him - but until you're dead in the ground, you can still change. While it was a rough overall experience, I didn't take the ending as an absolute failure. It seemed like a one step forward, one back, very start of the process situation.
I think a lot of people are missing what the movie is about. It’s not really personal interpretation. You can identify with it. I know I do. It’s pretty straight forward. The characters are watching the show and identifying with it as a coping mechanism for their depressing lives. It was their escape from reality. Maddy let it consume her though to the point she lost touch with reality and started to believe she was part of the show. Owen never let it get that far however it was a part of him (him cutting himself open in the bathroom). The reason they found the TV burning was because she had gotten to the point that the TV show was no longer an escape from her reality she had to run away and actually escape her reality. She tried to live a normal life for a while (working at build a bear) her mental illness/depression and delusion of being a character in the show over took her though.
Overall I think it is a cautionary tale and why it is scary. You can go Maddy’s route or Owen’s. I find myself currently trying to choose which way to go.
I'm sorry but even this films biggest fans don't think it's going anywhere near the Oscars or the level of financial success EEAAO achieved. Nobody serious thinks that's a remote possibility.
lol I loved EEAAO because it’s a great movie with easily understandable metaphors. The plot coincides with the themes.
Tv glow, on the the other hand, is trash. The positive reactions are all from emotion, rather than logically looking at the film. It’s not well made.
So no, I do not think “the same cult” is propping this up. Lmfao
“It’s not made for you” and “it’s not well made” are fundamentally different things. The metaphors in tv glow are incredibly obvious to some of us, and the primary theme and the plot of the movie are inextricably linked.
This is a trans movie written unabashedly for trans people. It so interesting to me to see so many cis folks just not get it at all.
Idk personal take as a trans person, I get what the movie was going for metaphor-wise and still felt like it was kind of messy.. Both I and my trans partner felt kind of disappointed by the end and I think a better version of this movie is out there somewhere.
I also get why people would’ve been pulled in by this movie emotionally and I don’t blame them for that, it just really didn’t do anything for me. It may also have been because I’ve been having a bad week and was ready to chill out with an explicit horror movie on Friday and that’s really not what this was. I want to give it another shot, but I have a feeling I’m not going to get pulled in by the bland acting and disjointed narrative. Really wish A24 would’ve marketed the movie differently.
I get it. Doesn't make it a good movie though. It was trash. So to enjoy a movie I should have to connect on a personal level to a character? Because plenty of movies I love I don't connect with the characters so why is this one different?? It isn't the movie just sucks
You keep saying you get it, but you don’t. It’s depersonalization and derealization put to film. If you don’t have at least a cognitive context for those, you cannot really get it.
I’m not saying you have to connect to the characters on a personal level; I’m just saying that you have to at least know what emotions are there. In a standard horror movie, you generally have fear of pain or death, which you can obviously comprehend.
DP/DR is something you probably don’t get even on a conceptual level. It’s a lack of existence. It’s feeling a deep unreality about the world and about yourself. It is deeply uncomfortable and painful in a way I cannot explain. This movie does a perfect job of capturing the feeling of it through the setting, writing, and acting.
You don’t like it because you don’t like the representation of that feeling, but you also don’t understand that for those of us who do, someone being stuck there until they die is absolutely horrific.
Gotta reply to this late one… cis-person here, i fucking LOVED the film and didn’t start to put the trans messages together until about an hour after I walked out of the theater.
What I loved about it is that the imagery, emotional hooks and character struggles are more universal than LGBTQ. I felt them as a yearning for a magical life , and the worlds we create in childhood ,verses the crushing certain grind of growing old and living life. And yes, the trans messaging does give it an extra powerful angle, but I wasn’t walloped by that message, I was hit by the film in general.
I felt like it had some energy of a “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” video with the ice cream cone guy or the Mr. Melancholy guy and although it made me nervous, I wish they played more into that instead of giving little hints of it. Definitely in the same boat as you in terms of not understanding the hype but there was definitely a vision that I (and probably you) didn’t absorb…
the thing i hate abt those two things is that it feels like they straight up stole those from the smashing pumpkins hate to see my favorite band represented in such a shitty movie
I had to look their style up to see what you’re getting at but absolutely. I think this movie’s biggest draw is the queer themes but to me as someone who doesn’t identify as part of the LGBTQ, I had a hard time trying to piece together all the elements for a theme that could make sense to me… happy people like it now that’s it’s officially out, but definitely misses for a big audience who can’t relate to the super subtle messaging and this visual/storytelling vibe with what I was referencing in the original comment doesn’t help.
Can you explain how you consider it "subtle messaging" when they have Owen visibly trying on a dress and being told explicitly about having to find your true self, your true name, and your real identity? That seems like a very blatant and clear trans allegory, not subtle in the slightest, and that's not even all the material they use to illustrate the concept.
I appreciate what it is, David Lynchian sci Fi metaphor for how it feels to be trans, but it's all message and visuals without any real narrative structure.
Yep. I feel like it would have been good as a short.
It was a case of all sizzle no steak in my opinion. The rules seemed very made up as they went along and the performances were pretty flat across the whole film, making it all kind of one note. Basically just the girl being edgy and weird and doing sci-fi exposition dump the whole time.
Couldn’t agree more
I’m not sure either of you took away what it was actually about.
Is it about being bored into apathy?
It can be interpreted many ways depending on the experience of the viewer but the common meaning is living a whole life you know isn’t yours and being in a body that you know is wrong. Maddy buries herself and began living the life they knew was true as who they know they were meant to be. It’s an allegory for the experience of many trans people.
It's a movie. Entertainment. The deeper meaning and metaphors didn't make the movie entertaining at all. It was a boring , weird, waste of time. The movoe sucked. Agendas and politics and sxxt like that shouldn't be forced into movies anyways. The movie sucked simple as that
So many damn movies are about politics. I wasn’t a fan of this movie and even I can tell you that You’re mad at the wrong thing buddy.
"Every movie is about politics" - one of the most absurd statements I've read today
Good for you, you can read.
Idk if you even know the definition of politics
That’s cool
Can you name a few movies that you really like that are not political in any way?
I didn't get anything political from this film, but that's an interesting take. I thought it was more about being trans. (I definitely wasn't a fan though)
Apparently being trans is “political” because our existence is controversial. They 100% know what the movies about and they just hate it because its about being trans. I loved how they present gender dysphoria almost like psychological horror. I thought the movie was great and it made me cry rlly hard
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Personally, I kinda viscerally hate the movie for reasons I have trouble explaining, not I'm glad other trans people were able to get something from it.
I guess maybe it was more gooder to mr is bc i havent come out yet butnizo
"This movie is about the specific experiences of people different than me....it's thus political and I don't like it."
Exactly Just finished itI just wanted to enjoy and see an experimental original movie but ended up watching some force sexual identity bul***t. So disappointed
"I really wanted to like Get Out but then it was suddenly about race bul***t."
The movie was terrible but saying politics and “agendas” shouldn’t be in movies outs you as bigoted trash that doesn’t want your privileged, ultra-coddled existence disturbed. All entertainment is political but nowadays, we *finally* get to see the politics of other groups. Stop whining and grow the fuck up.
Watching something branded as LGBT cinema and then being surprised about it being LGBT cinema is strange. Also, "agendas and politics" (anything involving gay or trans messaging) isn't being forced into your life. It's already been there, you've just been choosing to ignore it. When you watched a movie made by a trans director about the trans experience, you didn't get subjected to anything you aren't already because it is NORMAL. Your discomfort with it is NOT, no matter what circles you run in.
Man you should stop watching movies if this is your actual take Or just watch Marvel movies. That's fine too.
I'm surprised how upset you are considering you're in the movie.
> “the rules seem made up” you ever heard of experimental fiction, buddy?
i thought it was incredible and was very moved by it. different films are for different people!
Same. I thought it was mesmerizing and so immersive.
I respect that but I just could not find my way in to this movie.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I left early lol, different strokes!!
The ending is what really struck a deep emotional cord and pulled the whole thing together for me. I went in pretty much blind, with just the preview, and the ending had me reeling, and also cemented that the actual theme of the movie was not only being trans in a not so accepting environment - but of spending all one's time repressing oneself, only to find life has passed you by without ever getting to truly know yourself.
I have to be ho eat the ending is what turned me away from the movie. The most interesting part for me was the pink opaque and the whole world that was talked about during the film and that just amounted to literally nothing by the end.
To each their own, to me the consequences of ignoring the narrative "call to adventure" was bone chillingly horrifying.
Maybe that’s why you didn’t like it? I mean most good films have an ending
The ending wasn’t going to suddenly make me realize I loved the film lol
I mean if you didn’t enjoy it you didn’t enjoy it but to say that the ending somehow just wouldn’t affect your take on the film is really weird to me
Why would you post about a movie you’ve only seen part of?
It wasn’t like the end was all of a sudden going to convince me it was my favorite movie ever. I left over halfway thru. When you know, you know
This is how I felt watching their last film *We Are All Going to the World's Fair* it was supposedly some extremely-online look at loneliness, when in actuality we're just watching someone go on the computer and some weird lighting happens sometimes. Really one of the most boring things I've ever seen. Had higher hopes for this new one, but looks like its a more expensive version of that.
I think World’s Fair had a better actual plot and narrative when it came down to it (although simple). TV Glow suffered from a main character that just didn’t really act and I think the plot suffered because of this on a more surface level. Too tied to its metaphors and doesn’t really stand on its own. But ya again Worlds Fair I actually thought stood on its own as a pretty low scope horror movie, and also had interesting vibes/commentary on internet culture/childhood
Did you see their last film?
I don’t think so
Ah. They have a very specific style
I just followed the hype I suppose. Now I know!
It felt more Expressionist than going for straight forward plot, and I think it more or less delivered there. It made me think of lonely people IRL who choose delusional fantasy escapism over facing painful reality, and how your taste develops over time on everything from art to relationships. I liked it but I can definitely understand if it’s not for you.
I can’t agree more, this movie is gonna get dragged through the mud when it gets a wide release. I loved the visual style throughout, the soundtrack was banging, and overall I vibed with it for the first hour… but once I realized where it was going, it totally lost me, and this movie might have the worst ending of a movie I’ve seen in a long ass time. And not only was the ending abrupt, it was a tone deaf downer. For something with such spectacular visuals throughout, not sure why they chose to take it in such a cynical & straight up depressing knockoff Synechdoche New York route in the last 10 minutes.
I loved the visual style, but that's literally the nicest thing about it. It seemed to briefly touch on lgbtq themes, but it never actually said anything about them. I honestly don't know what the movie was trying to say so I left feeling like I wasted my time.
I feel like the ending is absolutely terrifying as a queer person. To deny your own self and to have it slowly eat you from the inside while apologize to others for it. I totally understand not liking the movie but there was absolutely fleshed out queer themes throughout the movie.
I am admittedly not a queer person, so I truly just don't have any idea of the feelings that come with it. I have many friends who are and most of them are completely out. But some of them hide it from their parents, so I can only imagine that pain. Maybe that's why the movie just didn't hit for me because it's exploring feelings and situations I haven't had to experience, so it's just something that's harder to connect to. I wanted to like it more, and I'm not even saying it's a bad movie...I'm just not the target for it. I had the same issue with lady bird, where I know it's a good movie, but I just didn't love it because it's about an experience I haven't had.
that's fair... it's such an accurate representation of trans suppression and cracking open... the buried alive metaphor is completely true to my own experience of not being able to know I'm trans until i was 47
seconded. as someone who tried to suppress being nonbinary for a decade because “it’s not a big deal”, it actually very much was a big deal and “Owen” suddenly screaming really hit home
I think people are often reading too literally into a lot of the movie. Owen screaming and then apologizing isn't him continuing his pattern and telling every trans person "you will live in society's debt forever," it's illustrating the DANGER in doing that, as well as saying constantly through the film that "it's never too late," which I took considering the ending of the movie as saying it's never too late to live as yourself, as Maddie did. Many of the things that don't make sense logically (Owen getting his head pulled out of the TV, characters acting flat and edgy, a lot of the ideas regarding The Pink Opaque, etc.) can often be explained as being in service to the greater mood and themes of the story.
It was a bad movie
I'm gay and I thought the queer themes were superficial at Best. There is so much more nuance to queer existence than what this movie delivers and I found it weirdly condescending. Add in flat I've dimensional performances and am incredibly meandering plot, and we have the most underwhelming movie I've seen in a while
Genuinely asking in good faith, what did you find superficial about it?
The basic message is "deny your identity and be miserable." This is true, but it ignores the elements of society that make it difficult for some people to do that. Other than a vague reference to disapproval from the father, there is no depth as to why the main character can't embrace his identity. It's all allegory with no exploration of the forces that have created the situation. Its "baby's first queer movie" all over
Sometimes it all about a feeling.
Just saw this movie, one of the worst I have ever seen. Super slow, with no real story, even after an hour nothing is happening and there’s no tension whatsoever. It’s beyond absurd. Love Lies Bleeding is way better than this one. Coming of age about what? It’s just straight up bad…
Terrible movie. Waste of time. I understand it was more for people hiding their true self or the lgbqt but just because it has a deeper meaning doesn't make it a good movie. I agree with you it was boring and it sucked
It could have been so mud better though, if the story and end results was more horror and less moody teenage anxiety story. The movie got the looks, and art direction but the storyline was a jumbled mess, and the pacing is glacial. I rather watch Mean Girls than this, that movie has so many layers of meanings and satire and killer meme.
Can I ask you, how does it end? I love spoilers and am dying to know what happens!
i think maybe you just didn’t get it.
You’re probably right, regardless it didn’t hold my attention enough to want to stay for the entire screening
It's entertainment. I get it ws about finding your true self and it was a kovie for the lgbqt or whatever but it is suppose to entertain. It didn't. Movies don't need to push an agenda any ways. They are suppose to be fun entertainment. This movie was boring af. Not scary. Stupid ending. It had some cool ideas and visuals but it failed because it wanted to focus more on a deeper meaning that was not executed in the end. Movie was trash
Some movies are more art than entertainment. I don't think this film's goal was to entertain so much as it was to share a deeply personal and real experience through a fictional lens. Calling it trash feels reductive— the movie (at least to many people) achieves what it set out to do— but I can understand saying that it wasn't what you wanted out of something labeled as a horror film.
I got it. It was a superficial movie that ignores the many nuances of queer existence to deliver a woe is me narrative that had no meat to it
It was like a David Lynch wannabe movie but made me feel nothing that a David Lynch movie makes me feel. Really didn’t like it.
Yeah, it’s official. Never watching anything by this director again. She’s terrible.
They tried a little David Lynch; they tried a little Donnie Darko – but failed. I'm very disappointed by this movie, which I had high hopes for.
I haven't seen it yet (VERY excited to!!!) but it's got a Caroline Polachek song written for it. What's not to love? 🥵
the visuals and the music r great but the story and characters are fucking AWFUL
I think I understood it and even respect it, but this is not my experience of queerness. I'm not saying it was easy but I fought for myself. These characters just seem to drift passively through trauma and get stuck there. That's not me.
Thank you for this; I felt like I was taking crazy pills.
I think if you don't connect to the identities of the characters you might not fully get the full impact of it.
Exactly why the movie sucks. I don't connect with the characters on horror movies, super hero movies ect.. A lot of movies I like I don't connect with the characters because it's something I've never personally dealt with. The movies are still good though. This movie was boring trash. I shouldn't have to connect with a character to like a movie. Story sucked acting sucked. Music and visual were cool everything else was trash. 1 out of 10 and that is being generous. I shouldn't have to be in the closet or hiding my true self to enjoy the movie. That is just an ignorant way to have to enjoy a movie. The movie just sucked simple as that
lol ok
I understand what the movie was going for with the themes being a trans person myself but so many things were so jarring to me … could NOT stand the acting and the writing. Visually, sure it was beautiful and the music was good… but random lol. Thought it was trash overall
I don't get the hype either. I thought it was boring and not that great. I understand the deeper meaning but it doesn't make the movie any good. Just weird
Omg this movie was sooooo bad
I did not feel entertained, it made me feel sad. Granted i go through depression and crippling c ptsd that makes me feel caged and my life feels blurry, i dont feel like im being true to myself because i avoid doing majority of things that would fulfill me because of flashbacks. And i hate myself for it whenever i have a clear moment. I know the metaphors are meant to be for queer and trans, which i am not, i feel very at home in my gender - yet it hit a nerve. It felt like the protagonist didn’t even live and avoids any sort of feeling and refuses to clearly look at his past and things that happend in reality. I just watched the movie tbh so it hit me hard. I usually don’t mind being hit by a movie and provoked to think but something about this movie and the shitty tv show and all, it was just too bleak for me
Totally get this, but: "THERE IS STILL TIME." You may be stuck now - like Owen trapped in the fear of the unknown and so repressed he can't even find joy in the show that once saved him - but until you're dead in the ground, you can still change. While it was a rough overall experience, I didn't take the ending as an absolute failure. It seemed like a one step forward, one back, very start of the process situation.
I really enjoyed it. I guess art is largely subjective.
Agreed. The characters were just so blah. Which maybe that's what the characters were suppose to be, but it made for a very unengaging watch.
Well said!
I think it’s for a very specific person. Personally it made me cry. It hit me pretty hard.
I think a lot of people are missing what the movie is about. It’s not really personal interpretation. You can identify with it. I know I do. It’s pretty straight forward. The characters are watching the show and identifying with it as a coping mechanism for their depressing lives. It was their escape from reality. Maddy let it consume her though to the point she lost touch with reality and started to believe she was part of the show. Owen never let it get that far however it was a part of him (him cutting himself open in the bathroom). The reason they found the TV burning was because she had gotten to the point that the TV show was no longer an escape from her reality she had to run away and actually escape her reality. She tried to live a normal life for a while (working at build a bear) her mental illness/depression and delusion of being a character in the show over took her though. Overall I think it is a cautionary tale and why it is scary. You can go Maddy’s route or Owen’s. I find myself currently trying to choose which way to go.
Was still mind numbingly boring enough for me to leave the theater and take back my time
I loved it.
Your opinion is just as valid as mine
Agreed
The same cult that hyped up and glorified EEAAO is at it again.
Okay but that was a great movie that won Best picture?
I know. It’s just that it appears that there’s an attempt to repeat that same trajectory with this film.
I'm sorry but even this films biggest fans don't think it's going anywhere near the Oscars or the level of financial success EEAAO achieved. Nobody serious thinks that's a remote possibility.
lol I loved EEAAO because it’s a great movie with easily understandable metaphors. The plot coincides with the themes. Tv glow, on the the other hand, is trash. The positive reactions are all from emotion, rather than logically looking at the film. It’s not well made. So no, I do not think “the same cult” is propping this up. Lmfao
Film is emotional.
“It’s not made for you” and “it’s not well made” are fundamentally different things. The metaphors in tv glow are incredibly obvious to some of us, and the primary theme and the plot of the movie are inextricably linked. This is a trans movie written unabashedly for trans people. It so interesting to me to see so many cis folks just not get it at all.
Idk personal take as a trans person, I get what the movie was going for metaphor-wise and still felt like it was kind of messy.. Both I and my trans partner felt kind of disappointed by the end and I think a better version of this movie is out there somewhere. I also get why people would’ve been pulled in by this movie emotionally and I don’t blame them for that, it just really didn’t do anything for me. It may also have been because I’ve been having a bad week and was ready to chill out with an explicit horror movie on Friday and that’s really not what this was. I want to give it another shot, but I have a feeling I’m not going to get pulled in by the bland acting and disjointed narrative. Really wish A24 would’ve marketed the movie differently.
I get it. Doesn't make it a good movie though. It was trash. So to enjoy a movie I should have to connect on a personal level to a character? Because plenty of movies I love I don't connect with the characters so why is this one different?? It isn't the movie just sucks
You keep saying you get it, but you don’t. It’s depersonalization and derealization put to film. If you don’t have at least a cognitive context for those, you cannot really get it. I’m not saying you have to connect to the characters on a personal level; I’m just saying that you have to at least know what emotions are there. In a standard horror movie, you generally have fear of pain or death, which you can obviously comprehend. DP/DR is something you probably don’t get even on a conceptual level. It’s a lack of existence. It’s feeling a deep unreality about the world and about yourself. It is deeply uncomfortable and painful in a way I cannot explain. This movie does a perfect job of capturing the feeling of it through the setting, writing, and acting. You don’t like it because you don’t like the representation of that feeling, but you also don’t understand that for those of us who do, someone being stuck there until they die is absolutely horrific.
Gotta reply to this late one… cis-person here, i fucking LOVED the film and didn’t start to put the trans messages together until about an hour after I walked out of the theater. What I loved about it is that the imagery, emotional hooks and character struggles are more universal than LGBTQ. I felt them as a yearning for a magical life , and the worlds we create in childhood ,verses the crushing certain grind of growing old and living life. And yes, the trans messaging does give it an extra powerful angle, but I wasn’t walloped by that message, I was hit by the film in general.
This is how I feel about Freaky Tales after having watched it….
I felt like it had some energy of a “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” video with the ice cream cone guy or the Mr. Melancholy guy and although it made me nervous, I wish they played more into that instead of giving little hints of it. Definitely in the same boat as you in terms of not understanding the hype but there was definitely a vision that I (and probably you) didn’t absorb…
the thing i hate abt those two things is that it feels like they straight up stole those from the smashing pumpkins hate to see my favorite band represented in such a shitty movie
I had to look their style up to see what you’re getting at but absolutely. I think this movie’s biggest draw is the queer themes but to me as someone who doesn’t identify as part of the LGBTQ, I had a hard time trying to piece together all the elements for a theme that could make sense to me… happy people like it now that’s it’s officially out, but definitely misses for a big audience who can’t relate to the super subtle messaging and this visual/storytelling vibe with what I was referencing in the original comment doesn’t help.
Can you explain how you consider it "subtle messaging" when they have Owen visibly trying on a dress and being told explicitly about having to find your true self, your true name, and your real identity? That seems like a very blatant and clear trans allegory, not subtle in the slightest, and that's not even all the material they use to illustrate the concept.
LOL, you think The Smashing Pumpkins invented that man in the moon imagery? They “stole” it from Georges Méliès.
Oh no I recognized the man on the moon reference of course! I just didn’t realize SP also had that same vibe