When The Truman Show first hit theaters in 1998, it was one of the first times we saw Jim Carrey in a serious performance, and now, more than twenty-five years later, it stands as one of the best-ranked Jim Carrey films. At the time, it felt like high-concept fiction. A man unknowingly living his entire life inside a meticulously crafted reality TV show? Wild. Unthinkable. Profoundly sad. But now, when considering the 2025 movie schedule, it doesn’t feel all that far-fetched. If anything, it feels like a documentary.
I recently rewatched The Truman Show, for the first time in years, and while the movie hasn’t changed, we absolutely have. The world it satirizes—with surveillance, performative reality, and commercialized intimacy—is even here. Today, we volunteer our lives to the algorithm. We’re not just being watched, but are curating what the world sees. Truman was unknowingly broadcast to millions, and we do it on purpose.
