The Horse's Head

The Plot: Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) leads a seemingly perfect life in the idyllic town of Seahaven with his loving wife Meryl (Laura Linney) and devoted best friend Marlon (Noah Emmerich), but as he approaches his 30^th birthday, something seems off. Little by little Truman starts piecing the truth together: He has been the star of a 24/7 reality TV program called “The Truman Show” since his birth: everything he has ever experienced has been staged, and everyone he has ever known is a hired actor. As Truman starts to figure things out, the show’s creator Christof (Ed Harris) does everything in his power to stop Truman from leaving Seahaven. There’s a lot more to unpack in this intricate character study ahead of its time. 

Why It Matters: The NFR notes the film’s presage of reality TV and social media and calls the film “a study in sociology, philosophy, and psychology”.

But Does It Really?: Full disclosure, “The Truman Show” is one of my all-time favorite movies, so we have another gush-fest on our hands. “Truman Show” is what I call a Swiss Watch Movie: a finely detailed machine that produces a true piece of art. It takes a great science-fiction concept and runs with it, filling in every detail perfectly, ensuring a rich viewing experience that gets better every time. Peter Weir gamely directs an airtight script with a pitch-perfect cast, including Jim Carrey finally proving to the world he’s so much more than a rubber-faced clown. Not since “Network” has one movie so accurately predicted where the media landscape was headed, and “The Truman Show” has more than earned its spot on the Registry.

Everybody Gets One: New Zealander Andrew Niccol had been directing TV commercials in London when Hollywood producer Scott Rudin bought his spec script “The Malcolm Show”, a gritty sci-fi thriller set in New York. Niccol was originally set to direct his own script, but Paramount wanted an experienced director, ultimately going with Peter Weir, who at that point had already helmed “Picnic at Hanging Rock”, “Witness”, and “Dead Poets Society”, among many others. Weir helped shape the script into something lighter, transplanting the action to a fake seaside town and coming up with elaborate backstories for the characters. Robin Williams was Paramount’s pick for the lead role (now renamed Truman), but Weir’s first and only choice was Jim Carrey, fresh off his success with “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”, a performance that reminded Weir of Charlie Chaplin! Weir was so determined to cast Carrey he delayed production for over a year so that Carrey could fulfill his commitments with “The Cable Guy” and “Liar Liar”.

Seriously, Oscars?: A hit upon release, “The Truman Show” received three major Oscar nominations: Director, Original Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Ed Harris. The film lost these categories to, respectively, “Saving Private Ryan”, “Shakespeare in Love”, and James Coburn in “Affliction”, but the biggest outcry was reserved for Jim Carrey going un-nominated for Lead Actor, despite winning the Golden Globe. Carrey attended the ceremony to present Best Editing, but he didn’t seem to be taking things well.

• The first episode we see of the show-within-the-movie takes place on Day 10,909 of Truman’s life. Let me just pretend to do the math here…that would make Truman TWENTY-NINE YEARS OLD? He’s only 29!? Carrey turned 35 during filming, so this is all more a sign of how much adulthood has changed in 30 years than anything else.
• Among the many things I love about this movie is that it hits the ground running. The movie resists the temptation to explain everything upfront, just the bare minimum exposition with Christof and off we go. The main points get explained throughout, but many of the details are left up to viewer interpretation, as it should be.
• Because I’ve seen this movie so many times, I focused on more of the background details this time, like figuring out where the cameras are hidden within Seahaven (check out Truman’s wedding ring). I also zeroed in on Laura Linney’s performance this time. In her breakout film role, Linney delivers a lot of subtleties underneath Meryl’s faux-Donna Reed exterior. There’s also a lot of good work being done by Noah Emmerich; Marlon is easy-going and chummy around Truman, yet simultaneously in pain for having to constantly lie to his best friend.

• Shout out to Holland Taylor for doing what she does best: playing the main character’s strongly opinionated mother.
• I was under the impression that Philip Glass was the sole composer of the “Truman” score. Turns out a majority of it was composed by Germany’s Burkhard Dallwitz. Glass contributed a few selections to the score, primarily pieces he had written for previous films. Glass also makes a cameo within the film as the show’s live composer, hence my confusion.
• I love the audience cutaways throughout the movie, a Greek chorus of devoted “Truman Show” viewers supplying insight into just what makes the show so watchable. Side note: one of the garage attendants is played by Joel McKinnon Miller, who would go on to play Scully (or possibly Hitchcock) on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”.

• I’ve always loved Natascha McElhone’s performance as Sylvia, Truman’s classmate who was banned from the show after she tried to tell Truman he’s on television. McElhone says so much with her eyes it’s no wonder Truman has spent the last decade secretly pining for Sylvia. This subplot also features the interesting-in-hindsight line “They got rid of her, but they couldn’t erase the memory”, which now works as a nice little bit of “Eternal Sunshine” foreshadowing.

• Perhaps the film’s most famous bit of casting lore, Dennis Hopper was originally cast as Christof, but left shortly after filming began (or was possibly fired. Either way, “creative differences” were involved). Ed Harris filled in at the eleventh hour, and while he’s great in the part, he’s also just a tad too young. Harris was 46 during filming, 14 years Hopper’s junior. Assuming Christof is the same age as Harris, he would have been around 16 when “The Truman Show” started. In Harris’ defense, he’s so good in this I didn’t pick up on any of this age stuff until after seeing the film multiple times.

• While we’re on the subject: His name is Christof? Christof? Why not name him God G. Goderson? Then again, what should I have expected from a movie where the only character unaware he’s on TV is essentially named “true man”?
• For those of you keeping score, this is the second NFR movie where Ed Harris commands an entire control room. This is also the third NFR movie that has made me say, “Oh yeah, I forgot Paul Giamatti’s in this.”
• My favorite callback in the movie is the bus driver being recast as the ferry captain when the town is searching for Truman, and his inability to drive either vehicle. It got a good laugh out of me, as did the Production Assistant’s line: “Bottom line is they can’t drive the boat. They’re actors!”
• [Spoilers] Oh that ending. Flammarion scholars everywhere got a kick out of Truman sailing directly into the backdrop, and like everything else in this movie, I find the ending totally flawless. In fact, my favorite shot in the entire movie is when all of the viewers celebrate Truman’s exit, and the bartender at the Truman bar runs across the bar high-fiving everyone. I don’t know why but that shot makes me tear up every time. Something about the actions of one isolated individual inspiring community between strangers.

• Peter Weir directed two more films after “Truman Show”: “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” and “The Way Back”. Weir retired from filmmaking in the early 2010s, and in 2022 received an honorary Academy Award for being “a fearless and consummate filmmaker”.

• I think it would be easier to list the media not influenced by “The Truman Show”. In the last thirty years, “Truman” has become more and more prescient in its take on our media landscape. Everything from reality competitions to social media live streams to movies and TV about surveillance/meta-entertainment can trace their lineage back to “The Truman Show”. The most recent example I can think of is the TV show “Jury Duty”, in which an entire trial was staged to capture the reactions of one (non-actor) juror. It’s also the show that jump-started James Marsden’s career, and we’re all grateful for that.

• “Mike, do you suppose there’s any chance a biblical rain’ll come and wipe out Jim Carrey?”

• And finally, “Truman Show” has achieved the rare “Gaslight” distinction of becoming synonymous with a medical condition. First coined circa 2008, the Truman Show delusion is a type of disorder in which people believe they are the unwilling star of a hidden-camera reality show. Although the name has taken off in the last two decades, Truman Show delusion is not officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association.

Further Viewing: “EdTV”, Ron Howard’s 1999 movie about a regular Joe who willingly becomes the star of his own 24/7 reality series. It was criticized at the time for being a “Truman Show” knock-off, but I’m willing to chalk it up to parallel thinking (it’s a remake of a French-Canadian film that predates “Truman Show”). “EdTV” has a stacked ensemble, including Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, and…Dennis Hopper! Glad he wasn’t too creatively different for this one.

The Plot: Jack Tower (Gordon Morrison) is the captain of the track team at St. Louis’ Washington University and pines for the lovely Myrtle Maroon (Dean Marion McDaris). Although Jack has his heart set on winning the big track meet and earning his letterman W, he is easily beat during training by “hick” Aloisius Higgins (Philip Bryan). There’s not much else plot-wise, but “Maid” was filmed at Washington University and produced by the campus Drama Club, making it, according to the opening credits, “the first college movie ever produced”.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film a “whimsical romance”, states its status as “the first student film on record”, and devotes a whole paragraph to its rediscovery and restoration.

But Does It Really?: Well, the NFR loves their student films, so of course they would include the first one ever. On its own, “Maid of McMillan” is a fun, cute little film; clearly made by a group of young theater students not taking things too seriously and just trying to entertain their classmates. “Maid” holds up well enough that a modern viewing can still elicit a few chuckles (it did for me), though it makes the NFR primarily due to its status as the first student film (as well as a time capsule of 1916 campus life). While I’m not enthusiastically supportive of the NFR decision to induct “Maid”, I’m not mad about it either.

Everybody Gets One: Both George D. Bartlett and Donald Stewart were law students at Washington University, as well as members of the school’s Thyrsus Drama Club, which in the spring of 1916 decided to try its hand at filmmaking. The cast is comprised almost entirely of Thyrsus Drama Club members, and Bartlett and Stewart make cameos near the end as the highwaymen. Stewart would go on to marry the film’s leading lady Dean Marion McDaris a few years after graduation. Side note: In Greek mythology, the Thyrsus is the scepter held by Dionysus, the god of – among other things – theatre.

Title Track: McMillan Hall was the all-female dorm at Washington University, and is still standing today, though as best I can tell it is now gender-inclusive housing.

Further Viewing: After bashing countless student films on this blog, it’s only fair that I show the one that I’m in: 2008’s “Floater” by Chad Janusch. I got involved through my mutual friendship with my co-lead Clay Newman and the film’s director of photography Mark Sandhoff. And no, we definitely did not have permission to film on Red Rock Island.

The Plot: In its fleeting runtime, this cinematic offering addresses an agglomeration of contemporary issues: the unhoused situation, the famine crisis within urban metropolitan areas, societal ambivalence regarding free-ranging canines, and our human proclivity for…oh wait, never mind. It’s an 80 second short about a tramp who tries to steal a pie but then a dog bites him on the butt. That’s it.

Why It Matters: The NFR gives some historical context (this was apparently “the first commercial film made in Chicago”), and makes special mention of the film’s 2021 rediscovery.

But Does It Really?: When the Class of 2025 was announced, I was chatting with some of my fellow NFR enthusiasts about the selections, and the consensus was that while there were many fine choices, ultimately this was a safe list of movies. Nothing too controversial, nothing that’ll ruffle any feathers, just 25 movies we can all agree are good, or at the very least worthy of preservation. And that’s how I feel about “The Tramp and the Dog”. It’s not groundbreaking or entertaining, but it’s an early piece of film being rediscovered over 125 years after its creation, and that’s good enough for me. “Tramp” is the first film of the Class of 2025 for which I bestow the slightest of passes for its NFR inclusion.

Title Track: I’m confused, I thought the Tramp was the Dog. And when do they share a plate of spaghetti?

The Plot: As told as a flashback within a flashback within a novel, Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori) is hired as a lobby boy at Zubrowka’s elegant Grand Budapest Hotel. He is taken under the wing of Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), the meticulous concierge who has had a number of dalliances with the hotel’s elderly dowager patrons. When his longtime conquest Madame D. (Tilda Swinton) passes away, she bequeaths Gustave the valuable painting Boy with Apple, much to the disdain of her adult son Dmitri (Adrien Brody), who plots to steal it. But you’re not watching a Wes Anderson movie for the plot; you’re here for his trademark vintage aesthetic and ever-expanding roster of A List ensemble members.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises the film’s “visually striking and emotionally resonant story” and hails Wes Anderson as “one of the most stylistically distinctive American filmmakers of the last half-century.” There’s also an extended quote from Anderson describing the major influence the Library of Congress Photochrom Prints collection had on the final film.

But Does It Really?: As with many a recent NFR inductee, it’s a bit odd watching a movie for this blog that I feel I just saw when it came out (and by “just” I mean 12 years ago). I recall enjoying “The Grand Budapest Hotel” at the time, even if it did feel like Wes Anderson had finally fully escaped reality into Wes Anderson Bingo Land. Looking back on the film with some historical context, “Grand Budapest” is the Wes Anderson movie where it all comes together. With this film, not only did Anderson achieve the full aesthetic we associate with “a Wes Anderson movie”, but he achieved success with audiences, critics, and the awards circuit, a hat trick that none of his subsequent films have surpassed. While I’m still on the fence about whether “Grand Budapest Hotel” is a worthy NFR inductee, Wes Anderson is an iconic and canonized director who should have more than one film on the Registry, and “Grand Budapest” will do in a pinch.

Everybody Gets One: As the most recent NFR entry (as of this writing), “The Grand Budapest Hotel” serves as the NFR debut for a number of major actors, including Adrien Brody, Jude Law, Edward Norton (along with his performance in “Frida”), Saoirse Ronan, Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, and Tom Wilkinson. This is also the only NFR credit for Hugo Guinness, artist and New York Times illustrator who contributed paintings to previous Anderson films (though somewhat ironically he didn’t paint Boy with Apple).“Grand Budapest” is Guinness’ first writing credit.

Seriously, Oscars?: A rare Oscar contender from the first half of a calendar year, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” tied “Birdman” for the most nominations at the 2015 Oscars (nine) and most wins of the night (four). Although “Birdman” prevailed as the Best Picture winner, “Grand Budapest” won for its Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Costume Design, and Music (Original Score). While Wes Anderson went home empty-handed that night, he would finally win his first Oscar in 2024 for his animated short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”.

• Of the ensemble, Tilda Swinton was the only actor who wasn’t Wes Anderson’s first choice. He had originally courted Angela Lansbury to play Madame D., but Lansbury had to back out due to her commitment touring with “Driving Miss Daisy” in Australia. Swinton’s good, and that’s a very impressive makeup job, but why not go for another elderly British actress? Were Rosemary Harris and Vanessa Redgrave unavailable?

• Zero’s encounter with the Nazi-adjacent immigration officers is unfortunately timely these days, though it does set up one of the best lines in the movie: Gustave’s “Take your hands off my lobby boy!”

• Between this and “Birdman”, 2014 was a good year for Edward Norton. This is Norton’s second Wes Anderson film following “Moonrise Kingdom”, and the beginning of his return to mainstream Hollywood following his “difficult” reputation and showbiz exile. We also get Adrien Brody between Oscar wins, seen here as…Salvador Dalí’s evil brother?
• As Zero’s beloved Agatha, Irish actor Saoirse Ronan plays something she has never gotten to play before: Irish. After trying out various accents for Agatha (including American and German), Ronan and Anderson agreed that her natural Irish lilt worked best for the character. And while we’re here, Ms. Ronan’s first name is pronounced “sir-sha”, like it rhymes with inertia. Stop asking her.
• Willem Dafoe stroking Jeff Goldblum’s Persian cat and then throwing it out a window: great movie moment or the greatest movie moment?
• Shoutout to Tony Revolori as Zero, successfully navigating a character who spends most of his screentime observing in the background, but can still step up and influence the story when he needs to. I was curious what Revolori has been up to in the last 12 years: turns out he’s in those new Spider-Man movies that I’ve never gotten around to watching. Glad he’s getting that Marvel money. Bonus shoutout to F. Murray Abraham as older Zero, making this the second NFR movie that Abraham narrates in flashback (with no old age makeup required this time).
• I liked the “Society of Crossed Keys” sequence, particularly Bill Murray’s extensive mustache and the amusing “take over” runner. Also, one of the society’s members is played by Wally Wolodarsky, Wes Anderson go-to and longtime “Simpsons” writer who co-wrote, among other episodes, the one where Homer falls down the Springfield Gorge. 

• At a time when CG effects were under fire for being too prevalent in Hollywood movies, Anderson comes to the rescue with practical effects and a stop-motion ski chase sequence. That being said, there’s a handful of green screen shots throughout the movie, though they’re minimal and nonintrusive.

• Oh wow, Owen Wilson’s in this. This is Wilson’s first NFR appearance as an actor; he was previously represented as the co-writer of “Rushmore”.
• The credits give special billing to pretty much the entire production team before the traditional roll-up credits. Also keep watching for a Special Thanks to the Library of Congress, and animation of a dancing Russian man!

Bonus Clip: Way back in the day I co-hosted a radio show with stand-up comic Clay Newman where we talked about TV and movies and stuff. For our 2015 Bullshit Oscar Special we did an opening sketch where we pulled a Billy Crystal and inserted ourselves into all eight of that year’s Best Picture nominees, including “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. Clay ad-libbed most of his lines, and his “Grand Budapest” tag still makes me laugh. Now if only I had sprung for an actual microphone.

Hello dear readers,

This is a post to tell you that there is no post this week. I’ve been traveling for the last few days so I’m taking a quick break from the blog for some rest and relaxation. I’ll be back next week with the first in my Class of 2025 series. I also recently finished writing the post for movie #800 (!), which I’ll publish in a few weeks. No spoilers about which movie it will be, but I promise it will be a super post, man.

One quick story of my travels before I go: I have spent the last few days in New Orleans’ French Quarter for the first time. We visited lots of great places, including a tour of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, which has an interesting NFR connection. I took this pic of the Charity statue at the Italian Mutual Benevolent Society tomb. You may notice that its right hand is missing, and it turns out it’s Peter Fonda’s fault. During the filming of “Easy Rider” in the cemetery, Fonda climbed up onto the statue’s lap (as seen in the film). After the take, Fonda grabbed Charity’s hand for leverage, only for it to break. This has led to less productions being allowed to film within the cemetery, so thanks a lot you stoned hippies.

I’m back in California this week meeting up with old friends, but we’ll return with your regularly scheduled Horse’s Head next week.

Happy Viewing and watch your hands,

Tony