Truman Burbank is beginning to wise up. People seem to listen to him, but they never really connect; he feels trapped in a job he doesn’t care about, a marriage he doesn’t believe in, and a small island community he’s never been able to leave. It’s as if his life has been pre-programmed from the start: as indeed it has, for Truman is the unwitting subject of television’s most audacious experiment, a real-life soap following one man from birth to death. When Truman (Jim Carrey) appeals to a higher power, he’s actually addressing the show’s omniscient creator/director, Christof (Ed Harris).
This is more than just a savvy and ingenious satire on media saturation, it’s a moving metaphysical fable, beautifully orchestrated by the great Australian director Peter Weir.
Staff Pick: Ani & Emma
Aug 15: Intro by Christopher Beaubien, filmmaker and critic
A bold, powerful, reverberant fantasy that nails the zeitgeist with enough thematic richness to carry us into and beyond the millennium.
Jay Carr, Boston Globe
Media Partner
Peter Weir
Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Harris, Natascha McElhone
USA
1998
English
Book Tickets
Wednesday August 19
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Credits
Producer
Scott Rudin, Andrew Niccol, Edward S. Feldman, Adam Schroeder
Screenwriter
Andrew Niccol
Cinematography
Peter Biziou
Editor
William Anderson, Lee Smith
Original Music
Burkhard Dallwitz
Production Design
Dennis Gassner
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
The Big Lebowski
The Coens' whacky, warped slacker generation riff on Raymond Chandler, a shaggy dog story which delights in going sideways at every turn. Jeff Bridges is the Dude, and what he really wants is to get his rug back...
Out of Sight
Adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel about the mutual attraction between an escaped bank robber and the FBI agent on his tail, Out of Sight is sexy and romantic, cosmopolitan, and full of Soderbergh's sleight of hand, shuffling time like a card sharp.
Buffalo '66
Vincent Gallo's directorial debut is an eccentric, provocative comedy which laces a poignant love story with both a sombre, washed-out naturalism and surreal musical vignettes. This one is something different...
Run Lola Run
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Rushmore
Precocious Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is befriended by depressed industrialist Harold Blume (Bill Murray) until they both fall in love with first grade teacher Miss Cross (Olivia Williams). Anderson's second feature is an old favourite.
Saving Private Ryan
Steven Spielberg's gripping war movie was hailed as an instant classic in 1998, and he won his second Academy Award in five years for Best Director. Matt Damon takes the title role, Tom Hanks is charged with bringing him home from the front.
The Blair Witch Project
The rushes of a student-made documentary investigating the legend of the Blair Witch in Burkittsville, Maryland, a quest that led the three filmmakers deep into the Appallachian woods. Easy to get lost in there...
The Thin Red Line
After a 20-year hiatus, Terrence Malick re-emerged with this earching adaptation of James Jones's autobiographical novel about the WWII battle of Guadalcanal. The Thin Red Line is a lyrical, meditative war movie, a philosophical discourse on war itself.
The Matrix
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Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Office Space
This razor sharp comedy from Mike Judge (King of the Hill) captures the indignities of life as a wage slave with rare acumen and caustic wit. Evidently the impending millennial bug weighed heavily on people's minds back in 1999.
The Sixth Sense
"I see dead people." Does 10-year-old Cole (Haley Joel Osment) have the sixth sense, as he claims — or is this sensitive, unusual child responding to stress, as his mother (Toni Collette) would like to believe? Psychologist Bruce Willis finds out.
Beau Travail
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Three Kings
George Clooney headlines David O Russell's bold, brazen attempt to get to grips with the immediate aftermath of Operation Desert Storm, as 4 US soldiers try to liberate a missing shipment of gold amidst the chaos and carnage.
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.
Magnolia
This deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. Mapping the emotional traumas of half-a-dozen major characters as they crisscross the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation, it's PTA's riskiest gamble.