Sayles is no storyteller; despite the verve of its language, "The Brother From Another Planet" eventually sags of its own weight.

The two different ends require shifts in point of view that are beyond Sayles's talent as a visual storyteller, and the film does not cohere.

A vastly amusing but progressively erratic look at the Harlem adventures of an alien, a black E.T.

...this one, something of a B-ish sci-fi dramadey, provides laughs as it provokes.