The Pink Opaque Glows Too Bright

The fish tank green glow hits you first. The chalky sidewalk blues appear alongside arcade purples which create a nauseating effect while colors reach their maximum intensity at eleven until your eyes become watery. The discovery of living in a different reality than your own becomes apparent only after you have already lost control of your situation.

Look, here's the thing.

Owen watches the TV screen with an expression that suggests he wishes to pass through the screen. Justice Smith speaks his words with a vacant tone which makes his voice sound like it contains water. The way he says "I think that I like TV shows" when Maddy asks about girls or boys. A brief pause occurred in his speech when he hesitated for a short instant. He's not being coy. The boy lacks any understanding about his place in the world because he finds comfort only within the static environment. Actually, wait. I'm getting ahead of myself.

The movie begins in suburban 1990s settings which Schoenbrun and cinematographer Eric Yue present through a distorted VHS-like visual style that appears to have been exposed to sunlight. Everything bleeds at the edges. The production design by Brandon Tonner-Connolly creates a dual atmosphere which combines vintage elements with toxic elements through his endless rows of matching houses and his disturbingly bright yellow and orange color scheme at the Dave & Buster's style arcade where Rachel Dainer-Best appears. Under blacklight they actually made people leave set with migraines. The costumes commit so hard to their wrongness that they almost wrap back around to working.

Can we talk about The Pink Opaque for a second? The fictional show within the film, this Buffy-meets-Are You Afraid of the Dark thing about two psychic girls fighting Mr. Melancholy. The entire show presentation appears intentionally damaged through its use of pre-digital cable static which creates a Nickelodeon SNICK atmosphere that makes viewers feel scared but not threatened. The font design originates from Buffy. The show features Amber Benson as Owen's mother in a role which seems to be a strategic casting decision. These references aren't subtle but they don't need to be.

The story contains blackouts which represent the time skips between different periods. Two years gone. Eight years. You blink and Owen's working at a movie theater then at Fun City arcade then nowhere, really. Just existing. Maddy disappears after telling Owen they're living the wrong lives, that they're actually the characters from the show trapped by Mr. Melancholy. "This isn't the Midnight Realm, Maddy, it's just the suburbs," Owen insists. Maddy observes him as if he is already experiencing suffocation. She is.

(The trans allegory sits right there on the surface. You can ignore it if you want. The movie continues to function as a disturbing dream which demonstrates how nostalgia drives people to lose their identity until they stop existing. But why would you ignore it?)

The arcade remains deeply embedded in my memory. Those colors that shouldn't exist in nature. Yue shows Owen aging through the space while lights become more intense and distorted until the audience understands this is a hellish environment. Not metaphorically. Literally. Owen selected the suburban life instead of revealing the truth which resulted in his eternal existence as a popcorn vendor who serves families who remain unaware of his presence. The film's second half commits to this horror completely. Smith's acting performance creates a disturbing effect because he appears to be suffocating while he keeps telling everyone he is doing well.

There's this moment. Owen stands in his 40s while experiencing a mental collapse inside a bathroom stall before he addresses the camera to apologize to all viewers and himself while shouting "This place does not belong to me!"The film just sits with it. Lets it breathe. Or not breathe. Whatever.

The dialogue creates frustration because it reveals everything through the words that characters speak. Schoenbrun trusts their visuals completely but occasionally the script doesn't. Still lands though. The whole thing lands weird and refuses to leave you alone.