We’re back for another installment of Review Stew! This week I turned to my Letterboxd watchlist, set it to shuffle, and the first result is what I went with. Let’s get to know John Oldman as we dive into…The Man from Earth (2007).
Title: The Man from Earth
Director: Richard Schenkman
Released: June 10, 2007 (United States)
Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes
Available to stream on: Kanopy
John Oldman (David Lee Smith) is a college professor who, after 10 years on the job, has decided it is time to move on. As he’s packing up his things at his cabin, his co-workers show up unannounced to throw him an impromptu going away party.
The group is made up of: Dan (Tony Todd), an anthropologist; Harry (John Billingsley), a biologist; Art (William Katt), an archeologist; Edith (Ellen Crawford), a theologian and art history professor; Dr. Will Gruber (Richard Riehle), a psychiatrist; Sandy (Annika Peterson), John’s assistant; and Linda (Alexis Thorpe), a student of Dr. Gruber’s.
One by one, they try and press John into telling them what is going on. Why is it that he’d just walk away from things? Eventually, he decides to let them in on his little secret.
While he might look like he’s 35 years old, he’s actually been alive for nearly 14 millennia. He moves on every 10 years or so when those around him begin to realize that he never ages.
Naturally, everyone thinks Joe is pulling some weird elaborate hoax. So they begin to pepper him with more questions to try and expose him.
But what if he’s telling the truth?
If you’re like me and go into this knowing nothing about it, the first few minutes might very well turn you off.
It looks and feels like a B-grade made-for-television movie. Though, The Man from Earth (2007) is an example of strong writing saving a film.
For all but maybe two brief scenes, the entire film is this group of friends, sitting in the cabin, and talking. And because of Jerome Bixby‘s incredible writing, I was captivated for every single second of it.
While there are a lot of topics covered throughout the course of the conversation, each one is given enough time to breathe. The group has thought-provoking conversations on each topic while trying to snuff out whether John is being truthful. To top things off, it delivers an ending that caught me completely by surprise.
As far as both single-location and dialogue-focused films go, The Man from Earth (2007) quickly became one of my favorites.
If you haven’t seen it, definitely check this one out.
So, if you have seen The Man from Earth (2007), what did you think?
Leave a comment below or reach out on Bluesky and tell me all about it!
As always, you can follow me over on Letterboxd to see everything else that I’ve been watching lately.
Christians must really hate this movie