journal features

movie review - The Truman Show

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Kokubunji, 2024.08.16

I watched this nineties movie with my kids, in part because it was on the "movie bucket list" we gave our son. I note that I previously reviewed it when it came out and I gave it a 'Not recommended'. The only thing I can say has changed is that I note there's no tension in the story, which means there's no story. It is so paint-by-numbers I cannot believe how popular it has remained, it makes me feel like I'm the crazy one. The kids liked it. Crazy, I tell you.

Not recommended.

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.