Review of The Truman Show (1998) by Sergio R — 12 Sep 2015

To be, quite possibly, the first modern sci-fi think-piece, The Truman Show reveals the underneath reality of the human connection by obsessively scratching a the ethereal scab that is our consumer lifestyle. After you bought your TV, your car, your house, you may think it's done there; you do not realize you buy your human connection, your adventures, your thrills and romances as well in the perfect order of 0s and 1s. With an empathic actor as a surrogate, your life lives in your screen. At a bar, at a diner, in the house with your family, and alone in your bathroom, as vividly displayed in the film, we are always looking for somebody else to empathize and sympathize with, somebody to make us feel wanted, and normal, and ironically, special.

Every character there represents a social niche we need in our lives and the dual reality needed to make them work. From the director's acid-like value of privacy, to the career Truman had 'chosen', we see the irony disgustingly raw in our faces. The beauty of such science fiction films is the truth they portray about our modern lives; the Truman Show makes the 'lies' of a mythical society remark the 'truths' of ours. Picasso would have loved it.

Though this film is catalogue often under comedy, an exchange of actor coupled with a slightly different soundtrack and editing style, you get a very possible horror film. Unfortunately, people see Jim Carrey in the cast and want to come out of the movie theater with aching stomachs, and drying drool on the side of their lips, when Carrey has done great work on more serious roles like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Number23.

Overall, the Truman Show is a hallmark in the history of film, and a relevant and important classic to our civil-ization.