Movie Review I Saw the TV Glow

I Saw the TV Glow (2024) 

Directed by Jane Schoenbrun

Written by Jane Schoenbrun 

Starring Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, Helena Howard, Fred Durst, Danielle Deadwyler

Release Date May 17th, 2024 

Published May 17th, 2024 

I Saw the TV Glow is my favorite movie of 2024 so far. Written and directed by rising star Jane Schoenbrun, the auteur behind the brilliant We're All Going to the World's Fair, I Saw the TV Glow centers on the story of Owen, played by Ian Foreman as a child and Justice Smith as he gets to High School and beyond. Owen was a lonely kid with no friends. A traumatic childhood pushed Owen deep inside himself. As if possessed by a will outside of himself, Owen brings himself to talk to a girl, a slightly older kid at his High School, Maddy (Brigette Lundy Paine). 

Knowing what it is like to be an outsider, Maddy takes pity on Owen and shares with him her book. It's a book about her favorite TV show, a supernatural mystery called The Pink Opaque. The show is about two teenage girls who meet at a summer camp and then never see each other again, in person. Instead, the show protagonists can speak to each other across a different plain of existence. This incredible talent allows them to fight monsters that attack their respective hometowns. It's an odd show that airs on weekends, Saturday nights at 10:30 PM. Too bad for Owen that it airs after his bedtime.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review The Longshots

The Longshots (2008) 

Directed by Fred Durst 

Written by Nick Santora, Doug Atchison 

Starring Ice Cube, Keke Palmer, Dash Mihok, Tasha Smith, Matt Craven 

Release Date August 22nd, 2008 

Published August 21st, 2008 

"Zzzz" Zzzz" Huh, what. Oh. Right. I am reviewing The Longshots starring (Yawn) Ice Cube and Keke Palmer. "Zzzz" "Zzzz". Oh. Sorry. Even thinking about this sports movie snoozefest makes me nod off. It's not that The Longshots isn't appealing or well crafted, it's just not all that interesting. A girl quarterback is novel and the true story thing makes it more novel. Beyond that however, the film, directed by (I kid you not) former Limp Bizkit rocker Fred Durst, is a by the numbers sports movie filled with all of the uplift, pomp and circumstance typical to the genre.

Ice Cube stars as Curtis, a layabout former high school football stud whose life just didn't pan out. Now a neighborhood cautionary tale, Curtis is pushed by his sister to take an interest in his niece Jasmine. They have little in common. When one day Curtis tempts Jasmine into throwing the football with him he finds her surprisingly adept.

Curtis decides to nurture her talent and before long she is throwing with more power and accuracy than most boys her age. Curtis decides to get her a shot with a local pop warner team. Coach Warner (Matt Craven) is, not surprisingly, dubious of the girl's talent but is soon won over. The team stinks anyway, why not a girl quarterback. Jasmine gets a shot and whaddaya know, the team starts winning.

You can plot the rest of the movie in your head. There is a subplot with Jasmine's no good, deadbeat father. That plot, like the main sports story, plays out in just the same by the numbers fashion. Clearly, Fred Durst and writer Nick Santora have read their McKee books. They plot everything on a flow chart and never deviate. Predictability quickly gives way to boredom in The Longshots and boredom is a sin no film can survive.

Keke Palmer is a young actress with a very bright future. She however, needs to choose the right roles. Akeelah and the Bee, definitely the right role. The Longshots? Not so much. It's not that she doesn't perform well. It is rather that she is forgotten amidst the supremely dull presaged plot. No actress, no matter how engaging, can overcome a plot as rote and uneventful as that of The Longshots.

(Yawn) The Longshots is a devastatingly dull sports movie. Despite the very talented Keke Palmer and the likable Ice Cube, this movie was DOA. Director Fred Durst and writer Nick Santora doomed this project when they failed to find something more to do with this plot beyond adhering to every melodramatic, sports movie cliche in the book.