The Truman Show

in its journey of artificiality, it itself becomes a little artificial.

its not bad, its decent and it shares a lot of dna with playtime from 1967 but where as playtime was a lot more quieter and a lot more interesting presenting that exact artificiality within its production design which the truman show also shares dna with, the sets and everything feels very modern but also cheap modernity.

where i think the truman show fumbles is that: 1, jim carrey sometimes tries way to hard which makes him performance come off as hamfisted (and not in a good way) and 2, its a lot saver and if im being honest, its satire on reality tv but also the way we as people seek for authenticity which leads to artificiality feels save sometimes and not as biting as it should be. it is original in the way that the ones behind the show aren't portrayed as inherentely evil but it would've made more sense. if you're gonna make a satire on reality tv but also the qeust for authenticity then morally qeustionable people or downright bad ones should be in the playbook. it doesn't outwardely states that the tv crew are good but also not bad which would create for interesting discussion when its so obvious that what they are doing is demoralizing. using a person as a puppet.

i think the ending doubles down on exactly that "you're on live television goddammit" and truman caves in, gives the audience the status quo catchphrase and then leaves that status quo. a catchphrase bound to his existence in a cage he became to hate and freaked out by.
it gives mixes messages more then anything.
also its not like we know truman enough as a person to have any sort of meaning behind it, there is no meaning behind the show but if thats your point, that there is no meaning to reality tv then why make the last scene end with truman's (the tv character) catchphrase? its just truman digging a bigger meaningless hole for himself when he so obviously wants out. good film making but its not andrew niccol's best work nor peter weir's.

(watch my feature film kodak: https://boxd.it/dXI1IV )