Movies like The Truman Show can often be years or even decades ahead of their time, and they use that sense of prescience to have audiences questioning their reality.
Peter Weir’s modern classic stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, a man who has no idea his entire life has been as the subject of a TV show that documents his every move.
There’s big ideas of nature over nurture, existentialism and free will to be found, and many of the same themes can be found in the following ten movies, all of which make fine companion pieces.
10 Reality Bending Movies Like The Truman Show
1. Pleasantville (1998)
A unique blend of old-fashioned filmmaking and biting social satire, Gary Ross’ Pleasantville is a much more fantastical variant on movies like The Truman Show, but still one of the very best.
Tobey Maguire’s high schooler is obsessed with the titular 1950s TV show, and a mysterious repairman gives him and his sister a direct portal to the world they’ve fallen in love with.
Needless to say, the two newcomers’ modern sensibilities soon lead to a style and culture clash, with Pleasantville an ingenious exercise in nostalgia that doubles as a look at modern society.
2. Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Will Ferrell is best known for playing a screaming man-child in broad studio comedies, but a rare foray into dramatic territory yielded the best performance of his career in Marc Forster’s dramedy.
Ferrell’s IRS auditor hears a disembodied voice in his head, only to discover that he’s actually the central character in a novel that she’s narrating, one that ends in his death.
Scrambling to change the end of the story, he sets out to find the mysterious author in a quirky and whimsical offbeat comedy that boasts a smart script and several strong turns from a stacked cast.
3. EDtv (1999)
When it comes to movies like The Truman Show, they don’t get much more similar than EDtv, which was written off as a copycat despite being an enjoyable satire in its own right.
Matthew McConaughey heads up Ron Howard’s comedy as Ed, who finds himself as the world’s newest reality TV star through dumb luck more than anything else.
Foreshadowing the reality TV boom at the turn of the millennium, EDtv allows the leading man to turn on the slacker charm while the script subtly aims some big swings at the TV industry.
4. The Nines (2007)
Most movies like The Truman Show have an air of whimsy and lightness of touch about them, but The Nines is a much darker and more psychological sort of affair.
Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis and Melissa McCarthy all pull triple duty by playing lead roles in three stories that combine to form the main overarching narrative, as confusing as that may sound.
The innovative structure allows writer/director John August to play with convention and structure, and the result is a mind and reality-bending thriller in which every minor detail means something.
5. 10 Items or Less (2006)
Morgan Freeman turns up at a grocery store, with the cinematic icon playing an actor considering taking the role of a grocery store manager in an upcoming project, which is very meta indeed.
He ends up stranded without a car or phone, and hitches a ride home with a young stranger, and the two share stories and end up developing a bond throughout their journey.
10 Items or Less is a lot warmer and less cynical than a lot of movies like The Truman Show, and Freeman is his usual reliably comforting self in a light and breezy two-hander.
6. S1m0ne (2002)
Writer/director Andrew Niccol is no stranger to crafting original sci-fi stories rich in thematic content, and he found himself on familiar ground with S1m0ne.
Al Pacino’s veteran Hollywood producer creates the first fully synthetic movie star, without revealing to the world that the industry’s newest A-lister isn’t even human.
As Simone’s fame increases, the fraud comes closer and closer to becoming unraveled in a broad satire that aims for the movie business in the same way movies like The Truman Show aim for TV.
7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Michel Gondry is well known for his intimate and existential dramas, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is often lauded as the filmmaker’s finest effort.
A woman undergoes memory erasure following a difficult breakup, causing her ex-boyfriend to opt for similar treatment before he quickly realizes he’s made a terrible mistake.
The very best movies like The Truman Show take a unique concept and fill it with imagination, intelligence, heart, humor and emotion, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has all of that in spades.
8. Being John Malkovich (1999)
You wouldn’t believe that director Spike Jonze and writer Charlie Kaufman were making their feature debuts, given that Being John Malkovich became an instant postmodern classic.
An unemployed puppeteer takes a temp job, where he discovers a secret portal that leads directly into the mind of John Malkovich, and the movie is about as eccentric as that sounds.
Too many movies like The Truman Show take themselves far too seriously, and Being John Malkovich manages to revel and succeed by embracing such offbeat originality.
9. Big Fish (2003)
A son travels to visit his ailing father in an attempt to mend the distant relationship between the two, but the old man can’t seem to stop spinning the fantastical tales he’d always loved telling.
Tim Burton wraps a father/son story in the lavish and opulent fantasy world that’s become his stock in trade, blurring the lines between what’s real and not as the narrative progresses.
Movies like The Truman Show always have characters questioning their realities, and Big Fish is one of the best examples of revelations and reconciliation happening through a moving yet quirky lens.
10. The Lobster (2015)
Without a doubt the weirdest entry on our list of movies like The Truman Show, Yorgos Lanthimos’ absurdist black comedy isn’t for everyone, but if you’re on board you might just love it.
In a dystopian near future, single people are given 45 days to find a romantic partner or they end up getting turned into animals, with Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz tackling the lead roles.
Incredibly bizarre and deliberately quirky almost to a fault, The Lobster might be an acquired taste but it is definitely one that you’ll struggle to get out of your mouth afterwards.