Martin Scorsese heaps praise on ‘powerful’ trans horror film I Saw the TV Glow

Veteran director Martin Scorsese is a huge fan of the trans thriller I Saw The TV Glow, calling it “emotionally and psychologically powerful.”

The Oscar-winner, known for epics such as Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, Mean Streets and, more recently, Killers of the Flower Moon, praised the new horror film for its “moving” cinematography and writing.

The film, released in May, follows teenagers Owen and Maddy, who share a connection through a TV show, as they begin to question their reality and identities.

Asked by Associated Press critic Jake Coyle if he had seen any films lately that he had liked, Scorsese, who turns 82 on Sunday (17 November), replied: “There was one I saw two weeks ago called I Saw the TV Glow. It really was emotionally and psychologically powerful and very moving.

“It builds on you, in a way. I didn’t know who made it, it’s this Jane Schoenbrun.”

Schoenbrun made their directional debut in 2018 with the documentary A Self-Induced Hallucination, which follows the internet phenomenon, Slender Man.

They began creating more projects about trans identities, based on their own experiences as a non-binary person.

Speaking to Vanity Fair in May, Schoenbrun said: “I very proudly identify as non-binary. I don’t think my relationship to gender is something that I completely understand. It’s actually quite comforting to embrace incoherence.”

I Saw the TV Glow has also been praised for its approach in conveying themes of gender identity and dysphoria, an element of the film that Schoenbrun said they were “most proud of”.

Feature First writer Ansh Dubey wrote in a review: “Many of us fantasise about some way we can turn into a character from the media that brings us some euphoria, or to leave our mundane existence and go on the fantastical journey that transition seems like.”

Scorsese, who is working on a TV version of his Gangs of New York, as well a biopic of the 26th US president Teddy Roosevelt and a typically unconventional take on the life of Jesus, also recommended the 1957 film A Face in the Crowd, saying that people should see it “over and over again”, adding: “I think that’d be important.”

The film, starring Andy Griffith, Lee Remick and Walter Matthau, focuses on a folk singer who becomes an detestable media star after finding fame on the radio.

I Saw the TV Glow is available to stream on Apple TV in the UK and to rent and buy on Prime Video.

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