Village Vidiot

Thousands of brief movie reviews from decades of film watching from a guy who loves the cinema.

Menu
  • About
  • Dave Chappelle: The Closer
Menu

The Truman Show

Posted on August 17, 2018 by Village Vidiot

Fine fantasy piece about a man whose very life is a TV show. He doesn’t know it. Raised from infancy as living theater, Truman doesn’t know his whole life is a show. Brilliant commentary about the nature of TV, our lives as passive viewers, our willingness to use others, our capacity to delude ourselves into believing we create our own lives, our ability to not understand how we are using others. The whole things works. A great film from Peter Weir with excellent work by all, including Jim Carey and Ed Harris. Carey really surprises in his restraint. Funny, sentimental, and humane. Reminds me of the ending in “The Ugly American”. As the audience roots for Truman to free himself, to break free, even though it will end their favorite show, his liberation simply means that they turn to another channel. Good mass market film that deserved more critical/institutional awards than it attained. On the other hand, the film misses a bet to look at his life as slavery (what about the 13th Amendment?) and prostitution as art. Fun. See this one!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • A Real Pain
  • Emilia Perez
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus
  • Wildcat
  • Le Samourai

Recent Comments

  • Village Vidiot on Minari
  • Village Vidiot on Rustin
  • Rebekah Wiegand on Minari
  • Margret Konopelski on Rustin
  • Village Vidiot on In the Name of the Father

Archives

Categories

  • Film Reviews

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org
© 2026 Village Vidiot | WordPress Theme by Superbthemes