Truman has no idea what unscripted life is like, or that there is a world beyond the world of the television program, or that the woman playing his wife is an actress who does not love him. Of course, Truman is understandably upset when this deception is revealed and the film chronicles his attempt to break free of his televised prison -- but the genuineness of 'real life,' in contrast to the soundstage remains an open question. After all, even the 'real world' inhabitants are often more transfixed by Truman's false life on television than their own.

The Matrix is another exercise in hyper-reality: in the film, the hacker Neo-discovers that the real world is not 'real' at all but is rather a creation of villains known as Agents who have implanted the reality of the 'matrix' into the minds of all humanity, and live off of their bodies as...
[ View Full Essay]