Lone Star / Brother From Another Planet

LONE STAR, 1996, Sony Pictures Classics, 135 min. Chris Cooper plays a Texas sheriff who discovers unpleasant truths about his town and his own past in this murder mystery. Director John Sayles follows nearly a dozen major players (including Kris Kristofferson, Frances McDormand and Matthew McConaughey) as their stories raise questions about political corruption, multiculturalism, and other contemporary issues.

BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET, 1984, IFC, 106 min. A black man from outer space crash lands in New York and ends up in Harlem, where he listens intently but is incapable of speaking. Joe Morton is delightful as the alien, and director John Sayles uses his predicament to explore the immigrant experience in an affectionate, funny manner.