150 Word Review: 'The Truman Show (1998)
Plato's studio
The Truman Show is a rare work of pop culture prophecy that accurately predicted the near future. It is, somehow, both timeless and timely.
To re-watch the movie is to consider deleting every single social media app: Director Peter Weir's elegant, gently cynical sci-fi surveillance comedy is about a man who doesn't know he's the star of a vast, 24/7 reality show that records his every living moment via tiny hidden cameras and broadcasts it to millions of TV sets. This man, Truman, is a commodity, and so is every person currently scrolling away on Instagram.
Jim Carrey is at the peak of his career as Truman, and Weir allows the rubber-faced funnyman plenty of opportunities to mug. But he also permits Carrey to explore all-new emotional depths. Laura Linney is delightfully deceitful as an actor hired to pretend to love her co-star. His life is an ad-supported lie.
I think about the end of that movie at least once a month.