Immaculately structured and impressively transferred from page to screen, Brother retains the ferocity, tangibility and emotional heft of David Chariandy’s novel.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 13, 2024

Elegant and elegiac, Brother is a poignant portrait of the messiness of love and loss – be that within a family or an entire community. Even if its ending feels inevitable, the path taken is remarkable.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 6, 2023

Johnson and Pierre suggest decades of fraternal feeling with their soulful performances, while Blake is revelatory as their tough but tender mum.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 29, 2023

While some of its narrative threads feel overly familiar, the end result resembles a knitted blanket: warm, comfortable and thoroughly connected.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 28, 2023

A pall of dread, of terrible suspense, hangs over this powerfully empathetic drama about what it means to be a Black man navigating a racist world. Beautifully performed and structurally intriguing.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 27, 2023

Not entirely original, but does what it does very well indeed.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 26, 2023

It's beautifully filmed and acted with real passion by an excellent cast. But writer-director Clement Virgo ties the narrative in knots by fragmenting it into three periods, losing dramatic momentum and connection in the process.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 19, 2023

It’s a sombre theme, with lots of transitions between hopeful youth and sober experience, but there’s something missing. The film-makers seem to have internalised Michael’s lesson a bit too readily: Brother is just a little bit dull.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 18, 2023

Virgo does a great job of confounding our expectations of macho masculinity, finding tenderness, protectiveness and even neediness beneath the street-tough exterior.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 17, 2023

There are fine performances on display and Johnson especially is perfectly nervy as Michael. But the storytelling here could have easily squeezed into a short film or, even better, a slickly shot music video.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 16, 2023

Not a lot is spelt out here, a strategy both brave and frustrating. But the cast has the chops to fill in some of the blanks with strong performances...

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 15, 2023

An example of strengths outnumbering flaws.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 14, 2023

The thing I love about this film is the empty spaces where no one's talking.

| Aug 17, 2023

I loved it... This is definitely a movie to check out.

| Aug 17, 2023

An absence of empathy keeps this from living up to its predecessors. Without the emotional resonance, it becomes just another hood story.

| Aug 12, 2023

Beautifully shot and anchored by two phenomenal performances by Johnson and Pierre, Brother does in the end tell a familiar story, but does so with poignancy and passion.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 10, 2023

The bonds that hold a family together are tested as tragedy rattles a strong foundation. Brother breathes depth and nuance into absorbing characters. Their love for each other resonates as outside forces pull them apart in a heartbreaking narrative.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 9, 2023

Brother’s tragic drama has difficulty writing lines that feel like its own.

| Original Score: 6.0 | Aug 8, 2023

This is a very quiet and subtle film with incredibly beautiful and endearing performances by Aaron Pierce and Lamar Johnson. It’s a very gut-wrenching emotional coming of age story set in 90s with great direction. Reminded me of a Barry Jenkins film.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 7, 2023

Although it takes place in the 90’s, Clement Virgo creates a well-crafted, superbly acted, sensitive yet powerful film that mirrors immigrant families, then and now, trying to live in communities without tension and fear.

| Aug 5, 2023