Popular reviews

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  Review by pd187 ★★★★★

  "immigration? gimme a break. we had a kid overdose downstairs last night and you're pestering people about some piece of paper that says theyr legal? you wanna know my opinion? my opinion is you people just made up the immigration scam just to keep people under your thumb"

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  Review by Richard Chandler ★★★½ 2

  "Funny-looking motherfucker—but he can shoot, can't he?"

  A downmarket E.T. that's less cloying though just as self-congratulatory, John Sayles' can't-we-all-get-along allegory The Brother from Another Planet chronicles the adventures of the Brother (Joe Morton)—a Black fugitive alien slave—after he crash-lands near Ellis Island. Once earthbound, the Brother divides his time between evading a pair of proto-Men in Black deadpan bounty hunters posing as immigration officials (David Strathairn and Sayles himself), solving the drug epidemic by shaming one venal white executive at a time, and trying to catch the eye of a foxy nightclub singer. Aside from his extraterrestrial status, the Brother has a number of intriguing qualities. For instance, he understands human languages yet cannot speak; he can however regenerate severed…

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  Review by WraithApe ★★★½ 6

  Whatever I expected The Brother from Another Planet to be, this wasn't it. John Sayles's quirky sci-fi drama about a mute three-toed alien who lands in Ellis Island and goes on to explore the neighbourhood of Harlem moves to the beat of its own drum. It harks back to the aesthetic of 70s blaxploitation, subverting the stereotypes but not in a way that leaves you feeling like you've been hit over the head with a bunch of socio-political messaging. It's clearly an analogue for slavery, with The Brother fleeing a couple of MIB (one played by Sayles himself) and a slave-trading elite on his home planet, but reflects on the black experience of America without getting preachy about it.

  It's…

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  Review by Joshua Dysart ★★★★ 8

  I truly adore this reductive, clear-eyed, and ultimately rather soft exploration of racism through lo-fi social science fiction. People will tell you that it’s clunky, people will tell you that it’s top heavy with the weight of its messaging, people will tell you it’s obviously written & directed by a well-meaning white guy. Those people are right.

  But there is charm in its low budget clunk. There is authenticity in its obvious messaging. And there are black performers here - not the least of which is the extraordinary Joe Morton - who are given lots and lots of time in front of the camera to be whoever they feel their characters need to be, because that’s the John Sayles way -…

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  Review by Jonathan White ★★★★ 9

  I remember catching John Sayles' The Brother from Another Planet back in the 80’s, and being thoroughly charmed by it’s silent, three toed, protagonist, It’s blacksplotation trappings, and rather obvious allusion to immigration and overtones of the Christ story. When we stumbled across it on Netflix the other night ( my wife, who hadn’t seen it, made the suggestion ), I was a bit worried about tarnishing a sweet memory.

  What came flooding back, though, is Sayles' wonderful ease with dialogue; which makes it particularly winsome, as the central character is mute. There isn’t dialogue; in its place Sales crafts captivating and often dryly hilarious speeches. Each character an orator standing on speaker’s corner, going on for anyone who will…

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  Review by Joe ★★★★★ 6

  From the title, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a goofy, broad comedy - the kind that John Landis and Eddie Murphy may have collaborated on. But you would be completely wrong.

  The Brother From Another Planet is actually a highly thoughtful, humane, and yes, funny, portrait of what it's like to be an outsider in America.

  This was the first movie to be directed by John Sayles that I've seen, but from what I understand it's the only one to use any of the stuff he learned in his background writing exploitation movies for Roger Corman. It's too bad, because this movie's fantastic conceit brought down to Earth and shot through with real human characters is pretty damn irresistible.

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  Review by ♠ Benja ♠ ★★★★

  Low-key sci-fi on the surface and social parable about race and assimilation deep within. Sayles crafts a discerning and contemplative little cult piece with a lot of room for quirky slapstick comedy while not shying away from its sociopolitical commentary.

  What really makes the film succeed is Joe Morton's subtle and muted yet understanding and expressive turn as "The Brother".

  Really intriguing and distinctive minimalistic sci-fi, no wonder it has gained a cult following. Would definitely recommend.

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  Review by Jay D 's Watching ★★★½ 2

  1) Not a big fan of the whole 'underrated' actor thing - that being said, Joe Morton - terrific body of work for an actor, and he's REALLY good here, with a performance that could come off as a gimmick, but doesn't.

  2) John Sayles playing with roots in genre--this is one of those films that's clearly made by someone with a love of pulp SF, but also with an interest in using the tropes and trappings for what they can say about the real world, rather than just tell the 900th variation on the same 'bug eyed alien lost in New York City' story- the end result feeling pretty solid as a balance between something appreciating the genre and…

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  Review by Ellie 7

  Need to live. Need food to live. Need money for food. Need work for money. Need social security, permit, ID for work. Need application for social security, permit, ID. Need social security, permit, ID for application. Need to read and write to fill out application. Need time to learn. Need to live in the meantime. Need food to live. Need money for food. Need work for money...

  Really interesting moment near the beginning where everyone writes The Brother off as crazy before realizing he can fix things. You only matter when you can be exploited.

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  Review by Austin Lord ★★★½

  Another Afrofuturism film under my belt now, and I'm sort of starting to get the rhythm of them, and an understanding of why Criterion Channel decided to showcase these films. This film was pretty fun, well made, and also had some silly campy moments (which I think were unintentional), but overall I feel like this was a really solid film. It takes the idea of "illegal alien" and stretches it out to the sci-fi genre, making a film about an actual alien minding his own business, being stopped by the big government men in black agents for no other reason than to keep away his happiness, and to flew their own authority. It's a really solid concept, and I enjoyed it, though the ending felt very weak and forgettable.

  Part of my Black Cinema Challenge, for a film released in the 1980s.

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  Review by Jesse Snoddon ★★★½

  Sayles takes the stranger in a strange land narrative to the next level and uses it to make a more salient point about race relations in America. The Brother (Joe Morton) is an alien on the run from his white pursuers who lands in Harlem. He quickly finds his way to a bar where, despite being unable to speak, he begins to make friends and create bonds with the community. 

  It's a clever movie in a few ways. Using a literal alien lets the wider audience see a community they may not know all that much about through new eyes along with The Brother and people who are familiar to just sit back and enjoy. The fact that The Brother…

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  Review by SylvainL ★★★½ 9

  Content de retrouver John Sayles, ça faisait trop longtemps. Il y a là toute sa compassion et son humanité, mises en place pour s'opposer à un système oppressif, et ça fait beau à voir, avec cette prémisse parfaite et un Joe Morton fascinant. À un moment on mentionne le Underground Railroad, et ça m'a rappelé que j'avais subi un épisode de cette abomination là il y a peu, et l'écart entre ce film et la série de Jenkins était tellement immense, à tous les niveaux, que ce film en devenait d'autant plus précieux, avec toutes ses maladresses et ses fausses allures d'amateurisme. Anyway, on s'en reparle une autre fois, je vais subir le reste quand même, en attendant vaut mieux se rappeler que Sayles est un sacré cinéaste, dont on parle trop peu souvent.