The Brother From Another Planet

The Brother From Another Planet, is an interesting movie. I watched it about a week ago and I still can’t decide if I like it or not. I think it’s a good movie, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t know if I would go out and evangelize it to all my nerdy compadres. I will get into the elements that I liked about this story in a bit, but first I’d like to talk briefly on the one thing I didn’t like that kind of put a damper on things. I found the story hard to comprehend. I kept getting a little confused at what was going on and why things were progressing the way they did. This is due to the way it was filmed and the way that the story move forward. It felt very fragmented.
What redeemed the movie for me was a slue of different things.  For starters I LOVE ME SOME low budget films. (Really, I do.) And this was apparently low budget.  Also, this movie is hilarious. It has a great cast. All the characters have their own whip crack-dynamism about them and are all very engaging. Which leads me to another reason why I should like this movie. The main character, The Brother.
The Brother is a unique character because throughout the film he doesn’t talk. This is great because it adds that sense of alienation that is needed in the story. A new person in a new land.  In addition, it is hard to engage the audience without talking. It’s cutting off a means of communication. All his communication must be done through body language and Joe Morton does a great job at just that.  He is a really convincing black alien.
Lastly, I’d like to briefly touch on the men in black. The villains of the story. I thought these two guys were interesting because I grew up in an era where the men in black were the good guys out to defend humanity. In this story the men in black are aliens’ out to recapture a slave. This to me was unique.
The weirdest part for me was to see the Twin Towers. I grew up in New York City. I was born there and plan to move right back after college. I was 9 when they fell and now I’m 21. It’s just weird to see them.  –This last part was so far divorced from what I was talking about, it’s just important to me and I felt the need to through it in.