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The Brother from Another PlanetJohn Sayles' witty and mordant low-key comedy is a splendid shaggy-dog story which has the eponymous Brother, black alien slave Joe Morton, crash landing his spaceship in New York Harbour, while being pursued by bounty hunters from Outer Space. He makes his way to Harlem where his adventures begin when the local bar denizens attempt to work out why the Brother doesn't speak and where he comes from.
The suspicions of the bar's owner, Odell and Bernice (James and Woodes), turn to amazement when the Brother demonstrates his other-worldly powers by fixing a malfunctioning video game with a simple touch of his hand. He is found an appropriate job in Times Square video arcade run by frantic Mr Love (Mantel) while social worker Sam (Wright) finds him living accommodation with Randy Sue Carter (Aaron) and her mother-in-law Rickey (Le Noire). The Brother is tracked down by the two bounty hunters (director Sayles and David Strathairn) but avoids capture and starts to track down his own prey - heroin-dealer Mr Vance (Baran), who is responsible for a drug-overdose death in Harlem - while succumbing to earthly love for jazz singer Malverne Davis (Dee Dee Bridgewater).
Morton is remarkable, given that his character speaks no English and is effectively mute for the duration, while the sub-plot in which a pair of white aliens (Sayles and Strathairn) hunt for him on earth is pure satire.
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