The Truman Show
Directed by: Peter Weir
Written by: Andrew Niccol
Starring: Jim Carrey
This film has a very interesting premise, it is about a man whose entire life is a reality TV show - his friends and family are actors, his house and the places he visits are sets, even the weather in his area is controlled by a media company and his life is streamed 24*7 throughout the year. All of this is drawn parallel to our real life with one line in the film, 'we accept the reality of the world with which we're presented' and this feels so relevant even today - where it becomes difficult for us to differentiate between our own idea of beauty, success and happiness to that which the media bombards us with. Also, the way family, society and all authority figures pave out our life with numbers and rules - it is very difficult to escape this version of the reality.
The best part about films like this - especially Bong Joon-ho's films like Okja, The Host, Snowpiercer have a fun action film on the physical layer which even a 6-year old can understand and appreciate and they have either a political commentary or a thematic expression in an underlying tone along with it. There is tonality of a survival thriller in the external conflict where he is trying to escape and people are trying to catch him, his fear of water and he overcoming it is the internal conflict and the ending says that no matter how much you try and how far you go, you can never escape the version of the reality that you are put in - a cynical worldview - this is the resolution to the philosophical conflict of the film. A lot of sci-fi films aren't so good in spite of exciting ideas and I think the reason is, they lack this sort of depth in writing where they deal with multiple levels of conflict.
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