28 Years Later, Jim Carrey’s Most Unhinged Movie Performance of All Time Is Officially Free on Streaming
The Truman Show, Peter Weir's 1998 satirical film starring Jim Carrey, is now streaming for free on Pluto TV following its recent induction into the National Film Registry. The film has drawn renewed attention for how accurately it anticipated the rise of reality television and, later, social media's culture of constant self-surveillance and performance, giving it a lasting relevance nearly three decades after release.
The film follows Truman Burbank (Carrey), a man unknowingly raised from birth on a giant television set and filmed around the clock for a global audience, with every person in his life a paid actor and Christof (Ed Harris) directing events from behind the scenes. Written by Andrew Niccol and directed by Weir, it arrived just before Big Brother launched in 1999 and reality formats like Survivor and American Idol took off in the early 2000s, cementing its reputation as prophetic. The article also highlights the film's warmth and visual charm, contrasting Niccol's darker original script with Weir's lighter, more colourful vision, and praises Carrey's performance as central to its enduring appeal.
- The Truman Show is free to stream now on Pluto TV.
- The 1998 film just joined the National Film Registry.
- Its reality-TV and surveillance themes still resonate today.
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The Truman Show is a 1998 satirical film starring Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, a man who has unknowingly lived his entire life on a giant television set, watched around the clock by a global audience. Everyone around him, including his family and friends, is a paid actor, and the show is run behind the scenes by a director named Christof, played by Ed Harris. It was written by Andrew Niccol and directed by Peter Weir.
The film is widely remembered for how closely it predicted the rise of reality television, arriving just before shows like Big Brother, Survivor and American Idol became huge hits in the years that followed. That timing, combined with its themes of surveillance and manufactured lives, has made it feel increasingly relevant in the age of social media, where people constantly document and perform their own lives online.
Nearly three decades on, the film continues to be praised for Carrey's performance, which blends comedy with a more dramatic, unsettling edge, as well as for its distinctive warm and colourful visual style. It has recently been added to the National Film Registry, a US list of movies considered culturally or historically significant.