An alien from outer space (Joe Morton) crash lands in NY. He looks like a black man, is totally mute and can fix machines and heal wounds with his bare hands. He's taken in by the citizens of Harlem who grow to like him...but he's being followed by two men in black (John Sayles and David Stratham) who want to bring him back to outer space.An interesting change of pace for director/writer and editor John Sayles...but it doesn't really work. I caught this in 1984 at an art cinema and was pretty unimpressed. My thoughts haven't really changed much. There's no real plot...just Morton wandering around and meeting all these odd but always friendly people. The dialogue is great and Morton is excellent (that's why I'm giving it a 6) but the rest of the acting is pretty bad (except for Sayles and Stratham) and nothing really happens. It just sort of lays there. It also leads to a real ambiguous ending which could be interpreted a number of different ways. Still, this was the kind of independent film that came out in the 1980s and 90s before Hollywood took them over. For that alone this is interesting to watch. It has been beautifully restored by the Anarchists Covention (???) and UCLA. It looks better now than it did in 1984!

This film has been a favorite of mine since I first saw it. The Brother from Another Planet was featured at the French-American film festival in my temporary hometown of Avignon, France in the spring/summer of 1984, and I saw it in the Utopia theater there, a venue equal to this enchanting, unusual film. My own situation informed my viewing; as I had recently graduated from college and flown to France to work for the summer (before heading into "the 'real' world"), Brother spoke to me about life as a foreigner "without a voice." I was self-conscious about my French and had chosen to spend my early weeks there silently observing. The parallels were too many to enumerate. My reactions were visceral; I appreciated the situations more than had I been viewing with a majority American audience. Separate from my personal perspective, however, I believe the film depicts a wonderful cross-section of characters who were simultaneously of their era and archetypal; I enjoyed "meeting" the compendium the Brother met and seeing them through his eyes. Joe Morton was skilled at communicating without words, conveying emotion and thoughtfulness in his character's truly alien environment. The interplanetary bounty hunters, my personal favorites, were clearly inspirations for the later "Men in Black" feature franchise. I'm glad I saw them before MIB debuted. There was nothing formulaic about this story. Sayles' fresh approach made me into a lifelong fan; he is a storyteller whose tales are always worth the trip. For a film with the potential for both scintillating discussion or simply quirky-but-never-shallow entertainment, check out The Brother.

Like "Moscow on the Hudson" also released the same year, this movie tells the story of a "foreigner" looking to start a new life. White males are negative, authority figures, while everyone else is just trying to do the best they can to get by. The minority figures - African-Americans, Hispanics, and women are the only ones willing to help the newcomer. The science fiction aspect was a great touch and allowed the story to be expanded in scope to include some great nuances.Joe Morton's current role in the Sci-Fi Channel's "Eureka" is just as quirky and compelling as his performance in this movie. He's a great actor that we will hopefully see more of in the future.

The Brother From Another Planet, is about an African American alien who crash lands on Earth in Harlem, in New York City. The brother does not speak English (or any language at all) but he can understand others and soon makes friends at a local bar and gets a job fixing things. He also gets a place to stay, lodging with a single mother. Many things on Earth seem unusual to the brother and he encounters many unusual people and situations. Soon we also find out about two men in black who are after the brother and want to get rid of him. He also shows his many alien talents during the film. Winner of The Caixa de Catalunya Award for Best Actor (Joe Morton, who plays the brother) and Best Screenplay (John Sayles, who also directed and edited the film) at The Catalonian International Film Festival. The Brother From Another Planet, has good direction, a good script, a good performance by Joe Morton, as well as a good supporting cast, good original music, good cinematography and good film editing. The Brother From Another Planet, takes a little while to get into but gives us an entertaining story, a likable main character and likable side characters, interesting situations and the script is filled with good dialogue, good character development, is full of smart satire and unusual characters and lots of unique situations and plot twists. The film is quite enjoyable and entertaining and is deliciously different. I enjoyed this film quite a bit and it is a nice clever sci-fi/comedy.