My Brother

I saw a screening copy of this movie. It's hitting the big screen in select markets having won a host of indie awards. It's one you don't want to miss. Strong theme, content, excellent acting and well worth viewing -- an African American film that draws on a dying mother's (Vanessa Williams) love for her children; an older brother's love and commitment for his younger, special needs brother; and the ever complicated human element of care-taking both heartwarming and heart-wrenching. It deserves to be seen everywhere. My Brother is coming to some big markets. Look for it in you area and take the time to go see it. You'll be glad you did. Good luck to the folks working on this great project.

I saw this movie at American Black Film Festival. It is a positive black film with positive messages. Also, a great performance by Vanessa Williams. Little actors were great also, and the lead role and Fredro was great also. After my interest in this movie I looked them up on the net and found their site; mybrotherthemovie.com (they are also on youtube.com/profile?user=LibertyArtists). In there they have a mini-documentary showing how they worked with the developmentally-disabled. Seems like a very caring bunch of people. The developmentally-disabled did great because of it. And the result is a heartwarming and positive film. Go see it yourself, I think it opens on the 16th of March.

I admit I'm a huge fan of Vanessa Williams, so I was looking forward to seeing this film when I heard about it. I lucked into a screening and thought it was just so moving and thought provoking. I haven't seen a story on screen in a long, long time that touched me so deeply. The supporting players were all wonderful and I think this is truly a film deserving of a wide audience. My favorite scenes involved Vanessa and her sons, as well as the scenes in which she is trying so hard to hold her family together. I think her work in this film is of high quality and I am pleased that she is getting an opportunity to show her talents as an actress.

This movie is so bad in so many ways I don't know where to begin. It's barely over 90 minutes but it feels like hours.

When I saw the movie, I was thinking: OK, this is really bad, but I can forgive it a little bit since it's the director working out some very personal family history. Then, after reading the reviews here, I realize the director is white. WTF?! It would still be bad, but I could understand the false dialog, the trite treatment of the disabled and the stupid non-plot if it was a bad writer/director who was too close to the material.

But from an outsider, all that plus the offensive racial stereotypes are bad beyond words. It's hard to pick the worst. Is it Vanessa Williams "don't beat up women" speech? I think it's the drawn out "white woman in a black club" scene. Who has TB except drug addicts and inmates? I could go on for pages.

It reminded me of a review of Spike Lee's "She Hate Me" that said something like "This movie is a complete failure, but it fails in a magnificent way, in a way that only a genius could fail". This movie was the opposite. It fails in a way that exposes the complete lack of talent of the director/writer.

The leads, Vanessa Williams and NaShawn Kearse, deserve better material than this. By rights, they should have treated the script with contempt. I have to give them credit, they do the best they can with the crap they're given to work with. Likewise, Fredro Starr's performance is so much better than the script.

This movie looks beautiful. The cinematography in this movie is stunning. For an independent film to look far and above the caliber of most studio films in a testament to the raw talent of the DP. I saw this film after sitting through a long day of independent movies. Some good, some bad, all looking sup-par. Then these images graced the screen. While i'm not a huge fan of this movie as a whole, I was captivated by the visuals on screen. Excellent job. While I understand the reality that is the new digital world of films, I feel we've lost something in the way of cinematic imagery. It's nice to see there's still some artists on the rise.