Summer of '98

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The Truman Show (1998)

This week we thought it would be fun to take a look back.

25 years back to be exact.

The summer of 1998 was filled with peak cinema * Uses pretentious film bro voice. and on the top of that list is a PLEASE CONSUME favorite.

Let’s all say Good Morning (even though you are getting this email at 7:30 CT) to The Truman Show.

Comedians Going Dramatic

I have a long standing theory about comedic actors going serious: a comedic actor tends to struggle making that turn into dramatic work because while they have that natural charm that often makes for fun comedy, they can never actually hold water when they need to go for emotion. Great comedic actors, on the other hand, tend to make some of our best dramatic actors because to be a great comedian you have to be observant and understanding of the human condition in order to mock and riff off of our daily lives.

The reason that somebody like Jerry Seinfeld is so funny is because he has such an innate understanding of the world around him, and uses that as a jumping off point. This works perfectly in the transition to dramatic acting, having a deep well of understanding that leads to empathy and fully fleshed out characters that feel like real people.

Jim Carrey is an insanely good example of this. He is someone who totally gets what it means to be human and portrays it so wonderfully in The Truman Show.

Truman is such a real character that you just can’t help but fully relate to him. You actually believe that people would want to watch this guy 24/7 because he is innately charismatic, but he’s also warm and caring; it’s so comfortable to watch him live his day-to-day life.

That being said, a performance like this is only as good as its director, and Peter Weir understands how to work with somebody like Carrey.

Up until this point, Carrey had never done a drama before and Weir is able to work with him and he uses his energy really well, but also dials him back for the more serious moments.

Michel Gondry, director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, talked about how he would have to tire Carrey out with take after take to get a subtle performance from him.

We don’t know if this was Weir's process as well, but what we will say is he strikes a marvelous balance between that more subtle performative style that we see out of Carrey in Eternal Sunshine, but doesn’t lose the thing that makes Jim Carrey, Jim Carrey.

In Eternal Sunshine he gives a fantastic performance, but he’s playing so melancholic that it’s completely against what we had come to know from Jim at that point. On the other hand, Weir weaponizes Carrey’s charisma to make somebody that you fully want to root for, not just because it’s that actor you like, but because you really really care about Truman himself.

Passing Nostalgia

We as a culture have a very weird fascination with the world 30 years ago.

Take a look at most of the 2010s: we were obsessed with the 80s with works like Super 8, Stranger Things, and It. The 2000s definitely had 70s fever and then you look at right now you can feel culture shifting into a 90s swag.

But what about the nineties with the sixties?

If you look at a list of movies that came out in the 90s, you see classic 60s shows like The Addams Family and Mission Impossible, as well as something like Pleasantville.

The Truman Show is clearly modeled after these classic shows: the way everyone is dressed, the way the building interiors are decorated, and even casting Jim Carrey as a real Rob Petrie type all harken back to 60s sitcoms.

Carrey has talked a lot about how Dick Van Dyke is one of his comedic heroes (highly recommend his interview with Conan O’Brien about the Mary Poppins star back in 2020), so it only makes sense that Carrey is the perfect fit for this sitcom life gone awry.

And we can’t go without talking about how the film weaponizes all that nostalgia and actively comments on it. There is a great irony to a world of people watching this show religiously and wishing they lived in this idyllic 60s utopia, meanwhile the one guy who’s living in it unaware of the modern era is desperately trying to escape to a better life.

Things to Come

It is terrifying how prescient The Truman Show is now, and it just becomes more and more so with time.

It feels trite at this point to talk about how reality television is just The Truman Show come to life, but it’s true, and we’re just pushing closer and closer to what the film is with vlogging, twitch streaming, and “a day in the life” TikToks.

All of this stuff is just voluntary versions of The Truman Show, which comments on the feeling that we’re being watched and judged and the market corrected that and made it true. We are just consumed by cameras and by the need for an audience.

What’s craziest, though, is none of us saw this becoming an actual real show on television, but here we are in a post Jury Duty world, a show that is literally about a man who doesn’t know that he’s in a sitcom.

And guess what? It’s incredible television. Peter Weir was right, Jury Duty was a small phenomenon and is currently nominated for an Emmy. It’s funny, compelling as hell, and Ronald Gladden is basically the real life Truman Burbank.

But as compelling as it is, we do have to ask the question: Is it moral?

That’s not for me to say, I’m not even sure I have an answer myself yet, so I leave it up to you…

Today’s Scene