Three decades later, The Truman Show feels freshly disturbing – and astoundingly prescient
The great Australian director Peter Weir is perhaps underrated as an auteur, simply because his filmography doesn’t follow any thematic or stylistic principle; each of his contributions feels like a complete work of art unto itself.While Picnic at Hanging Rock remains his finest work, his foray into Hollywood culminated in the utterly transfixing, intermittently horrifying Jim Carrey vehicle The Truman Show.Almost 30 years after its theatrical release, the film has only grown in stature and prescience.Ostensibly a dark satire on voyeurism and the inexhaustible manipulations of the media, The Truman Show predated the television juggernaut Big Brother by a single year, and it’s hard not to see something causal in that.Both are about surveillance and the murky line separating reality from entertainment; both involve hidden cameras watching the participants’ every move.
The key difference – the one that gives the film such moral potency – is that Truman doesn’t know he’s on TV,The film follows Truman Burbank, an insurance salesman whose entire life takes place not on the island of Seahaven as he believes, but on an elaborate film set,His family, including his perky wife, Meryl (Laura Linney), best friend, Marlon (Noah Emmerich), and even his mother (Holland Taylor), are paid actors desperate to keep the illusion alive and the show on air,Pulling the strings is the God-like Christof (Ed Harris), who directs the show from the “moon”,Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morningWhen the film begins, Truman already longs for a way out while pining for Sylvia (Natascha McElhone), the girl who got away – or rather was shipped off set for screwing with Christof’s casting plans.
Seahaven’s antiseptic cleanliness and sunny palette may obscure its insidious, monocultural grip,But as Truman’s suspicions grow, and the community conspires to keep him both ignorant and imprisoned, things get very dark indeed,It’s the creepiest film in full light I know (and yes, I’ve seen Midsommar),The first sign comes, in the opening minutes, from the heavens: a large stage light falls from the sky, smashing on to the street outside Truman’s cookie-cutter house,The interruptions continue from a mixed radio signal to a false elevator, and we find ourselves cheering Truman on as he forces open the doors of perception.
Christof – with a fascistic tendency to throw his actors under the bus – tries the soft power of diplomacy first, sending Truman’s wife and mother as agents of compliance.When they fail, Christof sends the deadliest weapon in his arsenal: the best friend.Sign up to Saved for LaterCatch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tipsafter newsletter promotionIt’s in this central scene that Weir shows his allegorical hand.Marlon placates Truman with the undeniable lure of fraternity: “Think about it, Truman.If everyone was in on it, I’d have to be in on it too.
” But he’s being fed his lines directly by the repugnant Christof.We are in the world of the Stasi, of an authoritarianism that infects the domestic sphere, poisons the very words coming out of our mouths, and Emmerich, as Marlon, brilliantly captures the moral price the conformist pays to maintain the status quo.All the horrors of political supplication are written on his face.Carrey is sublime, and we can be thankful Weir waited a full year in pre-production to secure him.His cheesy grin and “good afternoon, good evening and good night” evoke the gee-willikers optimism of 50s middle America, and he’s so perfectly in sync with the simulated world around him that his doubt and determination once the veil drops feel almost revolutionary.
Carrey’s precision as a comic performer creates a flawless carapace under which his existential essence seethes,One of the miracles of The Truman Show is the way it trades in both the allure and the artifice of cinema; it’s like a magician revealing mid-trick what’s up their sleeve,Production designed to within an inch of its life and equally emotionally contrived, Seahaven still seduces because it plays as much on our fears as our dreams,It’s no accident Christof has to invoke lifelong phobias in Truman to keep him “safe”,Rewatching it now, Weir’s masterpiece feels less about voyeurism and the entertainment industry and more about the individual and their relationship to the state.
We’ve created a world of pure solipsism, where we are all our own Truman and Christof combined, endlessly editing and curating our lives in the hope someone’s watching,But we are still in thrall to an economic model that sees everything for sale; remember The Truman Show can only exist because its world is littered top to toe with product placement,It’s a hermetically sealed ecosystem of wealth promotion that rides roughshod over the rights of the individual,Sound familiar?The Truman Show is streaming on Stan (Australia) and available to rent (US/UK),For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
Roebuck and Steward injuries likely to trigger major England reshuffle against Fiji
Injuries to Tom Roebuck and Freddie Steward look likely to trigger an eye-catching reshuffle in England’s backline for the Test against Fiji on Saturday. Marcus Smith, Henry Arundell and Ollie Lawrence are all in contention to be involved, with Manny Feyi-Waboso potentially the solitary starting back-three survivor from the victory against Australia last Saturday.The head coach, Steve Borthwick, had been hoping to announce his starting XV early this week only for that plan to be mothballed when Roebuck limped out of training prematurely on Tuesday with an ankle problem. Steward has not trained so far this week after sustaining a finger injury late in the win against the Wallabies, opening the way for Smith to replace him at full-back.Roebuck was an influential figure against Australia, his aerial skills contributing to two of England’s four tries, but if he is ruled unavailable England are not short of options
WTA Finals tennis: Sabalenka fends off Pegula; Gauff beats ailing Paolini – as it happened
Defending champion Coco Gauff kept her hopes alive of reaching the knockout stages of the WTA Finals with victory over Jasmine Paolini.Defeat by fellow American Jessica Pegula in her opening group match in Riyadh had put Gauff in trouble but she eased to a 6-3, 6-2 win against Paolini.The Italian has been struggling with illness and again was unable to show her best level physically, with Gauff overcoming a wobble midway through the first set.The third seed said: “I’m really happy with how I played today, definitely a turnaround from my first match. It’s the beauty of this tournament, you have another chance to prove yourself
Ben Stokes signals 2027 Ashes readiness by signing new two-year central contract
Ben Stokes has signalled his desire to play in the 2027 Ashes at home after signing a new two-year central contract with England.Aged 34, and having sustained hamstring and shoulder injuries in the past 12 months, there was a school of thought that this winter’s Ashes – less than three weeks away – could be the Test captain’s swansong.But as the only Test specialist among the 14 players handed two-year deals on Tuesday – his last white-ball cap came at the 2023 Cricket World Cup – Stokes and England are clearly considering the home summer against Australia in 2027, when he will have just turned 36.There is also a 50-over World Cup in southern Africa in late 2027 and England have thus far been coy on whether Stokes is part of their plans. Joe Root very much is, however, and, six months older than Stokes, he has also signed a two-year deal that continues his stellar career
The Breakdown | Fixation on forward rotation threatens to turn rugby contests into war of attrition
There was a time in rugby union when the phrase “Bomb Squad” felt novel. South Africa were ahead of the game in maximising the impact of replacement forwards off the bench and the sight of all that fresh beef rumbling on to the field early in the second half was certainly arresting. As the Springboks have proved repeatedly, it works a treat if you possess the requisite strength in depth.As with all good ideas, however, other people love to copy them. And so we have a modern-day arms race
Meet the British shot put champion doubling up as a bobsleigh pilot with an eye on Milan 2026
Having won her third British shot put title in four seasons in the summer, Adele Nicoll also has a Winter Olympic dream – and admits she’s ‘terrible for wanting to do everything’Walking through the University of Bath’s vast sports complex to Britain’s only bobsleigh push-start track, a momentary silence is broken by the thwack of a ball and hearty cheers from excited adolescent spectators.It is the first Wednesday afternoon – when inter-university sport takes centre stage – of the academic year, and Adele Nicoll is reflecting on how her own undergraduate days inadvertently led her to this point. Nicoll, then a sport and exercise science student at Cardiff University, had an eye on making it as an international shot putter, but not to the detriment of enjoying all aspects of university life; she played as hard as she worked.Upon graduating in the summer of 2020, serendipity struck when she met up with a university friend made while sampling the Welsh capital’s nightlife. “I didn’t actually have a friendship with this girl outside of the clubs,” she says
Andrew Wiggins: how a shy NBA player negotiated growing up a star in the social media era
Andrew Wiggins was among the first superstar prospects of the social media era. Born in Thornhill, Ontario just north of Toronto, Wiggins was known internationally by the time he was 13. It wasn’t always easy for the shy, small-town kid to embrace the spotlight.After just one full season at Vaughan, Wiggins needed better competition than Canada could provide and moved on to Huntington Prep in Huntington, West Virginia — a relatively new prep school set in a small, blue-collar, sports-oriented college town near Kansas.The head coach, Rob Fulford, had been recruiting Wiggins since he was 13, at one point watching 24 consecutive CIA Bounce games in person
Josh O’Connor: the shape-shifting star who became cinema’s most wanted
From Bugonia to All’s Fair: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Stephen Colbert on ex-prince Andrew: ‘Pervert formerly known as prince’
Womad festival returns and moves to new Wiltshire site
Seth Meyers on Trump’s South Korea visit: ‘Getting the royal treatment he so desperately craves’
A third of people in England believe in ghosts, survey finds