Great Film overall

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

WARNING! Spoilers Galore! If you haven't seen the film yet, you will NOT want to read this review!This film was screened on opening night of MOMA's "Future Imperfect" series on July 17, 2017. Director John Sayles introduced the film and participated in a talk afterwards. The author's intention is to preserve some of the discussion.The panel consisted of the director, producers Maggie Renzi and Peggy Rajski, actors Daryl Edwards and Fisher Stevens,and curator Josh Siegel.Sayles said the plot came to him in a series of dreams. The producers said the financing for another film fell through the day before shooting was to begin, but Sayles said he had $300K in the bank (his Macarthur grant)and would be willing to spend it on a film about a black ET who lands in Harlem.The first day of shooting was a disaster. The production manager's wife was in labor, and the guy who was supposed to provide the dolly track got a better offer and ditched Sayles. Fisher Stevens said he had to change his clothes in a station wagon. But the experience of this film was great fun and turned him on to independent productions.Aside: the card trick Stevens does for Joe Morton is a real effect, known in the trade as "Sam the Bellhop," popularized by Bill Malone. Stevens noted that Morton, a method actor, hardly said a word to the other cast members.Daryl Edwards said this was his second professional gig, and he was just happy to be there, not realizing the shoestring budget made for a very unconventional shoot. The opening special effect, Sayles said, cost just $50 to achieve. An audience member asked what Josh Mostel was doing in a cameo late in the film. Rajski explained he was her ex-husband!All were grateful to Siskel and Ebert, whose review of the film on their PBS show gave the film "millions of dollars worth of free publicity."This is a rousing, crowd pleasing comedy with a few dark undertones (pun not intended.)Dee Dee Bridgewater sings and has a fling with Morton. Morton gives a sensational performance as the mute fugitive. Sayles and David Strathairn are a hoot as "men in black" pursuing runaway slave Morton. The brother has empathic abilities and can fix electronics with a touch, but unlike ET and Starman, cannot restore people to life. There's a subplot about heroin that seems out of place, and the script meanders a bit, but on the whole this is a winner. At the end the MOMA audience gave the film a deserved loud ovation.Highly recommended.(This would make a great double feature with Charles Lane's "Sidewalk Stories." )

An alien (Joe Morton) lands in NYC. At first, he's outwardly a black man missing a leg. He's mute, has the ability to heal, fix machines, takes out his eye, reads minds and super athletic. He grows a leg. He befriends a group at a local bar in a black neighborhood. He is being pursued by two mysterious Man in Black (David Strathairn, John Sayles).It's a really interesting concept to do a low budget indie of a friendly alien finding his way in a minority neighborhood of a modern city. It starts well but it meanders and rambles. I want it to do something and it would be great to have the brother learn to speak. There are some nice scenes early on like the Korean grocery store but the movie fades. Instead of accelerating into the climax, it devolves into silliness.

With a ridiculous title as this, I thought the movie would be about alien black people high-fiving each other. Maybe something akin to Blackula or Black Dynamite. Boy, was I wrong. You can see something is off with expectations like these when you see the cast. None of the actors are high rollers in Hollywood, but you know most of them for their work throughout, as support characters.Joe Morton is the main character in the movie, along an African American cast that is too long to list here, but I know most of them. John Sayles, the director, is one of the "immigration agents", while the other is David Strathairn. You've got Fisher Stevens and Giancarlo Esposito in small roles. It just goes on and on. Of course, in 1984 they were not known actors, but they proved in time that they are good ones.The plot is simple, an alien running on Earth from two enforcers, but the script is filled with complexity, tackling in a subtle way things like racism, social status, societal satire. And they are part of the story, while this quiet (Joe Morton doesn't say a word all movie) timid alien is discovering Earth with its good and bad points, starting from Harlem.Bottom line: highly underrated film, it is low budget, but it has class. I am not surprised it has become a cult classic and I am glad I had the chance to see it. And it's free! You can watch it online royalty free.

In what may have been John Sayles's most Hollywood-style movie - and I use that description loosely - an alien slave (Joe Morton) lands in Harlem and tries to escape two bounty hunters (the director and David Strathairn) from his planet. In the process, even though he can't talk, he starts fixing video-games (unintentionally, natch). It just goes to show that you don't need an exorbitant budget to make a good movie about extraterrestrial life. Maybe not Sayles's all-time masterpiece, but worth seeing, partly as a look at people's everyday lives. I'd recommend it.Make all the white people disappear. Yeah...