HANDS DOWN: “The Man From Earth”
In my opinion, this is THE GREATEST MOVIE YOU NEVER KNEW EVEN EXISTED.
The premise is simple: John Oldman is a university history professor about to be named head of the History Department, but suddenly quits his job and prepares to move to another city. His friends, all professors as well, go to his house to throw him a surprise farewell party. They inquire him as to why the sudden move, and after some pressure John Oldman relents and asks them:
“What if I told you that I am actually 14,000 years old, and every 10 years I move from city to city so that people won’t notice that I don’t age?”
Naturally this is met with a mix of shock and skepticism. Each friend is a professor and an expert in a different field: a biologist; an art history professor and devout Christian; an anthropologist; another historian; an archaeologist; and a psychiatrist. Each of them challenges John’s statement and questions him from their area of expertise.
What follows is a one and a half hour conversation that explores John’s statement, and the possibility of whether or not he is fake or for real.
The conversation enthralls you as it goes deeper and deeper into the implications of John’s story, and each of the characters reacts differently to every new fact that is revealed. Everything happens within a single room, and yet you feel as if you are traveling into a different world. One of the characters even says at some point that he needs to “go home and watch Star Trek, for a dose of sanity”.
One of the best movies I have ever seen. Period.