SOURCE: Kopkind, Andrew. Review of The Brother from Another Planet, by John Sayles. Nation 239, no. 5 (6 October 1984): 332-33.

In the following review, Kopkind contrasts Sayles's film style with the style typical of Hollywood cinema.

John Sayles makes movies to scale—or is it movies to go? Alongside the vast supermarket of Hollywood epics, blockbusters and high-concept product, his cinema of convenience is sparsely stocked with snacks and munchables: a lesbian sandwich on wry, lightly chilled 1960s nostalgia and soul food to take out—far out. Sayles can execute a movie from blank paper to answer-print in the time it takes the conglomerate filmmakers in L.A. to negotiate their drug deals. The Brother from Another Planet came to him one night in a dream (already carrying the appealing title Assholes from Outer Space); it was written in one week, shot in four, and soon landed in Cannes to serve...