Remember “The Truman Show”?
----
It was a movie in the 90s about this dude who was, unbeknownst to him, being filmed 24/7. His life was essentially a TV show, and tens of millions of people around the world were captivated. The film presented this scenario as a dystopian nightmare: A surveillance state where the ‘star’ of the show had no power or agency in his own life, because the script was decided for him and the cameras took away any sense of self, even though he was unaware of them.
It’s hard to imagine a movie that got things more wrong.
Fast forward to 2026. An entire of generation of zoomers has no idea “The Truman Show” exists, but if they did, far from being a nightmare, it would be their ultimate dream. These folks stream themselves 24/7 and can only hope to get 50 followers, let alone millions. Privacy is meaningless. Even agency is meaningless if everything you’re doing is just geared towards giving your viewers what they want so they keep watching. The only meaningful things are clicks, likes, and followers. Truman isn’t a warning to the zoomers, he’s their god-king.
Case in point: Mackenzie Shirilla. A seventeen year old girl who crashed her car into a wall killing two passengers. The question is: Did she intend to kill those people?
I’m not here to tell you that. I don’t know. But, by the end of film, you will probably have an opinion, because Mackenzie put herself onto social media every day, multiple times. You know her, because she’s putting herself on full display. What you will then do, is take this information and use it decide whether or not she’s guilty.
Unfortunately, for Mackenzie, the persona she chose to wear for her social media videos was “Supermodel Bitch”. I didn’t know ungodly skinny women were *still* considered the height of fashion in 2026 like they were in the 90s... But if Mackenzie is any indication, they are. So she’s a supermodel. She’s also a bitch. She hands out burn notices to everybody. She gets the clicks because people love to hate her.
Turns out, when you’re accused of murder, being hated isn’t so hot. When she was arrested, most of her “fanbase” immediately jumped onto the comments to talk about how she was getting what she deserved. The question is no longer “Is she guilty of murder”, the question is “Does she deserve to punished”, and what do people want to see more than a supermodel bitch get her comeuppance? Cats? I don’t know.
Even as Mackenzie claims her online presence is just an act, a ‘persona’ that isn’t really her... I have to wonder. Where does supermodel end and Mackenzie begin? What if it was me? If I manslaughtered up a couple of my friends, and I’m in court, and they’re like “Hey Movieshyte... Didn’t you interview a member of the azov battalion?” I’d be like “Umm... Fuck”. It’d be over! Where is the line where I am movieshyte and no longer me? The answer, I have no clue, and by the movieshyte transitive property that says my lived experience applies to every person on earth, none of you have a clue either. And I’m a heck of lot older than 17. By the way, the reverse transitive property is NOT true, and none of all y’all’s personal nonsense applies to me.
This ‘persona’ doesn’t just apply to Mackenzie, it applies to literally every single person in the documentary. They know they’re being filmed... So I’m no longer watching people, I’m watching archetypes. The ambitious district attorney. The grieving family member. The shocked best friend. The father who wants JUSTICE for their child and is demanding a maximum sentence. These people are both real and performance at the same time. It’s hard to parse them. The Truman worshipping zoomers want to create this world where everything is surface level scrolling through lives, and there’s no nuance, there’s no delving into the particulars. When she’s first interviewed, Mackenzie’s best friend says “When I met Mackenzie, I had 250K followers and she only had 2K.” THAT’S the first thing you say about your best friend? Why have you created this world of no connection???
If you’re going to do that, own it. Mackenzie is in prison now. Since she’s been found guilty of murder, I suggest she bring back “murder inc.” as a gang.
In case you don’t know, “murder inc.” is a gang from the prohibition era of the 1920s and 30s. I’ve often floated the idea to myself of bringing back prohibition, not because I don’t want people to drink, but because that era gave rise to real gangsters like Al Capone and real gangs like “murder inc.”. These days we have gangs with names like “The 829”. What the @#$! are we even doing? What do you think happens when “murder inc.” goes up against “The 829”? I won’t spoil it for you, but one of those gangs ends up 829 feet in the dirt. Can’t we at least get “The 8675309”?
So, yeah, Mackenzie, bring murder inc. back!
Let’s be clear, I am NOT suggesting that Mackenzie murder people. Or, more people, anyway. No, I just want her to OWN the persona! What is better, supermodel bitch, that crazy chick who crashed her car and killed her boyfriend, or the head murderista of the new murder inc.??? If you’re just going to invent yourself, and let’s be honest, we all do, invent something kick ass.
Or you could, like, not want everybody to watch you all the time. But that would be crazy.
829/10