Martin Scorsese Just Gave Some Well-Deserved Praise To One Of 2024's Most Powerful LGBTQ+ Movies: 'Very Moving'

Martin Scorsese
(Image credit: University of Illinois College of Media)

It happens every year, but this was no exception among the 2024 movies. A ton of films were released and came and gone quietly without the amount of buzz they should have received. However, when acclaimed filmmaker Martin Scorsese was recently asked if there were any recent movies he’d seen that he liked, he gave a huge (and deserved) shoutout to a movie called I Saw The TV Glow.

Martin Scorsese Shows Love For An Underrated 2024 Movie

Scorsese has certainly gone viral for his movie opinions before, between his controversial comments on Marvel movies and liking Ari Aster’s Midsommar so much that it inspired Killers Of The Flower Moon. In an interview with AP, Martin Scorsese said this about a recent movie he watched that stood out:

There was one film I liked a great deal I saw two weeks ago called “I Saw the TV Glow.” It really was emotionally and psychologically powerful and very moving. It builds on you, in a way. I didn’t know who made it. It’s this Jane Schoenbrun.

I Saw The TV Glow is an A24 movie that came out in select theaters back in May after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. So there weren't a lot of chances for the indie film to become a bigger title this year, but Martin Scorsese caught it recently (the movie is currently one of the best horror movies of Max) and said he liked it a “great deal.” What an amazing piece of praise for writer/director Jane Schoenbrun to get some props from Scorsese!

Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine in I Saw the TV Glow

(Image credit: A24)

The Powerful LGBTQ+ Message Behind I Saw The TV Glow

I Saw The TV Glow follows two isolated teenagers living in 1996 that bond over their love for a fictional TV show called The Pink Opaque. Jane Schoenbrun told CinemaBlend earlier this year that the movie was inspired by their love of Buffy The Vampire Slayer growing up and how fandom consumed them growing up when they were not yet comfortable in their own queer identity. Schoenbrun is a trans woman, and I Saw The TV Glow allows them to express the difficulty they felt in their childhood and teenage years when they were a “lonely kid in the wrong body.”

CinemaBlend’s own I Saw The TV Glow review gave the movie four stars out of five for being a “haunting” horror drama that draws from its trans filmmakers struggles to accept their LGBTQ+ identity. Critics raved about I Saw The TV Glow too, calling it an emotional and “surreal” aesthetic. While I Saw The TV Glow is one of those horror movies that flew under the radar this year, perhaps Scorsese’s praise will finally get more people to open their hearts to this difficult, yet important film.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.