Fantasy always runs the risk of eventually becoming reality, but very rarely do previously far-fetched tales become increasingly prescient on a daily basis. In fact, if you showed The Truman Show to somebody from a younger generation completely unaware of its existence, they’d probably be left wondering why on earth it was ever considered science fiction.
We live in a world where everyone is ready, willing, and unerringly able to record every single aspect of their existence and show it to the world regardless of whether or not anybody asked, while people are so desperate for their 15 minutes of fame that they’ll go to some extreme lengths in order to get it.
Rightly regarded as a modern classic that led to one of the biggest snubs in Academy Awards history when Jim Carrey was left off the shortlist for Best Actor in spite of winning a Golden Globe and delivering a career-best turn, The Truman Show perfectly balances mass-market Hollywood entertainment with a biting satirical edge that’s got plenty to say on fame, fortune, consent, bliss, ignorance, and plenty more besides.
25 years on from its initial release, and Andrew Niccol’s top-tier tale of existentialism and the futility of pre-destined fate plays entirely differently though the lens of the social media age and the rampant desire to record almost everything for posterity, but with FlixPatrol revealing it to be one of the most-watched features on iTunes this week, it’s more than worthy of remaining as relevant and popular now as it ever was.