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The Truman Show poster

Movies that feel likeThe Truman Show (1998)

In a picture-perfect seaside town, an insurance salesman begins to realize that his entire existence may be staged and observed by a vast unseen audience as part of a long-running real-time reality TV show.

If you loved The Truman Show, the closest films we have are Burn After Reading (2008), Election (1999) and Jojo Rabbit (2019). All three share The Truman Show's witty and playful feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is OMG: Oh My God! (2012).

7 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Paramount Plus Premium · Criterion Channel

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See it on the Mood Map

If The Truman Show hit the spot, these will too

Burn After Reading poster
Burn After Reading
2008 · dir. Ethan Coen
🍅 78%★ 7comedy · drama

Ordinary lives colliding with absurd surveillance machinery

The difference: Coen farce — everyone's an idiot, no innocence

When a disc containing memoirs of a former CIA analyst falls into the hands of gym employees, Linda and Chad, they see a chance to make enough money for Linda to have life-changing cosmetic surgery. Predictably, events whirl out of control for the duo, and those in their orbit.

Election poster
Election
1999 · dir. Alexander Payne
🍅 92%★ 7.2comedy · dramaParamount+

Ambition observed with clinical, uncomfortable closeness

The difference: Sourer and meaner — no warmth extended to anyone

A high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.

Jojo Rabbit poster
Jojo Rabbit
2019 · dir. Taika Waititi
🍅 81%★ 7.9comedy · war · dramaRent or buy

A constructed worldview cracking as truth leaks in

The difference: Wartime satire; the fantasy is ideology

Jojo, a lonely German boy during World War II has his world shaken when he learns that his single mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Influenced by a buffoonish imaginary version of Adolf Hitler, he begins to question his beliefs and confront the conflict between propaganda and his own humanity.

M*A*S*H poster
M*A*S*H
1970 · dir. Robert Altman
🍅 86%★ 7.3comedy · drama · war

Laughter used as armor inside a system nobody sane would choose

The difference: Loose, rambling 1970 satire — no plot engine pulling you through

One of the world's most acclaimed comedies, M*A*S*H focuses on three Korean War Army surgeons brilliantly brought to life by Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt and Elliott Gould. Though highly skilled and deeply dedicated, they adopt a hilarious, lunatic lifestyle as an antidote to the tragedies of their Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in the process infuriate Army bureaucrats. Robert Duvall, Gary Burghoff and Sally Kellerman co-star as a sanctimonious Major, an other-worldly Corporal, and a self-righteous yet lusty nurse.

Withnail & I poster
Withnail & I
1987 · dir. Bruce Robinson
🍅 84%★ 7.5comedy · dramaMax

Funny in a way that keeps opening onto genuine sadness

The difference: Squalid and aimless where Truman is bright and engineered

Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) poster
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
2014 · dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu
🍅 91%★ 7.7drama · comedyMax

A man performing his life while reality frays

The difference: Backstage ego spiral, the cameras invited

A fading actor best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected.

The Dictator poster
The Dictator
2012 · dir. Larry Charles
🍅 56%★ 6.5comedyParamount+

Witty where it counts, playful underneath

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.

Men & Chicken poster
Men & Chicken
2015 · dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
★ 6.7comedy · drama

A dark comedy about discovering your whole life rests on a lie

The difference: Grotesque Danish farce — far cruder and stranger than Seahaven

Men & Chicken is a black comedy about two outcast brothers who, by getting to know their unknown family, discover a horrible truth about themselves and their relatives.

Carnage poster
Carnage
2011 · dir. Roman Polanski
🍅 71%★ 7.1comedy · drama

Civilized surfaces cracking to show what people really are

The difference: One room, four actors, real time — a filmed play, not a fable

Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the discussion into chaos.

OMG: Oh My God! poster
OMG: Oh My God!
2012 · dir. Umesh Shukla
★ 8.1comedy · drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then dark humor

The difference: Takes it somewhere less bleak than The Truman Show does

A shopkeeper takes God to court when his shop is destroyed by an earthquake.

Drop Dead Gorgeous poster
Drop Dead Gorgeous
1999 · dir. Michael Patrick Jann
🍅 47%★ 6.7comedy

Wholesome small-town surfaces filmed as if nothing were wrong

The difference: Broad and gleefully nasty; no sympathy for its subjects

In a small Minnesota town, the annual beauty pageant is being covered by a TV crew. Former winner Gladys Leeman wants to make sure her daughter follows in her footsteps; explosions, falling lights, and trailer fires prove that. As the Leemans are the richest family in town, the police are pretty relaxed about it all. Despite everything, main rival (but sweet) Amber Atkins won't give up without a fight.

Office Space poster
Office Space
1999 · dir. Mike Judge
🍅 82%★ 7.6comedyParamount+

Both lean on wit more than on comedy

A depressed white-collar worker tries hypnotherapy, only to find himself in a perpetual state of devil-may-care bliss that prompts him to start living by his own rules, and hatch a hapless attempt to embezzle money from his soul-killing employers.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Truman Show’s defining feeling.