Customer Reviews
excellent historical gay drama 
2008-06-08
excellent drama dealing with the black harlem renaissance, with a gay perspective. the actors and directing is convincing.taking place during the harlem renaissance and the present the young black man in this film learns that the past and present are very much the same.
A Thought-Provoking, Well-Acted Movie 2008-04-26
It's unfortunate this movie is not more well-known. I rented it a few years ago and immediately had to own it. I liked that it was a well-written, acted and directed piece about a sector of American society that is either ignored or pushed to the background. The mainstream gay community embraces it's black drag queens, so-called DL thugs and snap dragons, but seems to draw a blank when dealing with the everyday black gay man. It's refreshing to see the intelligence, beauty and grace of these men on celluloid.
Fascinating Portrait of Two Cultures 
2008-03-03
I was completely captivated by this low-key indie about Perry Williams, a gay black college student navigating his various relationships and forging his own identity as an artist, an African-American, a homosexual and a man. After being thrown out by his parents, landing his first group show and embarking on a doomed sexual relationship with a (straight, white) friend, he meets Richard Bruce Nugent, a destitute elderly man who turns out to have been a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's. Nugent's fascinating story is told in B&W flashback sequences juxtaposed against the various tribulations faced by Perry in the present day. Beautifully acted (particularly Roger Robinson's Nugent) and sensitively written. Refreshing to find a film that gives equal time to two different minority groups, highlighting the similarities in the issues they face. Plus, Anthony Mackie's doe-eyed Perry is utterly radiant.
Courageous and honest 2008-02-27
Watched too many campy gay movies that lack any substance? Want something that tells you about homosexual experience without either a) telling you something you've already gone through, or b) interjecting with bunch of fruity fantasy that'll never happen (but you put it in your amazon.com wish list anyways).
Brother to Brother gives positive energy. I didn't expect much from it. In fact, initially I avoided it because I thought I didn't watch a movie that not only target specifically "gay", but also "black." As if we need more labels.
I am not African American, but I still can relate to the experience. That's the genius of this film. It's universal enough, honest enough, people who has an open-mind can feel what those characters in the movie went through.
The main character had some relationship problem, but it's not the cliche and over-played "I feel pity for myself" ending. He in fact, got into a platonic relationship with a fatherly figure who guided him into something beautiful. He learned his gay history.
It's positive and educational. It shows love isn't skin-deep. It's deeper than that.
Bringing the Harlem Renaissance to Life 
2008-01-07
"Brother to Brother" is a poetic film about a gay African-American man,Perry (Anthony Mackie) struggling with his talent as well as homophobia and racism. Perry is an artist in search of his Muse. He has a troubled relationship with his white lover,and there is the issue of mutual exploitation. Perry meets up with Bruce Nugent (Roger Robinson),a writer who lived during the Harlem Renaissance. Nugent gives Perry a historical perspective to the issues of homophobia and racism. In flashbacks, gay poet James Baldwin debates with Malcolm X on whether gay African-American men are truly masculine; there is the shining oasis of the Harlem Renaissance embodied in Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston,and Wallace Thurman. This is an unusual way of handling the subject,but it works. Sometimes,it comes off as contrived, but it's an interesting way of setting up the love story.
Bruce Nugent was a real person. He was a gay African-American author whose short story "Jade,Lilies and Smoke" was in the short-lived journal Fire!! The romance between Nugent and Perry comes across as RPS (Real Person Slash) fiction. However,it is done in an artistic way. In the end,Nugent and Perry consummate their passion. It is not depicted graphically,but as two colorful paintings of the lovers surrounded by flowers and candles,as if it were a shrine. Nugent passes away shortly after,giving the encounter a bittersweet quality.
"Brother to Brother" has a talented ensemble cast. It's well-done. Occasionally preachy,it addresses thorny issues and is worth watching.
A YOUNG MAN AND AN OLDER MAN 2007-11-23
Critically-acclaimed drama that invokes the glory days of the Harlem Renaissance. As an elderly man, poet Bruce Nugent meets a young black gay artist struggling to find his voice and together they embark on a surreal narrative journey through his inspiring past.
Garnered well-deserved Independent Spirit Award nominations 2007-07-25
This overachieving small-budget release from writer/director Rodney Evans reaped a bunch of well-deserved Independent Spirit Award nominations in 2005, most notably for Anthony Mackie for Best Debut Performance. Mackie is a great actor - I like to juxtapose his role here vs. his quite different characters in Half Nelson and She Hate Me. That's range. He's attached as the title character to a forthcoming release about Jesse Owens. Seems like a perfect fit.
Intellectual Bohemians 2007-05-19
At the first 30 minutes or so of the film I did not know whether I liked it or not. After a full veiwing i realized that indeed i did enjoy the film and that it is truely singular. This is the first film I think that I have ever seen that takes as its main theme, the lives and natures of intellectual, bohemian black people. Yes we have all seen movies about black people. But has there been a movie where all the characters are articulate, intelligent,authors,poets,painters,social revolutionaires,and creators of style and culture? Masters of the english language and with all the tragedy that comes with lives in pursuit of the muse of art? An interesting and diffrent film, filled with black history. Surprisingly poetic at the end.
It is ok. 2007-04-01
This movie is basically geared toward gay afro-american males. It shows the contributions of famous gay black men during the Harlem Renaissance. It throws in a piece about James Baldwin who had nothing to do with this time period other did he was gay too. It is not totally factual. Wallace Thruman did not die the way showed in the movie.
It was just ok.
Big Apple Story: Love It or Leave It 2006-11-07
I have to confess: I love NYC!
Surely, this feeling sustains an intense urge to watch the NY-shot movies in which as much New York City as possible. It is definitely being shared in common by millions NYC admirers worldwide, and a very beginning of the movie does gratify viewers and from a very start scores a positive credit by gradually dismantling a panoramic picturesque icon of The Big Apple seen through a window of a Bronx-bound D-train approaching Manhattan via Brooklyn Bridge.
From a DVD black-and-brown jacket's summary prepared to see a next story of an American boy coming on age - usually, drugs, fighting, possible shooting, bad-good girls, some sex and car driving madness, - was surprised by a real context of a story about an art college student coming out of closet, searching the right man, while befriended by a mature at the time locally prominent impoverished writer having suddenly passed away in his room.
Enchanted with homoerotic romantics, this sad cheerful tale differs very much from of contemporary NY films such as, for instance, an anti-AIDS musical "Rent (Fullscreen)", near classical "only in America" TV serial "Sex and the City - The Complete Series (Collector's Giftset)" and even W. Allen's "Manhattan". Insight into NY Afro-American lifestyle, mix of histories occurred with nowadays civil right achievements, limbo surrounding a main character played convincingly by A. Mackie, being mercilessly bushed and injected an unknown substance impress a viewer much.
Although all actors, those playing the young personages especially, look very natural and relaxed, one could suggest that oncoming years will bring about opportunities to create more movies and be remembered not only for recently really professionally performed scenes of an interracial same-gender sex.
