THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 600K! Sorry this one took so long I've been filming The Mothership with Friendly Space Ninja in Montreal a week and a half! YES I know about A Trip to the Moon, I just mentioned Smashing Pumpkins because they specifically covered the song for the album and the album title - I know that's where SP got it originally!
God, the way Justice Smith screamed "This is not my home" and his breakdown near the ending is so visceral. Now I'm so fucking pissed this movie will 99% percent not play on a theater near me.
It's the "Mommy!" that really *really* got me. I've seen all kinds of fucked up movies but that is by far the most disturbing thing I've ever witnessed. I think in that scene we're seeing Isabelle come online and break thru Owen's false consciousness, which means we're watching a "fictional character from a kids show" scream in agony for their "fictional mother character" as they're dying. Fuck.
I would definitely check! I had to go like thirty minutes away but I was able to catch it in theaters and I live in Indiana. I actually just checked and it’s still playing at the theater I saw it at. If not, it’ll probably be on streaming soon enough without needing to purchase/rent it
The scene at the end where he was freaking out in the party room and everybody else looks like they “powered down” broke me, it was such a accurate visual, portrayal of what it feels like to suffer in silence by yourself.
if anything, that scene was about people freaking out for no reason [over banal shit] letting everyone around them down. like we are all tired of your shit.
And don't we do that? We apologize for being a traumatized person to people who don't care. Telling them we're sorry is just another instance of them trying to make the interaction end faster. They'd be more comfortable if we never had any emotions or we didn't exist in their reality
bruh i walked out of this movie so damn confused, i rly thought my guy was doing the right thing and was rooting for him the whole time, then at the very end i realized like “omg no he’s trapped in hell, noooo”
@@Talia778 it's perfect! That's how it feels for a lot of us to have to accept you're trans, you feel like you'd have to be out of your mind to do it, and you don't know what's going to happen to you after you admit it to yourself, you have no way of knowing if you're going to make it
@joshuayork8362 almost like he was disturbing the status quo, he was disturbing the song you're supposed to sing. and since he isn't playing along, they cease to exist as people for him, they disengage from his reality entirely just because he isn't playing along
The two band performances are vital to the movie. Recall that Maddy says every Pink Opaque episode features two musical acts when she is reading the episode guide. So, if the movie is a long Pink Opaque episode, it has to have featured music.
The football scene was so interesting to me. Pulled over the middle line, finally taking a step to who he is. And he runs. He doesn't just run, he runs like a prey animal would. Absolutely terrified. He cannot be trans. It isn't allowed. It isn't real. A very common experience. Also, have no idea how people see the music as "self indulgent". Have they seen the lyrics? Listening to an abusive parents will result in your death whether spiritually or physically. Exactly what Owen was experiencing. Music is a huge part of being queer. It's one of the few ways we can express ourselves. Finding queer artists helped me accept myself.
The claw machine lyrics are one of the best things about the film for me. It felt like a song at the Bronze and it was heartbreaking. I can relate to reaching out for love and not being able to hold on. I just sobbed and then found the music video and sobbed some more
As a trans person myself this is by far the best trans rep I have ever seen. There are so many details that are so accurate to the trans experience. My favourite one that I haven't seen anyone mention is when maddy is talking about the process of waking up from the midnight realm in the coffin (and metaphorically transitioning) she mentions how it's hard. That it's gonna be ugly and scary and not fun but it will be the best thing that ever happened to her. And that is EXACTLY how gender transition is, it's scary and not always pretty but it's something that you need to do. Also with Owen's jobs all being childish, a movie theadre a games arcade. By denying his identity he is unable to grow up and move on. A nice subversion where other media would demonize the tv he's obsessed with but it is important to his development and coming into who he is supposed to be
I watched this movie last night going in pretty much blind. Definitely was NOT what I was expecting out of this movie. It's my movie of the year right now. It was all fun and games with the "hehe that's me" until I got to the end and thousand yard stared across my room. I feel like this movie was like 80% vibes and it fucking rocked. Maddy's monologue toward the end was CRAZY.
That ending will forever haunt me. I swear to God, it gave me a fear i've never felt with movies before. It was just so bleak, even more when i was [Spoiler] just waiting and waiting for him/her to reunite with her friend in the Pink Opaque.
A cool tidbit is that the person who played Amanda, also voiced Mr Melancholy/Evil Clown/Marco. It adds extra weight to when Maddy says on the bleachers that "[Amanda] has been personally sent by Mr Melancholy to torture her" and why she cries when watching the Evil Clown get beaten. Potentially it could also foreshadow that Mr Melancholy can pretend to be people like in the final episode of The Pink Opaque!
Cool detail. I didn't realize that. At first I thought Mr. Melancholy was played by the actor who plays Owen because the face looks somewhat similar, but then I dropped that theory when IMDB revealed he didn't play that character.
@@glyndwr15 😂😂😂 I didn’t realise until I checked IMDb too. I just thought he had a feminine voice yet his name was MR melancholy so I was hoping it was a trans actor lol nah
Even if they were confused, I cannot see how people can laugh at that ending, especially Owen's breakdown. One of the most viscerally devastating things I've seen recently. This will definitely stick with me for a long while.
SXSW is a hard crowd to explain - people are primed to be... not rowdy, but just really verbally engaged with what's being watched? Especially the horror stuff. Once he gets the desperate pleas' out the laughing stopped, it was just that first big one that started a bit of laughing. I agree that it felt very weird in the moment but I don't think that would be most theatre experiences
@@AmandaTheJediI laughed at the initial scream, and I think most of us did bc we didn’t go into the movie expecting this type of film. We all stopped after he kept breaking down. But the first part of his breakdown was so random, that it was kinda funny. Not bc we didn’t feel bad for him, by the end I felt so sad for him. When he was apologizing I wanted to cry. 😭
I saw this said on tumblr but it begs repeating: this movie feels like it's doing for trans people what barbie did for cis women. we all needed this (source: i am nonbinary and this movie has been living in my brain ever since I saw it)
I am not trans, I’m a cis a woman who loved this film. Barbie was fine, but it didn’t do anything for me, Poor Things felt more feminist than Barbie lol (great outfits in both though).
That's...actually a very good description. I know, as a trans woman, it took me about a week to fully process this film, because it resonated so strongly.
@@user-hc2tu7ul7jI genuinely felt like poor things was feminism from the POV of a Perverted Greek guy 😂. Like be Exually liberated if you want but don’t act like it’s this huge statement especially in 2024…like look around..nobody cares except Incels. Like I get it was overdone for comedy but I wifely MArk’s character…don’t come to me RIGHT after you gave guy head and sleep with every guy who looks at you😂.
Loved this movie! I'm not trans, but I could still empathize a lot with the themes in it. The weirdness really worked for me, since the surrealism of what Owen was feeling seemed to be pretty obvious. I was very disappointed that it doesn't seem like it didn't work for a lot of viewers.
So my friends and I watched this together, and one thing we landed on that I thought was so interesting is how Owen is totally fine with Maddie being gay in their conversation on the bleachers but he refuses to call her Tara when she tells Owen her truth. We thought this was a beautiful potential metaphor for his internalized transphobia since he (she) refused to accept that part of herself so she is sort of dead naming “Maddie” in this scene to show she’s not ready to face that reality. Overall I loved this movie and as a nonbinary person this gave me so many feels, I loved it.
Had a complete opposite theatre going experience with this one. I went in blind (saw the trailer once when it came out but not a second time) and about half way through the film I could hear the people behind me starting to cry. By the end when we are in the arcade people were straight up sobbing. I was pretty stunned at the end and even though I really enjoyed it I won’t ever forget that experience…
I so wish I could've seen this in a cinema, it isn't playing in any cinemas near me so I just had to watch it at home, watched it mostly blind although I knew it had something to do with being trans and the trans experience and as a trans person wow it was amazing, only realised I'm trans this year and I've honestly felt so numb in recent times, this resonates with me a lot, I hope to watch this in the future when I can be living my true self and see how I feel watching this.
@@zenolord2242I watched it at home alone because I knew it was inspired by Buffy and The Adventures of Pete and Pete, and all those oddball (pre)teen programming of the late 90s. That was my jam. If I found a kid reading a Buffy episode guide I'd also low key stalk them too. But I did share Buffy and Are You Afraid Of The Dark with friends who were not supposed to watch that kind of thing. I reached out for a connection but could never hold on. Cue me crying about the claw machine song.
I went and saw this movie by myself. It was such an intense experience no piece of media has made me feel before. My theater full of previously obnoxious teens and young adults all sat in silence and let the credits roll. I left the theater and walked home feeling deeply surreal and disassociating heavily, to the point I was fighting off a panic attack the entire time. Being home alone with those feelings felt like a bad idea so I wandered my city trying to find food but my walk almost felt equally upsetting because nothing felt real and no one seemed real. I don't even know how to articulate it. I can't wait to own this movie, it's like nothing I've ever seen or felt.
Wow this was my exact experience too (except I stayed in my kitchen once home because I couldn't stop crying). Never has media made me feel like this, compounded with the way people were under reacting in the theater.
I had the same reaction to this movie, but I wasn’t sure I liked it. I think the uncomfortable nature of the film, made me almost angry that I watched it. But I think I need to see it from your perspective. It’s good that I felt uncomfortable, I should be uncomfortable with not living life the way I want to. Whatever that looks like. 👍
100% made me feel like that time I had a vivid dream within a vivid dream where I wanted to wake up to the first dream because I was absolutely convinced that that was my actual reality 🫠
I think that movie triggered a derealization episode for you. I've felt that way before many times because of a number of reasons, so I know what it feels like
I'm glad you found a video comment section to get these thoughts out. I also saw it alone and it feels appropriate to experience it alone but also painfully lonely. But we're here. Maybe we watched it separately and will never know each other but we had a similar reaction and we're not alone
The extended music scene is also important, because early on Maddy mentions that every episode of the Pink Opaque had a musical interlude at a venue called the Double Lunch...which just happens to be the same name of the bar that Maddie and Owen are watching Phoebe Bridgers perform at. It's yet another confirmation that the movie *is* an episode of the Pink Opaque.
I did the same thing when I was pregnant with twins! Also watched a lot of Lindsay Ellis and Todd in the Shadows to fall asleep at night. Hang in there ❤️
If I may recommend NOT to watch trashy Netflix Christmas movies around your due date, my water broke at 35 weeks and I blame the appalling quality of the Christmas Prince (or whatever it was called) for my baby basically going "that's it, if coming out of here early is what's gonna take to stop you from watching this trash I'LL DO IT" Wish I knew of Amanda back then
Super random...but as an autistic person the "i like tv shows" line is EXTREMELY relatable. I make jokes all the time that I'm basically "the cable guy" because I am an amalgamation of masks created from tv shows i watched as a kid. So this line....made me feel very seen actually.
I have an Autistic friend who loves tv for this reason. For me it was investigating psychology starting in grade 6. Both of us have a life long special interest rooted in trying to understand people.
Is it weird to say that this would be a great double feature with "I'm thinking of ending things"? Both are movies about the suffocating weight of not being the person you wanted to be, both have themes of nostalgia and the distortion of memory, the most significant lines of both films ("There is still time" and "What are you waiting for?") are tragic with context but still nonetheless uplifting, etc. Idk, maybe I'm just making aimless commenctions
They're movies that ask which life is actually meaningful: The one that exists in fantasy or the one in which we live our real lives. It also made me think of the Neverending Story, especially the scene where Atreyu, who is the heroic and fictional version of Bastion, sees Bastion reading the story in the magic mirror gate.
Justice Smith and Bridgette Lundy Paine gave fantastic performances, I can't wait to see their future projects. I found it very relatable when Owen replied that he liked watching television.
That hit me a particular way as I just started dating someone who I got to share some films with and for once didn't cringe, tell me they were weird (in a "I hope I never see that again" way), but in fact had watched some of them already. Too bad after weeks of feeling really level with him he just ended things and when I suggested this film he just said the trailer was of no interest and with our shared interest refused my recommendation. Double whammy. Reject me and a movie that deeply spoke to me.
I made the mistake of watching this movie high the first time and missed a lot of things, and I'm very grateful for your video breaking it down so thoroughly. This movie very much put another crack in my egg. I'm still working on it, but I'll get out of the midnight realm eventually.
God did Maddy hit me right in the feels. I was also really lost in my fantasies and favourite fictional media I was a bit too obsessed with and I think if I hadn’t found someone like my friends I would have wound up a lot like her. And her talking about how time passing felt wrong like it was too fast hit so hard. I didn’t think I would ever make it to high school and here I am about to go to university and live alone with a family I’m not even related to and have barely spoken to. And it’s so terrifying. Man this movie was good.
Love your channel but I just had to nitpick. You gave The Smashing Pumpkins the credit for the moon face reference but they were referencing Georges Méliès film 'A Trip to The Moon' (1902). My MFA in film couldn't let that slide. Love you.
ooof yeah you're right that's where they got the imagery as well - I just thought it was more directly linked to the Smashing Pumpkins in this movie because that album is called 'Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness' so I assumed that's where the character name came from, especially with a Tonight Tonight cover on the album.
i watched it alone in my house the day it was released on vod. i think i watched it with the most perfect yet most awful headspace. it felt like watching someone show my journal on screen the way it hit all of my thoughts. i'm glad i watched it alone because at the end when owen screamed for help, screamed for his mom, i immediately started helplessly ugly sobbing on the floor. i loved it. im not sure if i'll be able to watch it again.
I literally watched it with my friend yesterday and felt like I had an existential crisis by the end. We're both queer and my friend is also someone under the trans label and so we spent a while discussing how it resonated with us both, and also learning about the director. Wasn't surprising to find confirmation of it being an allegory for the trans experience, and we ended up having a really long and meaningful conversation after the movie. Honestly, 10/10. I really enjoyed the experience even though I did feel really confused at some points.
I saw a review saying that you shouldn’t watch this movie alone. I did not follow that advice, and I regret it. I came *stumbling* out of my theater. This movie might be the single most tragic thing to ever tragedy, and the part about it at that hurt most by the end was the understanding that Owen’s emotional situation is how so, so many real people feel going throughout their real lives. Almost never has any piece of fiction overwhelmed me with such a specific, pointed feeling the way this one has.
As soon as I saw the football field shots I thought, "oh, that's Pete & Pete all over the place," so when ACTUAL Pete & Pete popped up it knocked me flat. For the record, The Adventures of Pete & Pete still absolutely slaps and I will hear no argument to the contrary.
This reminds me that I need to finish twin peaks one day, cause yeah you are right I never really thought about that connection till now, the lynch inspiration is all over this movie
As a trans woman, I didn't like the movie and it's been a baffling experience trying to figure out why. Even though I could see the experiences that matched mine, it didn't not tap into those emotions. "It's an emotional gut punch!" "I cried so many times!" "It hit really hard!" My reaction was closer to "yeah, I guess" It did not hit hard at all. I found it cheesy a lot of the time. Even the scene of him screaming was like "yup, been there." The fact that some many people feel these emotions and I felt none of it, really makes me wonder if I've cut myself off from some part of myself. It's been 5 years since I transitioned and I still feel like it's "too late." What have I done to seal myself off, that even cis are moved by it, meanwhile my response is "it's just another Tuesday." Maybe the problem is Owen avoids introspection while that's all I did. That was a big part of my coping mechanisms. He is hard for me to relate to him because he's avoidant in ways that I'm too accustomed to to feel sad, provoke my sense of self-loathing, or that I can't relate to. Maybe it's because I watched Buffy with my mom? I also kind of hate that the way to escape is the bury yourself alive. I don't get how that metaphor is supposed to work at all. Why is Maddy acting like a shell of herself? That whole scene ripped me out of the experience.
It's great, but it seems like some people were confused by it, if you read comments to videos like this one. They don't get that the world of the Pink Opaque is the true one. Owen really is Isobel from the show. The life he lives as Owen is false. Maddy / Tara is telling him the truth. All the allegorical stuff in the show which appears to symbolize Owen's real life isn't allegorical or symbolic at all. It's the reverse. It's his false life as the male Owen in the "midnight realm" which is actually allegorical and symbolic of his true life as Isobel in the show. That's the central dramatic conceit of the film. Also, it just occurred to me that Tara and Isobel first meet at "sleepaway camp." The film Sleepaway Camp is actually a 1980s trans themed Friday the 13th style slasher film.
As some who's AuDHD and queer, his mannerisms also screamed neurodivergent to me: not being able to look his boss in the eye, the way he struggles with communication and relating to allistic people, his meltdown at the end, and how strict his parents were, like they were overprotective because they saw him as vulnerable. At least that's how I saw it. Very powerful messages in this film, and all too relatable.
Remember taking cursory glances at the posts made by the people I follow on social media. They’d start like, “I saw the TV glow-“ the etc etc. I didn’t read these posts properly since I didn’t know what they were talking about, and thus, didn’t really care. But I kept seeing it. “I saw the TV glow blah blah blah-“, “I saw the TV glow yada yada yada-“ and I’d be so confused, like, what is ‘The TV Glow’??? Why does everyone phrase these posts the same way??? Why did they never say “I *watched* The TV Glow”. It was freaking me out a little … anyway I eventually saw the tags and thumbnails such as the one on the video and realised I had been a bit of an idiot
This movie was a strange tragic horror movie of such a significant fashion. It gave me flashbacks to my own high school and when my theater did some of the classical morality plays. Or stuff like Tales from the Crypt or Creepshow, where they have those stories of the main character just inevitably following folly until the gruesome end. That we never get any kind of final resolution to Justice's character is the final horrifying gut punch because by the end we KNOW what she should do. The only comfort is that last scroll of "It's never too late" on the road for everyone out in the audience who is having an existential crisis. I've heard of cracking eggs, but never thought of using a god damn battering ram.
The streaming scene really made me think about how A: when being much less used to hyperrealistic animation, basic 3D shape animation were alot more interesting to kids, and B: the goosebump type shows being aired late at night added to the vibe. The intense focus after a tiring day made a blend for watching a show which isnt the same as watching them fully awake and focused. What made the misery really click for me at the end was how flat everything was in that “fun center”, how the birthday kid picked up one sided bills, how cheap the sprites looked in the arcade game in contrast to the vividness of the early show. Its either a bitterness at the inherent lack of artistry, at the passing away of creativity, or just at the loss of ability to enjoy things. All of those could either be statements of necessary reality or at a miserable kind of subjective experience. I love the ambiguity
As a straight guy who had a pretty great childhood this movie still resonated with me because it really tapped into one of my greatest fears, which is that I'll go through my whole life never fully being who I want to or could be. I think the way Schoenbroun was able to put such a personal spin on what I imagine is a pretty universal fear is really amazing.
God, I remember seeing this in theaters and having to stop myself from screaming out "NO!" When the "it was time for me to be a man" line happened. It got everyone I went to the theater with.
went to go watch this literally the day after i graduated. the part that hit me the hardest was “there is still time”. it’s such a simple message but it’s so heartbreaking and also comforting in a way
I was trying so hard to not just ugly sob during this film. And I ugly sob even revisiting it. First I thought she had cracked and ran off and exposed herself to abuse as a teen runaway. Then I thought she was trying to end them both together because she thought they were mutually suffering a world that didnt understand them and due to whatever trauma she faced. Then I thought she made him roleplay Isabell, like she bonded with him and was pretending he was a girl and he went along because it made her happy (I blame Mysterious Skin for the memories and consent and different perspectives of the same event interpretation and was thankful that it wasnt this with queer characters). But the end just left me trying to silently cry in the tiny theater because the handful of people (but tiny indie theater, so still like 1/4 of seats) did not seem to be feeling the film I felt. They seemed to like it fine, no awkwardness, but no gut punches either. I walked home feeling kind of broken and called out and wished Id had someone to share it with and hug. Its been a terrible month after a rather hard first half of the year, almost out of nowhere and the film just felt like pliers to the wound... pain while trying to get at something deeper. Doesnt help I did watch Buffy from day 1 and media that is metaphorical, queer, strange, sad, and musically gifted is my comfort, but also reminds me of how outside I feel.
This movie hit me so hard! I walked out of the movie seeing people just kind of talking like normal and thought to myself "How are yall functioning normally after that!?" It's definitely not for everyone and will hit each viewer differently. I personally had a similar breaking point towards the end there, albeit I was alone when it happened. Luckily I came out of it in a positive way. I am so glad you recommended this a while back, Amanda. I also pride myself on avoiding trailers so my viewing was not sullied with expectations.
God do I feel this. Been dealing with chronic pain for a few years now since the pandemic, and whenever I'm walking with friends or my partner and I have to stop to not be in pain, and I just apologise for the inconveinence and shit like that. Like man...
It’s so sad that people make you feel this way. You’re human. Flesh bone and brain like any other person. There are many nasty people in this world who would cause harm with zero regard or respect. You managing your life and experiencing pure joy being into women is NOT a disappointment. Humans are little and soft. we get broken down, we’e born funny, we’re born a little weird and that’s FINE that’s why we are social animals and we have community and healthcare and you deserve to indulge and be cared for by that support system. Don’t let some other piece of perspective, flesh and bone make you feel like your perspective, flesh, and bone are worth any less.
I live in same living situation as Owen. I went with this cause I got no money or energy to live on my own. After watching this movie I applied to bunch of jobs and started looking for room, cause I can't afford whole flat. Mb we don't have much time, but at least I wanna try to save myself one more time.
This movie was amazing. I can't say it hit as hard as it would've if I were trans, but I did have a bad childhood, I did go through a lot of self discovery to discover that I was demisexual and that I should not be ashamed of that or fearful of it. And I felt this movie a lot, the entire idea of living in a world that you're not even sure is real because you're constantly not even sure if your own life is real, and if you feel like that, don't other people? Is everyone just faking it? Rediscovering those hidden parts of our past that we buried away because they weren't convinient. And in the end the movie did a masterful job of planting a seed in the viewers head of a deep terrifying sense of reality all around them. Bravo to the team behind this movie, well done, my favorite horror movie since Midsommar.
I have been out as trans since 2015 but I never changed my name and that can affect your life in ways you may not even realize. I won’t get into that. But when I saw this is woke something me that had been in a self induced coma for a long time. I had my own birthday party breakdown scene today. Realized I have to change my name. I also need to come out as gay bc I am. A gay trans guy. Won the reincarnation lottery lol this feels like the first day of my life, and I’m 38. I’m glad this movie shook me to my core and made me feel seen in ways that honestly hurt.
Every time I think of an aspect of this film, I get a deeper understanding. Someone pointed out that Maddy essentially foreshadows Owen's eventual breakdown by end of film. She says she "apologized to everyone around her." Every little detail from the blue cotton candy to the moon juice to how Marco and Polo are "biologically" women but present as masculine with facial hair.. THIS FILM IS A MASTERPIECE
This movie scared me, I was prepared for the open minded climax, and experience something I’ve never experienced- this movie delivered. My God that scream at the end, I felt anxious, anxiety was on overload, and what’s frightening ? I feel like I live that life, all I did as a teenager was hide within myself, watching movies, tv shows, watching certain movies over & over, because it gave me a feel of things I missed out on.. one movie that really strikes a chord to me, was Dazed & Confused, and a show? Beverly Hills 90210, because that was my school in Key West was exactly like- but, I always felt like I was a camera man in my own life.. never fitting in, felt awkward, easy to get lost in it all.. the overwhelming feeling like I’m supposed to fit somewhere.. but, I don’t.. now I’m older, and the regrets I have are torturous. I feel like I can’t breathe at times.. I feel like I lived a lie.. This movie drew all that out, and really horrified me.. this is terrifying on a level I don’t want it to be, it scares me, but l kinda feel like I’m repeating a process of taking a piece of cinema way too personal.. filling an emptiness.. this movie is phenomenal.. my god this movie really is something unique.
So the quote "if you dont resignate with this movie congratulations on having a happy childhood" really kinda rubbed me the wrong way that was a poor choice of words just because a person hasnt went through the same things as you did growing up does not mean they had a childhood thats exclusionary and ignorant honestly and just screams victimhood mentality i havent seen the movie by the way
the album is called Mellon Collie (melancholy) and the infinite sadness - could be both but I think Jane would be referencing Smashing Pumpkins more or at least equally
@@AmandaTheJedi Oh its like a reference to a reference, like the smashing pumpkins referenced A Trip to The Moon, but the moon face guy is from the 1902 film. Id guess Jane would be aware of both?
I watched the trailer and went in expected a horror movie, and ended up hating the movie. I wasn't letting myself enjoy the movie cause I was waiting for that horror to come in, when really its more of a psychological thriller. Definitely going to rewatch it with some of my friends so I can hope to really enjoy it this time.
I walked out of the theatre fully feeling like 'that was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen'. But I liked it. I liked the message. It was tragic. But there was a message of hope in it. I did resonate a lot with the idea of just going along with things because you don't want to disappoint people or it feels too hard to be yourself. I've definitely thought about since I saw it.
Fun fact: I myself am trans and I actually do scream like that sometimes when I’m alone lmao. I went into the movie having no idea what it was supposed to represent and walked out going “wow that’s exactly how being trans feels to me” before looking it up to learn that’s exactly what it was supposed to be.
This movie made me feel away I can't even begin to describe. It's so heartbreaking and terrifying in a way that isn't usually presented. A friend of my pointed how it's insane how much older owen looks in the twenty year time jump compared to his manager who barely looks older. The story is just so gorgeous and heartbreaking and I adore it so much.
18:43 i honestly think the line was meant to mean that he was scared she was going to force him underground, but i read it as he secretly wanted her to come back. to try and bring isabel back one more time.
this is probably my movie of the year. I went into it mostly blind, knowing only that 1) I love jane shoenbraun's work, and 2) king woman & sloppy jane were in it. I walked out of that theater like a little husk of a person. oh my god man. oh my god. (also, outside of the emotional resonance of it; I also just found this film particularly well-crafted! there are so many incredible TINY tiny little details that all weave into the story, so many insane layered references to its inspirations. it's really striking!)
Is it weird that I have an association of neon and horror (at least something bloody oe disturbing going on) because of the number of movies and scenes that involve neon lights I've watched? Now this collection has +1
I WANT TO WATCH THIS SO BAD AHHH but I’m waiting to get back from vacation so I can watch it with my friend. also I watched “I used to be funny” and it was really really good
I think I'm in the camp of not loving it but being unable to stop thinking about it. I look at it this way - the message resonated HARD with me, and as a message-driven piece of art, it is FANTASTIC and highly impactful... but as a plot-driven piece of entertainment, it largely fell flat to me. In other words, it's one of those extremely rare cases where the SUBTEXT works extremely well, even as the TEXT fails to deliver. In the end I guess I just wanted the movie to actually be entertaining and compelling to watch outside of it's subtextual message, and to me it just wasn't. I think the filmmaker just got lost in making the message work, but didn't really put the same effort into making the film itself stand on its own.
My thoughts exactly. There wasn't enough plot for me to grasp beyond the metaphor of transitioning. Ironically I think the movie had an egg crack too- the ending was beautiful and sad and I had a visceral reaction to it, but I really had to hold out to appreciate those moments. Which doesn’t make it bad in my opinion, it just didn't touch me the way I wanted it to.
@@cfor8129 Yeah, exactly, but that is the expectation the trailer and marketing set. Also, I've seen plenty of "message" movies where the plot didn't necessarily have to suffer for the sake of the subtext. A better writer and filmmaker could have made a film that did BOTH. In other words, the film should have been able to stand on it's own as an entertaining and interesting story even if the viewer was completely unaware of and oblivious to the subtextual message. People have successfully been doing both for decades, so it's still just disappointing this one couldn't.
@@darkthaumaturge587 it actually did. It's just not an easily consumable product the way most film has been reduced to over the last couple of decades. To say a movie failed at something it was never trying to do or be in the first place is kinda....
I don’t normally cry during movies, and when I do, it’s usually just a tear or two. But as soon as the credits for this movie started, I completely broke down sobbing. As an autistic person, I wasn’t expecting to understand this movie. I went in pretty much blind, but I did know it had a lot of symbolism that I don’t normally understand. But as a trans person, I understood it completely. I felt seen for the first time. I had years of pushing parts of myself away, afraid of it, finally coming to the surface, with this movie telling me that it’s not too late, and I just started sobbing. I don’t need to live a life where I’m slowly dying. I can be the Pink Opaque. I can be me.
i cried three times watching this movie. first at the inflatable planetarium, then when mr melancholy cuts out isabel's heart, and then at the final scream. this movie was such a gut punch and i can't wait to get a physical copy one day!!
Owen in the movie is the same age as me. As someone who didn't transition even though I "knew" for over a decade, this felt like a sneak peak into my own nightmares. There is still time. There is always time.
The gym canopy scene represents childhood and its innocence and the imagination. The TV show even felt much scarier, which represents growing up and how frightening the world can be. The canopy deflating around Owen represents the end of his childhood. Owen is now a teenager who is completely sucked into the world of the pink opaque while everyone around him continues on with their lives. Maddy was older than Owen, so she already knew more about the show and herself but still struggled with her own identity as a lesbian in their not so progressive town. They both come from different backgrounds and upbringings which will put them on different trajectories even though they share similarities. Maddie essentially has to save herself after Owen sabotages the idea of running away together in search of self discovery. So she decides to cut off all ties with anybody who won't respect the journey, which is something many of us had to do. I believe Owen was also on the spectrum which made self identification and connecting with people outside of the T.V show even harder. I noticed at times that Owen would miss a lot of what Maddy was going through emotionally in her personal life and people with autism do have difficulties reading the emotions others. He even continues to call her Maddie after she repeatedly tells him not to. He completely rejects her story of self discovery and how she broke free of her depression upon their reunion. We find out that Maddie tried to help Owen see himself differently once before which felt good for a moment but he completely rejects even remembering this moment and Maddie's retelling of the show.... that they are indeed the pink opaque. Maddie fails to save Owen but how can you save someone who isn't ready to be saved? Maddie tells Owen that she paid a man 50 dollars to bury her alive which means she finally got therapy. She explains this experience as feeling like a death but being reborn. She was able to break free after totally surrendering herself to the truth and allowing a part of herself to die. Reaching inside of yourself like this isn't easy and many people don't make it out on the other side, which is Owen. Owen tells us that he never sees Maddie again after she fails to "find" him but I don't blame Maddie for this as she must practice self perseveration or risk falling back into the same nightmare. Its many years later and Owen is working a menial job and physically unwell having died a spiritual and mental death, which is something Maddie had been desperately trying to save him from. Mr. Melancholy has taken full control over Owen and he doesn't even realize how long he's been buried. I believe the luna juice represents substance abuse which many people use to help suppress the difficulties of life, when in actuality it keeps us trapped and controlled. The ending was so sad as Owen is completely in the throws of his own mental illness and nobody is responsive when he snaps. You're left wondering if Owen ever finds himself after he finally opens up his chest to reveal that he is indeed the pink opaque.
I’m sorry, I’m ok with letting a movie be super artistic and letting the art speak for itself BUT this movie made me angry af at the end. I said to myself, I’m still intrigued about how this will all tie up in the end throughout the whole the movie but, the end pissed me tf off. I can understand what they’re trying to convey but I didn’t see that at all. It’s obvious this movie wasn’t for me. No disrespect to that community at all.
I love this review. I actually *literally just* watched the movie before coming to your review of it. As a woman who transitioned, I couldn't help but think of "Owen" as Isobel (using she/her whenever I saw Justice Smith on screen) and I wonder if that makes sense to you too?
As a queer person I can't lie, the movie even confused me a little at times. And the one scene being so exposition heavy lost me a bit, I would've loved if they found a less direct way to communicate all those points rather than having Maddy explain it all to him for several minutes. But jeez, the ending with him apologizing to everyone around him and reliving it through this video essay is really making me tear up. The scream was a lot, but God that scene was the truly heart breaking part for me. Like, him realizing, and him touching a piece of the truth again, and then immediately going back to his own ways to reinforce the fake reality again because he doesn't know what else to do.
As a queer woman I so resonate with pushing the feelings down. I’m asexual and found it out when I was in my senior year of high school. I had always thought I wasn’t able to be attracted to people or be in love. The more I thought about being ace or queer the more I pushed it and tried to fake having crush on people. My family is also religious so things were even more tough trying to find out who I was and how I really felt. The more of this I did the worse I felt I felt fake and broken and it sucked. I love how they used the transgender experience though since many people don’t understand transgender people and their experience and the emotional toll it takes on people when people can’t be who they are because of the fear of being casted out and hated. As an ace women I vibe with that feeling of using tv shows and movies as an escape of reality and avoiding the real world and your own identity with sexual feelings
I watched it with a group of friends. I knew it was related to the trans experience. So that helped me not be completely confused. But I truly don’t know if I liked it. It was interesting, I felt gutted by the end. But idk that it executed everything that it wanted to. So I’m excited to watch this video!
It's also the fact that in the movie whenever Owen apologized for not understanding part of the Pink Opaque. Then it parallels how Owen was apologizing to those people in the fun center. and Maddy just says "dont apologize" but there Owen is still apologizing years later.
Knowing going in that Schoenbrun flat out said in interviews that both their works so far are Trans allegories, I left this movie crushed. That ending just left me wanting to hug my Trans Eldest child at the thought that they could have EVER felt that way, even for a moment. Of course, they are happily living their Out life in another state, but my Bisexual Post menopausal self was still a mess lol. Loved it though and immediately recommended it to everyone, especially for the way the score and movie meld together so seamlessly
( fellow Canadian here) The most jarring thing for me is how much it reflected my feelings of toxic nostalgia and the way that time passes. They mention so many times that time speeds up as you age and this is definitely true and actually scary in real life. Also as the mother or a trans child...it hit me deep in the soul and made me happy he is able to be who he is without fear.
I am 14 minutes in. And i think of the theory of Twin Peaks: Twin Peaks is meta, where the characters in the show are playing parts in a typical drama and unaware that they are characters in a show. I dont know how else to word it. Dale Cooper portrays the audience. He is giddy to go to a town where a woman was murdered. He grins, smiles. He runs off coffee and sweets, the fuel of the investigation. Laura Palmer was the "golden goose" she was literally wrapped up like a TV dinner. THE FLIPPING CREATOR is the DIRECTOR of the FBI. Scenes from the in show novela for tell what is happening in Twin Peaks. And i can go on what the their season was, it wasnt Twin Peaks, because it's soul (Lara Palmer's murder mystery was solved) was gone. What was Twin Peaks if it didnt have its soul? Just Twin Peaks on the outside and rot on the inside.
I can go on....but there is an amazing video on Twin Perfect's channel talking about this meta theory. I think the director pulled some inspiration from this meta theory. And IM here for it.
I didn’t like it. I guess I’m just too emotionally fucked to really understand this movie. Plus. I NEVER watched the trailer, I should’ve. That ending was fucking Goofy.
it's disappointing seeing a compelling and relatable lesbian character's purpose in the story being watered down to aiding the male character's journey of self discovery. tropey and tired. the movie's intended message frankly gave "I'm a lesbian trapped in a straight man's body! hurhuryur" bad joke vibes. despite my qualms tho i must admit the lead actor was absolutely phenomenal and i enjoyed the millennial memberberries sprinkled throughout
I loved it. And I'm glad the theater I was in didn't find it funny. Everyone seemed to come out of the movie literally dazed and confused. A couple of women came up to me and my friend and asked what we thought. We had a great conversation and I think about the movie and that night often. It's the kind of movie I would make! What a ride. I was sad for Owen but glad he could find happiness at the end. I love surrealist movies and this hit that spot.
I thought this was gonna be trippy movie ,idk wtf i watched i didht khow this was trans movie,thought it was supposed to be horror , ending was something. Overall the ice cream dude was the best part
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 600K!
Sorry this one took so long I've been filming The Mothership with Friendly Space Ninja in Montreal a week and a half!
YES I know about A Trip to the Moon, I just mentioned Smashing Pumpkins because they specifically covered the song for the album and the album title - I know that's where SP got it originally!
You deserve it and so much more!!! You're one of my favorite channels thanks for all you do!
hey amanda! :) congrats
You honestly should have millions!
💪 HazzaH!! Let us Cheer to the next & Celebrate!! 🎉🤓😎
Only up from here ma guy. Been following for a while. Awesome to see you get what you deserve (sounds threatening my bad) lets gooooo 🎉🎉🎉
The best thing I’ve read to describe this movie is that it’s “a violent wake-up call to be yourself” and I felt that.
oh yeah that's really lovely
That's how I took it too. The danger of genuinely is worth the cost of safety of avoiding your potential. It clicked when I saw him aged.
i do to somthing is so wrong in are world
God, the way Justice Smith screamed "This is not my home" and his breakdown near the ending is so visceral. Now I'm so fucking pissed this movie will 99% percent not play on a theater near me.
yeah sadly my city didn't even get it in Canada, was just fortunate enough to catch it at two festivals
It's the "Mommy!" that really *really* got me. I've seen all kinds of fucked up movies but that is by far the most disturbing thing I've ever witnessed. I think in that scene we're seeing Isabelle come online and break thru Owen's false consciousness, which means we're watching a "fictional character from a kids show" scream in agony for their "fictional mother character" as they're dying. Fuck.
I cried sooo hard at this scene. Truly so brilliant and tragic.
I would definitely check! I had to go like thirty minutes away but I was able to catch it in theaters and I live in Indiana. I actually just checked and it’s still playing at the theater I saw it at. If not, it’ll probably be on streaming soon enough without needing to purchase/rent it
It was in my amc in a pretty popular area
The scene at the end where he was freaking out in the party room and everybody else looks like they “powered down” broke me, it was such a accurate visual, portrayal of what it feels like to suffer in silence by yourself.
FRRR
lmao that is not hat happened in that scene.
if anything, that scene was about people freaking out for no reason [over banal shit] letting everyone around them down. like we are all tired of your shit.
@@JohnRiversOfficial and we’re tired of your lack of empathy. Nobody cares about your bad attitude. Go be sad and hateful somewhere else. Bye 👋🏻
@@JohnRiversOfficial interpretation exists
Idk why but them apologizing to everyone at the end is what got to me more than anything. That physically hurt me when I watched it in theaters 😭.
Me too. Absolute gut punch when I realized that was the ending.
SAME
Shattered my heart
And don't we do that? We apologize for being a traumatized person to people who don't care. Telling them we're sorry is just another instance of them trying to make the interaction end faster. They'd be more comfortable if we never had any emotions or we didn't exist in their reality
same!! i just watched it and that part especially made me so sad :(
bruh i walked out of this movie so damn confused, i rly thought my guy was doing the right thing and was rooting for him the whole time, then at the very end i realized like “omg no he’s trapped in hell, noooo”
I think that's such an interesting way to have experienced it though!
I didn't think that at all, he seemed miserable as hell even before the outburst, conforming at his own detriment (relatable)
I felt the exact same way, I kept thinking: why would he believe her? She seems like she’s tweaking 😭
spoileeeeeeeeeeers
@@Talia778 it's perfect! That's how it feels for a lot of us to have to accept you're trans, you feel like you'd have to be out of your mind to do it, and you don't know what's going to happen to you after you admit it to yourself, you have no way of knowing if you're going to make it
That final scream of the movie is- and I do not say this lightly- completely and utterly haunting. I felt my blood run cold.
Kudos to the actor because that immediately made me feel so on edge
And it was scary how all the people frooze up as he screamed.
This movie made me feel so uneasy, mainly because it resonated with me so much
@joshuayork8362 almost like he was disturbing the status quo, he was disturbing the song you're supposed to sing. and since he isn't playing along, they cease to exist as people for him, they disengage from his reality entirely just because he isn't playing along
@@joshuayork8362 It was like they didnt know what to do in so they froze in awkwardness.
The two band performances are vital to the movie. Recall that Maddy says every Pink Opaque episode features two musical acts when she is reading the episode guide. So, if the movie is a long Pink Opaque episode, it has to have featured music.
The club they are talking in is also the club in the tv show. I don't know how they're already there but they are
@@FiercelyGold Ohhh shit I didn't catch either of these things
It’s super Twin Peaks season 3
The football scene was so interesting to me. Pulled over the middle line, finally taking a step to who he is. And he runs. He doesn't just run, he runs like a prey animal would. Absolutely terrified. He cannot be trans. It isn't allowed. It isn't real. A very common experience.
Also, have no idea how people see the music as "self indulgent". Have they seen the lyrics? Listening to an abusive parents will result in your death whether spiritually or physically. Exactly what Owen was experiencing.
Music is a huge part of being queer. It's one of the few ways we can express ourselves. Finding queer artists helped me accept myself.
The claw machine lyrics are one of the best things about the film for me. It felt like a song at the Bronze and it was heartbreaking. I can relate to reaching out for love and not being able to hold on. I just sobbed and then found the music video and sobbed some more
As a trans person myself this is by far the best trans rep I have ever seen. There are so many details that are so accurate to the trans experience.
My favourite one that I haven't seen anyone mention is when maddy is talking about the process of waking up from the midnight realm in the coffin (and metaphorically transitioning) she mentions how it's hard. That it's gonna be ugly and scary and not fun but it will be the best thing that ever happened to her. And that is EXACTLY how gender transition is, it's scary and not always pretty but it's something that you need to do.
Also with Owen's jobs all being childish, a movie theadre a games arcade. By denying his identity he is unable to grow up and move on. A nice subversion where other media would demonize the tv he's obsessed with but it is important to his development and coming into who he is supposed to be
So true about Owen not being able to move on, bc Owen never left his childhood home.
her name is isabel
I watched this movie last night going in pretty much blind. Definitely was NOT what I was expecting out of this movie. It's my movie of the year right now. It was all fun and games with the "hehe that's me" until I got to the end and thousand yard stared across my room. I feel like this movie was like 80% vibes and it fucking rocked. Maddy's monologue toward the end was CRAZY.
oh yeah seeing this mostly blind was a TRIP
OH YO also if you wish The Pink Opaque was a real show, lemme recommend Revolutionary Girl Utena!
From "hehe that's me" to "oh god that's me"
That ending will forever haunt me. I swear to God, it gave me a fear i've never felt with movies before. It was just so bleak, even more when i was [Spoiler]
just waiting and waiting for him/her to reunite with her friend in the Pink Opaque.
A cool tidbit is that the person who played Amanda, also voiced Mr Melancholy/Evil Clown/Marco. It adds extra weight to when Maddy says on the bleachers that "[Amanda] has been personally sent by Mr Melancholy to torture her" and why she cries when watching the Evil Clown get beaten. Potentially it could also foreshadow that Mr Melancholy can pretend to be people like in the final episode of The Pink Opaque!
It's also interesting that Amanda's characters in the show are all male but in real life she's a girl.
Genius omg!! That was how I interpreted the scene where maddy cried as well!
@@beansontoast9924 amazing! i just thought it was showing the gradual trajectory of her mixing reality and fiction. but its so layered
Cool detail. I didn't realize that. At first I thought Mr. Melancholy was played by the actor who plays Owen because the face looks somewhat similar, but then I dropped that theory when IMDB revealed he didn't play that character.
@@glyndwr15 😂😂😂 I didn’t realise until I checked IMDb too. I just thought he had a feminine voice yet his name was MR melancholy so I was hoping it was a trans actor lol nah
Even if they were confused, I cannot see how people can laugh at that ending, especially Owen's breakdown. One of the most viscerally devastating things I've seen recently. This will definitely stick with me for a long while.
SXSW is a hard crowd to explain - people are primed to be... not rowdy, but just really verbally engaged with what's being watched? Especially the horror stuff. Once he gets the desperate pleas' out the laughing stopped, it was just that first big one that started a bit of laughing. I agree that it felt very weird in the moment but I don't think that would be most theatre experiences
@@AmandaTheJediI laughed at the initial scream, and I think most of us did bc we didn’t go into the movie expecting this type of film. We all stopped after he kept breaking down. But the first part of his breakdown was so random, that it was kinda funny. Not bc we didn’t feel bad for him, by the end I felt so sad for him. When he was apologizing I wanted to cry. 😭
NGL, when it first happened I laughed because I wasn't expecting it and was uncomfortable, but as it went on I was like fuck...
@@Talia778same!
REAL
This movie is so beautiful, tragic, and nightmarish.
there is still time.
I saw this said on tumblr but it begs repeating: this movie feels like it's doing for trans people what barbie did for cis women. we all needed this (source: i am nonbinary and this movie has been living in my brain ever since I saw it)
I am not trans, I’m a cis a woman who loved this film. Barbie was fine, but it didn’t do anything for me, Poor Things felt more feminist than Barbie lol (great outfits in both though).
@@user-hc2tu7ul7jtrue. barbie felt very fake and plastic to me (ironically) i loved poor things too
That's...actually a very good description. I know, as a trans woman, it took me about a week to fully process this film, because it resonated so strongly.
well, i'm a trans woman who had pretty much similar level of intense feelings about both the barbie movie and i watched the tv glow. lol. oh well.
@@user-hc2tu7ul7jI genuinely felt like poor things was feminism from the POV of a Perverted Greek guy 😂. Like be Exually liberated if you want but don’t act like it’s this huge statement especially in 2024…like look around..nobody cares except Incels. Like I get it was overdone for comedy but I wifely MArk’s character…don’t come to me RIGHT after you gave guy head and sleep with every guy who looks at you😂.
Loved this movie! I'm not trans, but I could still empathize a lot with the themes in it. The weirdness really worked for me, since the surrealism of what Owen was feeling seemed to be pretty obvious. I was very disappointed that it doesn't seem like it didn't work for a lot of viewers.
So my friends and I watched this together, and one thing we landed on that I thought was so interesting is how Owen is totally fine with Maddie being gay in their conversation on the bleachers but he refuses to call her Tara when she tells Owen her truth. We thought this was a beautiful potential metaphor for his internalized transphobia since he (she) refused to accept that part of herself so she is sort of dead naming “Maddie” in this scene to show she’s not ready to face that reality. Overall I loved this movie and as a nonbinary person this gave me so many feels, I loved it.
Had a complete opposite theatre going experience with this one. I went in blind (saw the trailer once when it came out but not a second time) and about half way through the film I could hear the people behind me starting to cry. By the end when we are in the arcade people were straight up sobbing. I was pretty stunned at the end and even though I really enjoyed it I won’t ever forget that experience…
that was closer to my FIRST experience watching it at Sundance where they audiences are a little more primed for stuff like this
I so wish I could've seen this in a cinema, it isn't playing in any cinemas near me so I just had to watch it at home, watched it mostly blind although I knew it had something to do with being trans and the trans experience and as a trans person wow it was amazing, only realised I'm trans this year and I've honestly felt so numb in recent times, this resonates with me a lot, I hope to watch this in the future when I can be living my true self and see how I feel watching this.
@@zenolord2242I watched it at home alone because I knew it was inspired by Buffy and The Adventures of Pete and Pete, and all those oddball (pre)teen programming of the late 90s. That was my jam. If I found a kid reading a Buffy episode guide I'd also low key stalk them too.
But I did share Buffy and Are You Afraid Of The Dark with friends who were not supposed to watch that kind of thing. I reached out for a connection but could never hold on. Cue me crying about the claw machine song.
Petition for Amanda to make a comprehensive list of all her cool shirts and where I can buy them
Where do I sign?
"We get phoebe bridgers let the saphics have their day" A fucken men . Gonna have to watch this one great review as usual.
I went and saw this movie by myself. It was such an intense experience no piece of media has made me feel before. My theater full of previously obnoxious teens and young adults all sat in silence and let the credits roll. I left the theater and walked home feeling deeply surreal and disassociating heavily, to the point I was fighting off a panic attack the entire time. Being home alone with those feelings felt like a bad idea so I wandered my city trying to find food but my walk almost felt equally upsetting because nothing felt real and no one seemed real. I don't even know how to articulate it. I can't wait to own this movie, it's like nothing I've ever seen or felt.
Wow this was my exact experience too (except I stayed in my kitchen once home because I couldn't stop crying). Never has media made me feel like this, compounded with the way people were under reacting in the theater.
I had the same reaction to this movie, but I wasn’t sure I liked it. I think the uncomfortable nature of the film, made me almost angry that I watched it. But I think I need to see it from your perspective. It’s good that I felt uncomfortable, I should be uncomfortable with not living life the way I want to. Whatever that looks like. 👍
100% made me feel like that time I had a vivid dream within a vivid dream where I wanted to wake up to the first dream because I was absolutely convinced that that was my actual reality 🫠
I think that movie triggered a derealization episode for you. I've felt that way before many times because of a number of reasons, so I know what it feels like
I'm glad you found a video comment section to get these thoughts out. I also saw it alone and it feels appropriate to experience it alone but also painfully lonely. But we're here. Maybe we watched it separately and will never know each other but we had a similar reaction and we're not alone
The extended music scene is also important, because early on Maddy mentions that every episode of the Pink Opaque had a musical interlude at a venue called the Double Lunch...which just happens to be the same name of the bar that Maddie and Owen are watching Phoebe Bridgers perform at. It's yet another confirmation that the movie *is* an episode of the Pink Opaque.
I am 3 months pregnant right now and very naseous, and Amanda explaining horror movies to me has been my audiovisual comfort food. ❤
Feel better!
@AmandaTheJedi Thanks Amanda! Keep making great stuff! 👍
I did the same thing when I was pregnant with twins! Also watched a lot of Lindsay Ellis and Todd in the Shadows to fall asleep at night. Hang in there ❤️
Hang in there! First tri was the WORST! I’ve never felt so sick in my life. It gets so much better in your second trimester.
If I may recommend NOT to watch trashy Netflix Christmas movies around your due date, my water broke at 35 weeks and I blame the appalling quality of the Christmas Prince (or whatever it was called) for my baby basically going "that's it, if coming out of here early is what's gonna take to stop you from watching this trash I'LL DO IT"
Wish I knew of Amanda back then
Super random...but as an autistic person the "i like tv shows" line is EXTREMELY relatable. I make jokes all the time that I'm basically "the cable guy" because I am an amalgamation of masks created from tv shows i watched as a kid. So this line....made me feel very seen actually.
I also think fictional characters and story lines can help fill the social void many autistics struggle from.
I have an Autistic friend who loves tv for this reason. For me it was investigating psychology starting in grade 6. Both of us have a life long special interest rooted in trying to understand people.
I prefer to think of myself as more of abed nadir personally 😛
Owen felt completely like an autistic person in every facet, it’s scary how accurate this film got it without directly trying.
@@quasarulas3968 I relate to Abed Nadir soo much too! 💙
Is it weird to say that this would be a great double feature with "I'm thinking of ending things"? Both are movies about the suffocating weight of not being the person you wanted to be, both have themes of nostalgia and the distortion of memory, the most significant lines of both films ("There is still time" and "What are you waiting for?") are tragic with context but still nonetheless uplifting, etc.
Idk, maybe I'm just making aimless commenctions
Nah they definitely both have that liminal/surreal space feel to them!
They're movies that ask which life is actually meaningful: The one that exists in fantasy or the one in which we live our real lives. It also made me think of the Neverending Story, especially the scene where Atreyu, who is the heroic and fictional version of Bastion, sees Bastion reading the story in the magic mirror gate.
It's not even the real show, but being canceled at that cliffhanger still annoys me.
Justice Smith and Bridgette Lundy Paine gave fantastic performances, I can't wait to see their future projects. I found it very relatable when Owen replied that he liked watching television.
That hit me a particular way as I just started dating someone who I got to share some films with and for once didn't cringe, tell me they were weird (in a "I hope I never see that again" way), but in fact had watched some of them already.
Too bad after weeks of feeling really level with him he just ended things and when I suggested this film he just said the trailer was of no interest and with our shared interest refused my recommendation.
Double whammy. Reject me and a movie that deeply spoke to me.
As a trans man who grew up in the 90s/early 2000s, hiding every aspect of myself and trying to play female... this movie. WOW. WOW. holy shit.
I made the mistake of watching this movie high the first time and missed a lot of things, and I'm very grateful for your video breaking it down so thoroughly. This movie very much put another crack in my egg. I'm still working on it, but I'll get out of the midnight realm eventually.
That scene of Owen screaming had me friggin bawling, man. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was gut punched by it!
The way Justice can so perfectly play mental breakdowns make me wanna ask him
You good?
God did Maddy hit me right in the feels. I was also really lost in my fantasies and favourite fictional media I was a bit too obsessed with and I think if I hadn’t found someone like my friends I would have wound up a lot like her. And her talking about how time passing felt wrong like it was too fast hit so hard. I didn’t think I would ever make it to high school and here I am about to go to university and live alone with a family I’m not even related to and have barely spoken to. And it’s so terrifying.
Man this movie was good.
Love your channel but I just had to nitpick. You gave The Smashing Pumpkins the credit for the moon face reference but they were referencing Georges Méliès film 'A Trip to The Moon' (1902). My MFA in film couldn't let that slide. Love you.
Thank you i was saying the same thing 😭 its especially fitting due to the tone of the movie
ooof yeah you're right that's where they got the imagery as well - I just thought it was more directly linked to the Smashing Pumpkins in this movie because that album is called 'Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness' so I assumed that's where the character name came from, especially with a Tonight Tonight cover on the album.
i watched it alone in my house the day it was released on vod. i think i watched it with the most perfect yet most awful headspace. it felt like watching someone show my journal on screen the way it hit all of my thoughts. i'm glad i watched it alone because at the end when owen screamed for help, screamed for his mom, i immediately started helplessly ugly sobbing on the floor. i loved it. im not sure if i'll be able to watch it again.
There’s actually no better feeling on the planet than laying down after a long day and seeing a UA-camr you like talk about a movie you like.
I literally watched it with my friend yesterday and felt like I had an existential crisis by the end. We're both queer and my friend is also someone under the trans label and so we spent a while discussing how it resonated with us both, and also learning about the director. Wasn't surprising to find confirmation of it being an allegory for the trans experience, and we ended up having a really long and meaningful conversation after the movie. Honestly, 10/10. I really enjoyed the experience even though I did feel really confused at some points.
I literally said "what the fuck" as soon as the movie ended haha. Didn't love it at first but can't stop thinking about it
I saw a review saying that you shouldn’t watch this movie alone. I did not follow that advice, and I regret it.
I came *stumbling* out of my theater. This movie might be the single most tragic thing to ever tragedy, and the part about it at that hurt most by the end was the understanding that Owen’s emotional situation is how so, so many real people feel going throughout their real lives.
Almost never has any piece of fiction overwhelmed me with such a specific, pointed feeling the way this one has.
As soon as I saw the football field shots I thought, "oh, that's Pete & Pete all over the place," so when ACTUAL Pete & Pete popped up it knocked me flat.
For the record, The Adventures of Pete & Pete still absolutely slaps and I will hear no argument to the contrary.
Pete & Pete is amazing, I just rewatched it all on UA-cam and loved it again.
@@alcachofa03 Bought the first two seasons on DVD years ago, but they never released the third. Every time I think about it my brain itches, lol.
loved the obvious Twin Peaks inspiration in this one and now realizing I NEED Amanda to do a Twin Peaks video
It's so funny cause I've just started going back through it
This reminds me that I need to finish twin peaks one day, cause yeah you are right I never really thought about that connection till now, the lynch inspiration is all over this movie
As a trans woman, I didn't like the movie and it's been a baffling experience trying to figure out why. Even though I could see the experiences that matched mine, it didn't not tap into those emotions.
"It's an emotional gut punch!" "I cried so many times!" "It hit really hard!"
My reaction was closer to "yeah, I guess" It did not hit hard at all. I found it cheesy a lot of the time. Even the scene of him screaming was like "yup, been there."
The fact that some many people feel these emotions and I felt none of it, really makes me wonder if I've cut myself off from some part of myself. It's been 5 years since I transitioned and I still feel like it's "too late." What have I done to seal myself off, that even cis are moved by it, meanwhile my response is "it's just another Tuesday."
Maybe the problem is Owen avoids introspection while that's all I did. That was a big part of my coping mechanisms. He is hard for me to relate to him because he's avoidant in ways that I'm too accustomed to to feel sad, provoke my sense of self-loathing, or that I can't relate to. Maybe it's because I watched Buffy with my mom?
I also kind of hate that the way to escape is the bury yourself alive. I don't get how that metaphor is supposed to work at all. Why is Maddy acting like a shell of herself? That whole scene ripped me out of the experience.
It's great, but it seems like some people were confused by it, if you read comments to videos like this one. They don't get that the world of the Pink Opaque is the true one. Owen really is Isobel from the show. The life he lives as Owen is false. Maddy / Tara is telling him the truth. All the allegorical stuff in the show which appears to symbolize Owen's real life isn't allegorical or symbolic at all. It's the reverse. It's his false life as the male Owen in the "midnight realm" which is actually allegorical and symbolic of his true life as Isobel in the show. That's the central dramatic conceit of the film.
Also, it just occurred to me that Tara and Isobel first meet at "sleepaway camp." The film Sleepaway Camp is actually a 1980s trans themed Friday the 13th style slasher film.
As soon as I watched it, I went looking for your review because I needed ANSWERS. IT'S FINALLY HERE
As some who's AuDHD and queer, his mannerisms also screamed neurodivergent to me: not being able to look his boss in the eye, the way he struggles with communication and relating to allistic people, his meltdown at the end, and how strict his parents were, like they were overprotective because they saw him as vulnerable. At least that's how I saw it. Very powerful messages in this film, and all too relatable.
Remember taking cursory glances at the posts made by the people I follow on social media. They’d start like, “I saw the TV glow-“ the etc etc. I didn’t read these posts properly since I didn’t know what they were talking about, and thus, didn’t really care. But I kept seeing it. “I saw the TV glow blah blah blah-“, “I saw the TV glow yada yada yada-“ and I’d be so confused, like, what is ‘The TV Glow’??? Why does everyone phrase these posts the same way??? Why did they never say “I *watched* The TV Glow”. It was freaking me out a little
… anyway I eventually saw the tags and thumbnails such as the one on the video and realised I had been a bit of an idiot
This movie was a strange tragic horror movie of such a significant fashion.
It gave me flashbacks to my own high school and when my theater did some of the classical morality plays. Or stuff like Tales from the Crypt or Creepshow, where they have those stories of the main character just inevitably following folly until the gruesome end.
That we never get any kind of final resolution to Justice's character is the final horrifying gut punch because by the end we KNOW what she should do.
The only comfort is that last scroll of "It's never too late" on the road for everyone out in the audience who is having an existential crisis. I've heard of cracking eggs, but never thought of using a god damn battering ram.
This looks as unsettling as the color palette in your on-brand Hawaiian shirt.
Yes, this sounds brilliant. But, Amanda, MiLF Manor 2 is out 😄
Now _that's_ the Nightmare Realm.
@@RedSpade37 This time there are dads.
I was 18 in 1996, this movie hit different...ughhhh, my heart.
I was 12, literally Isobel's age. It hurt *so much.*
The streaming scene really made me think about how A: when being much less used to hyperrealistic animation, basic 3D shape animation were alot more interesting to kids, and B: the goosebump type shows being aired late at night added to the vibe. The intense focus after a tiring day made a blend for watching a show which isnt the same as watching them fully awake and focused. What made the misery really click for me at the end was how flat everything was in that “fun center”, how the birthday kid picked up one sided bills, how cheap the sprites looked in the arcade game in contrast to the vividness of the early show. Its either a bitterness at the inherent lack of artistry, at the passing away of creativity, or just at the loss of ability to enjoy things. All of those could either be statements of necessary reality or at a miserable kind of subjective experience. I love the ambiguity
As a straight guy who had a pretty great childhood this movie still resonated with me because it really tapped into one of my greatest fears, which is that I'll go through my whole life never fully being who I want to or could be. I think the way Schoenbroun was able to put such a personal spin on what I imagine is a pretty universal fear is really amazing.
God, I remember seeing this in theaters and having to stop myself from screaming out "NO!" When the "it was time for me to be a man" line happened. It got everyone I went to the theater with.
As a trans guy, this movie... Is really truthful in a strange way. It feels like a warning and encouragement at once.
Unfortunately that can be so much of the LGBTQ+ (but especially the T right now) experience
went to go watch this literally the day after i graduated. the part that hit me the hardest was “there is still time”. it’s such a simple message but it’s so heartbreaking and also comforting in a way
I was trying so hard to not just ugly sob during this film. And I ugly sob even revisiting it.
First I thought she had cracked and ran off and exposed herself to abuse as a teen runaway. Then I thought she was trying to end them both together because she thought they were mutually suffering a world that didnt understand them and due to whatever trauma she faced. Then I thought she made him roleplay Isabell, like she bonded with him and was pretending he was a girl and he went along because it made her happy (I blame Mysterious Skin for the memories and consent and different perspectives of the same event interpretation and was thankful that it wasnt this with queer characters).
But the end just left me trying to silently cry in the tiny theater because the handful of people (but tiny indie theater, so still like 1/4 of seats) did not seem to be feeling the film I felt. They seemed to like it fine, no awkwardness, but no gut punches either.
I walked home feeling kind of broken and called out and wished Id had someone to share it with and hug.
Its been a terrible month after a rather hard first half of the year, almost out of nowhere and the film just felt like pliers to the wound... pain while trying to get at something deeper.
Doesnt help I did watch Buffy from day 1 and media that is metaphorical, queer, strange, sad, and musically gifted is my comfort, but also reminds me of how outside I feel.
As a trans woman this is perfect and it feels like the only movie that gets me
This movie hit me so hard! I walked out of the movie seeing people just kind of talking like normal and thought to myself "How are yall functioning normally after that!?" It's definitely not for everyone and will hit each viewer differently. I personally had a similar breaking point towards the end there, albeit I was alone when it happened. Luckily I came out of it in a positive way. I am so glad you recommended this a while back, Amanda. I also pride myself on avoiding trailers so my viewing was not sullied with expectations.
I’m nonbinary, disabled lesbian, and I’ve also apologized for being a disappointment and a burden. I don’t feel like I have much time left
God do I feel this. Been dealing with chronic pain for a few years now since the pandemic, and whenever I'm walking with friends or my partner and I have to stop to not be in pain, and I just apologise for the inconveinence and shit like that. Like man...
It’s so sad that people make you feel this way. You’re human. Flesh bone and brain like any other person. There are many nasty people in this world who would cause harm with zero regard or respect. You managing your life and experiencing pure joy being into women is NOT a disappointment. Humans are little and soft. we get broken down, we’e born funny, we’re born a little weird and that’s FINE that’s why we are social animals and we have community and healthcare and you deserve to indulge and be cared for by that support system. Don’t let some other piece of perspective, flesh and bone make you feel like your perspective, flesh, and bone are worth any less.
There's always time 💖
I live in same living situation as Owen. I went with this cause I got no money or energy to live on my own. After watching this movie I applied to bunch of jobs and started looking for room, cause I can't afford whole flat. Mb we don't have much time, but at least I wanna try to save myself one more time.
This movie was amazing. I can't say it hit as hard as it would've if I were trans, but I did have a bad childhood, I did go through a lot of self discovery to discover that I was demisexual and that I should not be ashamed of that or fearful of it. And I felt this movie a lot, the entire idea of living in a world that you're not even sure is real because you're constantly not even sure if your own life is real, and if you feel like that, don't other people? Is everyone just faking it? Rediscovering those hidden parts of our past that we buried away because they weren't convinient.
And in the end the movie did a masterful job of planting a seed in the viewers head of a deep terrifying sense of reality all around them. Bravo to the team behind this movie, well done, my favorite horror movie since Midsommar.
I have been out as trans since 2015 but I never changed my name and that can affect your life in ways you may not even realize. I won’t get into that. But when I saw this is woke something me that had been in a self induced coma for a long time.
I had my own birthday party breakdown scene today. Realized I have to change my name. I also need to come out as gay bc I am. A gay trans guy. Won the reincarnation lottery lol this feels like the first day of my life, and I’m 38. I’m glad this movie shook me to my core and made me feel seen in ways that honestly hurt.
Im so proud of you man. I hope you find happiness and peace for the rest of your life ❤
Every time I think of an aspect of this film, I get a deeper understanding. Someone pointed out that Maddy essentially foreshadows Owen's eventual breakdown by end of film. She says she "apologized to everyone around her." Every little detail from the blue cotton candy to the moon juice to how Marco and Polo are "biologically" women but present as masculine with facial hair.. THIS FILM IS A MASTERPIECE
This movie scared me, I was prepared for the open minded climax, and experience something I’ve never experienced- this movie delivered. My God that scream at the end, I felt anxious, anxiety was on overload, and what’s frightening ? I feel like I live that life, all I did as a teenager was hide within myself, watching movies, tv shows, watching certain movies over & over, because it gave me a feel of things I missed out on.. one movie that really strikes a chord to me, was Dazed & Confused, and a show? Beverly Hills 90210, because that was my school in Key West was exactly like- but, I always felt like I was a camera man in my own life.. never fitting in, felt awkward, easy to get lost in it all.. the overwhelming feeling like I’m supposed to fit somewhere.. but, I don’t.. now I’m older, and the regrets I have are torturous. I feel like I can’t breathe at times..
I feel like I lived a lie..
This movie drew all that out, and really horrified me.. this is terrifying on a level I don’t want it to be, it scares me, but l kinda feel like I’m repeating a process of taking a piece of cinema way too personal.. filling an emptiness.. this movie is phenomenal.. my god this movie really is something unique.
11:27 "i did not do that 🤨" THAT MADE ME LAUGH
So the quote "if you dont resignate with this movie congratulations on having a happy childhood" really kinda rubbed me the wrong way that was a poor choice of words just because a person hasnt went through the same things as you did growing up does not mean they had a childhood thats exclusionary and ignorant honestly and just screams victimhood mentality i havent seen the movie by the way
I saw it more as a reference to A Trip to the Moon and a secondary reference to smashing pumpkins who were referencing that film.
the album is called Mellon Collie (melancholy) and the infinite sadness - could be both but I think Jane would be referencing Smashing Pumpkins more or at least equally
@@AmandaTheJedi Oh its like a reference to a reference, like the smashing pumpkins referenced A Trip to The Moon, but the moon face guy is from the 1902 film. Id guess Jane would be aware of both?
Yup, stopping at the 4:43 mark to wait until I get to watch this because Amanda sold the shit out of it!
Bruh I knew the opening font was Buffy! Ok thanks for confirming that. I thought it was just my Buffy colored glasses.
I watched the trailer and went in expected a horror movie, and ended up hating the movie. I wasn't letting myself enjoy the movie cause I was waiting for that horror to come in, when really its more of a psychological thriller. Definitely going to rewatch it with some of my friends so I can hope to really enjoy it this time.
I walked out of the theatre fully feeling like 'that was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen'. But I liked it. I liked the message. It was tragic. But there was a message of hope in it. I did resonate a lot with the idea of just going along with things because you don't want to disappoint people or it feels too hard to be yourself. I've definitely thought about since I saw it.
Fun fact: I myself am trans and I actually do scream like that sometimes when I’m alone lmao. I went into the movie having no idea what it was supposed to represent and walked out going “wow that’s exactly how being trans feels to me” before looking it up to learn that’s exactly what it was supposed to be.
This movie made me feel away I can't even begin to describe. It's so heartbreaking and terrifying in a way that isn't usually presented. A friend of my pointed how it's insane how much older owen looks in the twenty year time jump compared to his manager who barely looks older. The story is just so gorgeous and heartbreaking and I adore it so much.
18:43 i honestly think the line was meant to mean that he was scared she was going to force him underground, but i read it as he secretly wanted her to come back. to try and bring isabel back one more time.
this is probably my movie of the year. I went into it mostly blind, knowing only that 1) I love jane shoenbraun's work, and 2) king woman & sloppy jane were in it. I walked out of that theater like a little husk of a person. oh my god man. oh my god.
(also, outside of the emotional resonance of it; I also just found this film particularly well-crafted! there are so many incredible TINY tiny little details that all weave into the story, so many insane layered references to its inspirations. it's really striking!)
Is it weird that I have an association of neon and horror (at least something bloody oe disturbing going on) because of the number of movies and scenes that involve neon lights I've watched? Now this collection has +1
I WANT TO WATCH THIS SO BAD AHHH but I’m waiting to get back from vacation so I can watch it with my friend. also I watched “I used to be funny” and it was really really good
I Used to be Funny was my favorite movie from last year that gets to be one of my favorite movies this year. So glad people are enjoying it
Literally paused this video to go watch the movie, and got punched in the gut so hard. I'm going to be thinking about this movie for years.
I think I'm in the camp of not loving it but being unable to stop thinking about it. I look at it this way - the message resonated HARD with me, and as a message-driven piece of art, it is FANTASTIC and highly impactful... but as a plot-driven piece of entertainment, it largely fell flat to me. In other words, it's one of those extremely rare cases where the SUBTEXT works extremely well, even as the TEXT fails to deliver. In the end I guess I just wanted the movie to actually be entertaining and compelling to watch outside of it's subtextual message, and to me it just wasn't. I think the filmmaker just got lost in making the message work, but didn't really put the same effort into making the film itself stand on its own.
My thoughts exactly. There wasn't enough plot for me to grasp beyond the metaphor of transitioning. Ironically I think the movie had an egg crack too- the ending was beautiful and sad and I had a visceral reaction to it, but I really had to hold out to appreciate those moments. Which doesn’t make it bad in my opinion, it just didn't touch me the way I wanted it to.
I think you're looking for it to do something it never wanted to do. It isn't plot driven and never tried to be.
@@cfor8129 Yeah, exactly, but that is the expectation the trailer and marketing set. Also, I've seen plenty of "message" movies where the plot didn't necessarily have to suffer for the sake of the subtext. A better writer and filmmaker could have made a film that did BOTH. In other words, the film should have been able to stand on it's own as an entertaining and interesting story even if the viewer was completely unaware of and oblivious to the subtextual message. People have successfully been doing both for decades, so it's still just disappointing this one couldn't.
@@darkthaumaturge587 it actually did. It's just not an easily consumable product the way most film has been reduced to over the last couple of decades. To say a movie failed at something it was never trying to do or be in the first place is kinda....
@@TheNeishaHarris I'm saying it would have been a better film if it HAD tried.
I don’t normally cry during movies, and when I do, it’s usually just a tear or two. But as soon as the credits for this movie started, I completely broke down sobbing.
As an autistic person, I wasn’t expecting to understand this movie. I went in pretty much blind, but I did know it had a lot of symbolism that I don’t normally understand.
But as a trans person, I understood it completely. I felt seen for the first time. I had years of pushing parts of myself away, afraid of it, finally coming to the surface, with this movie telling me that it’s not too late, and I just started sobbing. I don’t need to live a life where I’m slowly dying. I can be the Pink Opaque. I can be me.
I saw this movie after you recomended it so many times and it was not for me. but its cool you liked it :)
Maybe this video will make you enjoy it a little more! (but maybe not)
@@AmandaTheJedi it definitely helped me understand it more! Congrats on 600k, I’ll always watch your vids no matter the topic
i cried three times watching this movie. first at the inflatable planetarium, then when mr melancholy cuts out isabel's heart, and then at the final scream. this movie was such a gut punch and i can't wait to get a physical copy one day!!
Owen in the movie is the same age as me. As someone who didn't transition even though I "knew" for over a decade, this felt like a sneak peak into my own nightmares. There is still time. There is always time.
This movie has become one of my favorites of all time. I cannot get over and I don’t ever want to.
The gym canopy scene represents childhood and its innocence and the imagination. The TV show even felt much scarier, which represents growing up and how frightening the world can be. The canopy deflating around Owen represents the end of his childhood. Owen is now a teenager who is completely sucked into the world of the pink opaque while everyone around him continues on with their lives.
Maddy was older than Owen, so she already knew more about the show and herself but still struggled with her own identity as a lesbian in their not so progressive town. They both come from different backgrounds and upbringings which will put them on different trajectories even though they share similarities. Maddie essentially has to save herself after Owen sabotages the idea of running away together in search of self discovery. So she decides to cut off all ties with anybody who won't respect the journey, which is something many of us had to do.
I believe Owen was also on the spectrum which made self identification and connecting with people outside of the T.V show even harder. I noticed at times that Owen would miss a lot of what Maddy was going through emotionally in her personal life and people with autism do have difficulties reading the emotions others.
He even continues to call her Maddie after she repeatedly tells him not to. He completely rejects her story of self discovery and how she broke free of her depression upon their reunion. We find out that Maddie tried to help Owen see himself differently once before which felt good for a moment but he completely rejects even remembering this moment and Maddie's retelling of the show.... that they are indeed the pink opaque.
Maddie fails to save Owen but how can you save someone who isn't ready to be saved? Maddie tells Owen that she paid a man 50 dollars to bury her alive which means she finally got therapy. She explains this experience as feeling like a death but being reborn. She was able to break free after totally surrendering herself to the truth and allowing a part of herself to die. Reaching inside of yourself like this isn't easy and many people don't make it out on the other side, which is Owen. Owen tells us that he never sees Maddie again after she fails to "find" him but I don't blame Maddie for this as she must practice self perseveration or risk falling back into the same nightmare.
Its many years later and Owen is working a menial job and physically unwell having died a spiritual and mental death, which is something Maddie had been desperately trying to save him from. Mr. Melancholy has taken full control over Owen and he doesn't even realize how long he's been buried. I believe the luna juice represents substance abuse which many people use to help suppress the difficulties of life, when in actuality it keeps us trapped and controlled. The ending was so sad as Owen is completely in the throws of his own mental illness and nobody is responsive when he snaps. You're left wondering if Owen ever finds himself after he finally opens up his chest to reveal that he is indeed the pink opaque.
So proud of my cousin 🥲 hearing my favorite UA-camr talk about them is amazing.
Is Brigette or Jane your cousin!?
@@AmandaTheJedi Brigette is! 💓
Oh that's so awesome! You can let them know they did a fantastic job (which I'm sure they already know)
I’m sorry, I’m ok with letting a movie be super artistic and letting the art speak for itself BUT this movie made me angry af at the end. I said to myself, I’m still intrigued about how this will all tie up in the end throughout the whole the movie but, the end pissed me tf off. I can understand what they’re trying to convey but I didn’t see that at all. It’s obvious this movie wasn’t for me. No disrespect to that community at all.
I love this review. I actually *literally just* watched the movie before coming to your review of it. As a woman who transitioned, I couldn't help but think of "Owen" as Isobel (using she/her whenever I saw Justice Smith on screen) and I wonder if that makes sense to you too?
As a queer person I can't lie, the movie even confused me a little at times. And the one scene being so exposition heavy lost me a bit, I would've loved if they found a less direct way to communicate all those points rather than having Maddy explain it all to him for several minutes. But jeez, the ending with him apologizing to everyone around him and reliving it through this video essay is really making me tear up. The scream was a lot, but God that scene was the truly heart breaking part for me. Like, him realizing, and him touching a piece of the truth again, and then immediately going back to his own ways to reinforce the fake reality again because he doesn't know what else to do.
As a queer woman I so resonate with pushing the feelings down. I’m asexual and found it out when I was in my senior year of high school. I had always thought I wasn’t able to be attracted to people or be in love. The more I thought about being ace or queer the more I pushed it and tried to fake having crush on people. My family is also religious so things were even more tough trying to find out who I was and how I really felt. The more of this I did the worse I felt I felt fake and broken and it sucked. I love how they used the transgender experience though since many people don’t understand transgender people and their experience and the emotional toll it takes on people when people can’t be who they are because of the fear of being casted out and hated.
As an ace women I vibe with that feeling of using tv shows and movies as an escape of reality and avoiding the real world and your own identity with sexual feelings
I watched it with a group of friends. I knew it was related to the trans experience. So that helped me not be completely confused. But I truly don’t know if I liked it. It was interesting, I felt gutted by the end. But idk that it executed everything that it wanted to. So I’m excited to watch this video!
It's also the fact that in the movie whenever Owen apologized for not understanding part of the Pink Opaque. Then it parallels how Owen was apologizing to those people in the fun center. and Maddy just says "dont apologize" but there Owen is still apologizing years later.
Knowing going in that Schoenbrun flat out said in interviews that both their works so far are Trans allegories, I left this movie crushed. That ending just left me wanting to hug my Trans Eldest child at the thought that they could have EVER felt that way, even for a moment. Of course, they are happily living their Out life in another state, but my Bisexual Post menopausal self was still a mess lol.
Loved it though and immediately recommended it to everyone, especially for the way the score and movie meld together so seamlessly
Im so glad you've harbored an environment where your child is safe with you ❤
( fellow Canadian here) The most jarring thing for me is how much it reflected my feelings of toxic nostalgia and the way that time passes. They mention so many times that time speeds up as you age and this is definitely true and actually scary in real life. Also as the mother or a trans child...it hit me deep in the soul and made me happy he is able to be who he is without fear.
I am 14 minutes in. And i think of the theory of Twin Peaks: Twin Peaks is meta, where the characters in the show are playing parts in a typical drama and unaware that they are characters in a show. I dont know how else to word it. Dale Cooper portrays the audience. He is giddy to go to a town where a woman was murdered. He grins, smiles. He runs off coffee and sweets, the fuel of the investigation. Laura Palmer was the "golden goose" she was literally wrapped up like a TV dinner. THE FLIPPING CREATOR is the DIRECTOR of the FBI. Scenes from the in show novela for tell what is happening in Twin Peaks. And i can go on what the their season was, it wasnt Twin Peaks, because it's soul (Lara Palmer's murder mystery was solved) was gone. What was Twin Peaks if it didnt have its soul? Just Twin Peaks on the outside and rot on the inside.
I can go on....but there is an amazing video on Twin Perfect's channel talking about this meta theory.
I think the director pulled some inspiration from this meta theory. And IM here for it.
I didn’t like it. I guess I’m just too emotionally fucked to really understand this movie. Plus. I NEVER watched the trailer, I should’ve. That ending was fucking Goofy.
it's disappointing seeing a compelling and relatable lesbian character's purpose in the story being watered down to aiding the male character's journey of self discovery. tropey and tired. the movie's intended message frankly gave "I'm a lesbian trapped in a straight man's body! hurhuryur" bad joke vibes. despite my qualms tho i must admit the lead actor was absolutely phenomenal and i enjoyed the millennial memberberries sprinkled throughout
19:26 time is weird. And dame I know it so well.... and authenticity is all we can be. We try our best....
i existential dread was quite bad after watching this haha
love seeing Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine getting more cool parts
Yeah been a fan of Brig since Atypical so really cool to see them get to be in something like this
I loved it. And I'm glad the theater I was in didn't find it funny. Everyone seemed to come out of the movie literally dazed and confused. A couple of women came up to me and my friend and asked what we thought. We had a great conversation and I think about the movie and that night often. It's the kind of movie I would make!
What a ride. I was sad for Owen but glad he could find happiness at the end. I love surrealist movies and this hit that spot.
I thought this was gonna be trippy movie ,idk wtf i watched i didht khow this was trans movie,thought it was supposed to be horror , ending was something. Overall the ice cream dude was the best part