So we're wrapping up November Nineties this week as today's Cinema Sunday takes us back near the end of the decade as look back at a movie that came out in 1998.
25 years ago, it was a film of satire and science fiction.
Now it is disturbingly prescient of the culture we live in today.
Today's Cinema Sunday brings you The Truman Show.
Yep, it's another movie post with Jim Carrey.
Hey, it was the 1990's. Jim Carrey was in a lot of movies.
It was the LAW!
Truman Burbank is just this ordinary man living his ordinary life in his ordinary hometown of Seahaven Island.
What Truman doesn't know is he's the star of a TV show.
His friends, neighbors, co-workers, even his wife are all actors cast to be supporting players in the world wide television phenomenon known as "The Truman Show".
Seahaven Island is part of a film set inside an enormous bio-dome where Truman's every action and interaction is filmed by thousands of hidden cameras under the direction of Christof, the show's creator. Everything within the dome is in Christof's control including the change of day into night into day again and even the weather.
Truman Burbank has been the star of this show since the day he was born from an unwanted pregnancy and the studio adopted him.
Truman often dreams of travelling the world, going to Fiji is a particularly fond destination choice. But Christof has neutralized Truman's wanderlust.
The "death" of his "father" in a sea storm instills Truman with thalassophobia.
Thalassophobia: a type of phobia characterized by a persistent and intense fear of deep water, such as an ocean or a lake.
This fear is reinforced by constantly broadcast messages about the dangers of traveling and the virtues of staying home right here on Seahaven Island where everything is safe and perfect and really, why go anywhere else?
There is also the matter of the love that got away.
While Christof was busy scripting having Truman meet, fall in love with and eventually marry Meryl, Truman falls for Sylvia, one of the extras, instead. Sylvia is spirited off the island before she can can tell Truman the truth about his existence.
Out in the real world, there is an activist group who seeks to cancel the show and have Truman released.
Approaching his 30th birthday, Truman is starting to pick up that some things about his life do not make sense. Then he comes to the realization that somehow, someway life on Seahaven Island revolves around him.
In the real world, such a realization would be the epitome of narcissism and madness.
In this case, Truman is right.
Pushing past his thalassophobia....
Thalassophobia: a type of phobia characterized by a persistent and intense fear of deep water, such as an ocean or a lake.
We've already covered that.
Truman grabs a sailboat to get the hell away from Seahaven Island.
Christof summons storms to halt Truman's escape but Truman perseveres until he hits the "sky".
The light blue wall of the dome's interior.
Christof opens a mike and Truman gets to talk to "god".
In here, Truman Burbank is the star of a TV show that entertains the world. In here, he is special. And he is safe.
Out there, he will not be special and he will not be safe.
Truman has a choice to make.
The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department
- Does that garage attendant look like Norm Scully on Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Yep, it's Joel McKinnon Miller.
- Harry Shearer as TV host Mike Michaelson is the voice of about half of the supporting characters on The Simpsons.
Truman Burbank was a marked departure for Jim Carrey from the more broadly comedic roles he had come to be known for. He even took a pay cut at the chance to prove his dramatic skills.
There is still some room for whimsy and improvisation. The scene in which Truman declares "this planet Trumania of the Burbank galaxy" to the bathroom mirror was Carrey's idea.
The Truman Show is prescient of our current 24 hour culture where we have a near continuous access to celebrities and their lives and work. Our view of celebrity culture in the 1990's was on the cusp of a world that would be dominated by You Tube, Tik Tok and social media in general. We're living in a world that answers the question asked by The Truman Show: what happens when the cameras are never turned off?
OK, that is that for Cinema Sunday's contribution to November Nineties. Next week, we're back with a movie that came out this year.
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