The Man from Earth

If not the "best" science-fiction film ever made, Jerome Bixby's Man From Earth is certainly one of the most thoughtful. This movie reminds me of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Not with spaceships and effects, but with intelligent characters and exceptional dialogue, and that it left me with a sense of true wonder and joy, long after the credits ended. If the movie had been two hours longer I still would not have been bored, even though most of the film takes place in one small room. It's like watching a ninety minute Twilight Zone, with a perfect surprise ending. John Billingsly stands out, as does David Lee Smith, who may or may not be a caveman. The rest of the cast is good, but the script is the true star. And to anyone claiming this film is boring because we never leave the one room; Some of the very best Twilight Zones were just that. Good actors, good scripts, one or two locations. To anyone who's fed up with spaceships and explosions and Jar-Jar Binks, see this movie as a reminder of what science fiction has always been about.