Cinematic Doctrine

The Man from Earth - Hollow, Pretentious, and Poorly Directed

Shirleon Sharron Season 1 Episode 194

PATREON MOVIE DISCUSSION: 

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Shirleon joins Melvin to discuss a movie neither of them had heard of before: The Man From Earth! John Oldman says he's lived for 14,000 years, but his coworkers aren't so sure. So ensues a film of debate regarding time, materialism, and spirituality. Philosophical pretention abounds! Strap yourself in and tune in now!

Topics: 

  • (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 34-minutes discussing a series of Summer Blockbusters that may or may not be - as Melvin puts it - "Not"busters, or films that flopped at the box office in contrast to their exorbitant budgets, and why that may be. (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 
  • Shirleon, "There [are] a few moments where, like, it's charming."
  • Melvin, "Let's just get out of the gate. Like, this is a poorly directed film."
  • There are many interesting things within the film, but the package fails to bring anything together.
  • Shirleon and Melvin discuss other movies set in one room that are more visually stimulating and offer better performances.
  • Pretentious is a weighty word to use in art criticism, so Melvin first colors what he considers "pretentious" as it relates to film-making before, then, calling The Man From Earth pretentious.
  • Discussing the depiction of materialism in the film, and Shirleon does some live fact-checking.
  • How the film dives into religious concepts but continues to have nothing to say about humanity, truth, or anything of importance.
  • Melvin shares his one note-header, “Athiests make bad movies to!”.

Recommendations:

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