Catch-Up Movie Reviews of Two Defiantly Weird Indies
Reviews of writer-director Tilman Singer's "Cuckoo" and Jane Schoenbrun's "I Saw the TV Glow"
“Cuckoo” is only Tilman Singer’s sophomore film, but his films have a distinct look and feel of European horror from the ‘70s and ‘80s. The abstract and freaky “Luz,” his feature directorial debut, was singular as nightmarish nonsense, and this creepy, weird berserker is no different. It’s terrifically shot, Argento-inspired nonsense that compels in its strange goings-on at a Bavarian Alps resort, even when the script under and then over-explains itself.
In terms of pacing, shooting, and editing, the film’s most effective set-piece involves a headphone-blasting Gretchen riding her bike at night, unknowingly being chased by The Hooded Woman (a nightmare-fueled figure). In concept, it recalls a dark-road nightscape from John Carpenter's “In the Mouth of Madness,” but Singer achieves a creep factor with shadow and street lamps.
“Angsty” is never a good enough personality for a character, but as displaced and grieving teenager Gretchen, Hunter Schafer gives a layered, emotionally and physically challenging performance. She just keeps proving to have adventurous taste in her post-“Euphoria” projects.
Dan Stevens is sinister yet somehow hilarious (and speaking perfect German) as shady landlord Herr König.
With the defiantly cuckoo-bananas “Cuckoo,” not understanding every inscrutable plot detail is okay when mood, performances, and overall filmmaking acumen feel like controlled madness.
Rating: 3/5
Trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun follows up her eye-grabbing feature debut “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” with “I Saw the TV Glow.” Both films feel personal and esoteric but with something to say about a generation finding comfort in media. Schoenbrun’s latest, while even more experimental and reliant on visual/aural vibes, grounds itself in ‘90s suburban ennui and a teenager’s internal struggles with excellent, next-level performances from Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine.
Smith and Lundy-Paine play Owen and Maddy, respectively, two outsiders who are two grades apart but find a common interest: a cosmic-horror YA show called “The Pink Opaque” that airs at 10:30 p.m. on a school night. The show itself looks like a cross-section of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” and “Twin Peaks,” something that’s trapped in time from one’s formative years. When these friends reconnect, the line between reality and TV seems to blur.
An expression of isolation and gender dysphoria through a neon-colored, phantasmagoric aesthetic (as beautifully shot by DP Eric Yue), “I Saw the TV Glow” mesmerizes in how it weaponizes nostalgia as if it were a prison. Remember when your favorite show was (or could have been) a security blanket to avoid reality?
Speaking of “Twin Peaks,” there is decidedly a lot of David Lynch influence in the visual language that Schoenbrun creates through a dreamlike mood and sinister, uncanny imagery, as well as a buzzing hum on the score by Alex G. It’s all hypnotic nonetheless, holding one in a spell that’s easier to feel than explain. Two long takes in a school set to folk-pop tracks are particularly entrancing, and a punkish primal scream in a concert scene at a tavern (not unlike The Roadhouse) lingers with you.
That the film dares to be a quest for identity underneath all of the inscrutable rabbit holes is no more earnest and blunt than in an early scene between Owen and Maddy on the school bleachers. She’s upfront about her queerness, saying, “I like girls, you know that, right?” Owen stumbles but responds with his preference: “I think that I like TV shows.”
While getting steadily more surreal and even Cronenbergian, the final moments are sneakily devastating when the feeling of ceasing to exist becomes the reality. For a film that’s one big metaphor, it can be hard to suss out everything if taken too literally. Though multiple viewings can usually deepen a film, “I Saw the TV Glow” might be the sort of tone poem that’ll be more interesting to talk about over coffee afterward than revisit.
Rating: 3/5