The Brother from Another Planet
John Sayles financed most of this movie himself. According to Wikipedia, "Sayles describes this movie as being about the immigrant experience of assimilation. He spent part of his MacArthur Fellows 'genius' grant on the film, which cost $350,000 to produce".,After Little Earl takes off his band-aid, and The Brother heals his knee, the band-aid reappears where his cut was.,Bernice: What you want for dinner?
Odell: You mean, what do I *want*, or what do I want that you can *cook*?
Bernice: Well, in that case, where are you taking me?
Odell: Yeah, what do you want to have?
Bernice: You mean, what do I *want*, or what do I want that you can *afford*?,Featured in At the Movies: Teachers/Country/The Brother from Another Planet/Old Enough (1984),Homeboy
Sung by Joe Morton
By Mason Daring and John Sayles
Sweet Melodies Publishing/ASCAP,When Rod Serling created the classic "Twilight Zone" TV show, he presented it as a harmless fantasy/SF show when it was actually a series of morality plays.

In this film you have John Sayles' take on the same concept. He talks a standard SF cliche -- the stranded ET -- and uses it as the jumping-off place for a story about something altogether different. He doesn't appear at the end, like Serling, and tell you what the moral or message was.

Rather than talk about all that (art appreciation and interpretation is pretty much a subjective affair), I would like to say a word or two about the performance of Mr. Joe Morton as the eponymous character:

Zowie!

The Brother is totally mute. And yet Morton's performance knocks the poop out of any piece of acting you could name. Human and humane, empathetic and sympathetic. This guy will have you laughing and crying right along with him.

An incredible performance. Well worth the price of the rental, and the popcorn, and the gas that you burned up picking it up and...,