TV & Movies
The directors sophomore feature deals with identity, suburban rot, and the pitfalls of nostalgia.
Suffocated by suburban social norms, they begin to feel the show is more real than reality.
I Saw the TV Glowis full of surreal, stylish images phantasmagoric, even.
But the movies magic is its refusal to feel magical.
All the enchantment is extracted.
A fog of ennui expands to fill the vacuum.
That idea of safety and stability only exists in what it excludes.
Add a dollop of 90s end of history delusion, and the world only gets hazier.
Smiths character, Owen, is also wrestling with the disorientation of gender dysphoria.
Whats it like going on this whirlwind press tour with A24?
Im here to unpack what I can about the film, the process, and who I am.
I venture to think of it as Im rambling my verbal memoirs to anyone whos willing to listen.
So thats been fun.
Have your rambling conversations taken you anywhere you didnt expect to go?
I really do care and believe in the role of the artist in society.
We live in a very weird and bad society.
Im proud of it.
And also Im excited, I think, to say how weird it is in public.
What in particular has been weird?
I had the political power to be like Hey, heres the big version of what I can do.
[Its] apparently oppositional to the binaries that structure our country.
I dont want to be reinforcing those structures.
It was such a weird tightrope and dance.
The moviedoesnt exactly end with a happily ever after.
Why didnt you want to tie up the ends neatly like that?
When I first started my physical transition, I remember just being overwhelmed.
What do you hope viewers take away from the ending?
I dont think its a cautionary tale.
I dont think its a sad ending.
And I think when trans people watch the film, generally speaking, they understand this.
Well, actually, I totally know what myBuffyreboot would be.
I would love to rebootBuffy.
Ive got a whole pitch.
If anyone wants to give me a call… Can you ever really reclaim the magic of childhood?
I feel like I made a film about how precarious that notion is.
And myX-Filesfan fiction was a mess.
I was like 10 years old, and I dont quite remember what I was writing.
I definitely made up some fakeBuffyspoilers at one point.
I loved spoilers as a kid.
I wanted to be in the writers room even when I was 10.
Do you read fan fiction today?
I spent so many years studying before I was ready to make my own art.
At this point in my life, its almost like my life has become my muse.
Or that I am living and trying to reflect that experience into the work as I make it.
When did you know you were ready to start making your own work?
When I figured out I was trans.
I was still writingWorlds Fairat that point.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
