Brother (II) (2000) User Reviews

Humorous, Yet Touching

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 23 August 2008]

This a simple story told in narration by a brother, who describes growing up and his odd family. It is both humorous and tragic. Most of all, it was captivating and very touching. It's very quiet, and you have to give it your full attention.

The narrator describes everyone in his family, all of whom are shown in claymation form. Most of the shots are fairly quick and they are stills. There is very little movement in this, just one "snapshot" after another. Everyone is odd mainly because of some physical affliction, so the humor is dark. The claymation figures are "cute" and add much-needed lightness to a story that, basically, is fairly dark, especially at the end. Actually, the claymation figures are more than cute: they're fantastic. You'll laugh and marvel at each figure, from the poor brother and his weird eyeglasses, to the boys' pet lizard.

Overall, this is different; it's excellent and it will keep you riveted to the screen, wondering what odd tidbit you'll hear next about this family.

This is one of a trilogy done by the writer-director Adam Elliot. I haven't seen the other two but if they are anywhere near as good as this, I look forward to seeing them.

tragicomic memories

[framptonhollis · 8/10 · 20 September 2018]

Adam Elliot's childhood was certainly shrouded in darkness, his entire family seems to have been prone to some misfortune, and yet, in all of this darkness, Elliot is able to find plenty of absurdity, humour, and heart. 'Brother' is the third installment in his autobiographical trilogy. A deadpan narrator tells us of his brother and recounts scattered events and memories and details over the course of seven strange, engaging, and emotional minutes. Bordering on tears, I finished this short film. The ending is greatly disquieting, while the majority of the film, while extremely dark and even morbid in parts, is rather humourous (it's definitely the most consistently funny of the trilogy, though the other two parts are filled with plenty of humour as well). Such an ending gives this film even further strength than it already had, and what is left unsaid is really where its power lies.

Weird but very, very captivating

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 5 January 2008]

This is a very strange short film that is also very captivating. Oddly, however, when this film was shown on cable TV, it was called "Uncle" but this is NOT the correct title, but "Brother". Uncle was another video by the same director--part of a trilogy made up of UNCLE, COUSIN and BROTHER.

The film is a strange journey through claymation into the world of the narrator as he talks about his childhood. All the family is introduced, but the bulk of this film focuses on the narrator's odd brother. This brother had a lazy eye, was an asthmatic and was a very strange kid--most of which made me laugh--especially when the claymation animation was so cute and enlivened the narration. However, at the end, a poignant moment occurs--making this a very sad tale indeed.

While there have been many claymation films before AND many which had better animation, rarely was I as touched or laughed as much as I did here. I particularly liked the rather dead-pan narration and the incredible weirdness of the animation. A sweet little film--it got me looking for COUSIN and UNCLE so I could complete the trilogy.

What a brilliant short!

[seamus-15 · 17 April 2002]

I was deeply moved by this movie, certainly the most powerful in the Trilogy. I especially like the way Elliot treats the subject of disease as though it were a character trait. The timing between the narration and claymation is very effective. Watching this tragicomedy a second time, I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. Most claymation movies are light-hearted and silly. I never thought claymation could be used to spark such intense emotion but I guess it's the artist behind the medium who should truly be commended.

Ouch, very touching

[Polaris_DiB · 10/10 · 24 October 2006]

This short is one of those creations that is just too personal and lovely to entirely accredit a score to, really. However, it's not so personal that it doesn't have any place to connect with the audience with (like another animated short I've seen where the guy went on talking about his father in the most uninteresting way for a good twenty minutes).

This short is kind of beautiful mostly in its simplicity. The narrator just describes a person in his life as a pretty simple story, "We lived here, we did this, I remember this and this, and then this happened." The feeling of loss and grief, but happiness with past memories, pervades, especially in the grayish cinematography. Despite the fact that the clay characters are very oddly shaped, they don't come across to me as caricatures, they seem much more like Elliot wasn't trying to make them seem particularly special... just individually important.

--PolarisDiB

Excellent short, the third of three shorts in a series by Adam Elliot

[llltdesq · 9/10 · 10 July 2014]

This is the last short in Adam Elliot's set of shorts about members of his family. There will be spoilers ahead:

This is perhaps the saddest and oddest of the three shorts by Adam Elliot as he relates stories about his family. He has a quadriplegic father, an asthmatic older brother with a lazy eye and an over-burdened mother.

The bulk of the short concerns Elliot's brother, who is an odd child with more than his fair share of problems. In addition to his asthma and eye problem, he has lice and is laughed at in school for his pains. The two brothers do the typical things most brothers do.

This short is somewhat more odd and disturbing than Cousin or Uncle. We meet the neighbor with hydrocephaly, who has a quirky view of just who will wind up in Hell, his brother's best friend in school and an interesting bully. The end of the short is incredibly sad and typically twisted at the same time.

This short is available on the Harvie Krumpet DVD as well as being a part of The Animation Show, Volume1. This short and both DVDs are most recommended.

The final chapter

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 29 July 2016]

This is "Brother", an 8-minute animated short film in black-and-white from the year 2000. So this one is already over 15 years old. The writer and director is Adam Elliot and this short film here is the final chapter of his trilogy on male relatives. Ot followed "Uncle" and "Cousin". My favorite and the only one I liked was "Cousin". My problem with "Brother" here is that it occasionally felt as if the focus is too much on other family members. This should actually have been almost exclusively about the narrator's brother and it is not. I also think that this approach only works well and stays interesting for a couple minutes and 8 minutes may have exceeded that maximum already. In any case, the atmosphere and tone is very similar to the previous two and death plays a big role again as well. All in all, I was not entertained or touched watching this short film (in contrast to the wonderful "Harvie Krumpet"). I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.