Brian and Charles is also a pretty melancholic film about a seriously lonely man in desperate need of a real friend, and as a result of a Charles tantrum, Brian finally plucks up the courage to ask out long-time crush Hazel (Louise Brealey). Brian and Hazel’s adorably awkward meet-cute in the street progresses to tentative dating (going for a walk, because what else are you going to do around these parts?) and eventually putting their heads together to help his robot bestie in the film’s final stretch.
It’s the film’s last act that you could perhaps judge more harshly then the rest of it, Brian and Charles seemingly going for a big ending on a micro-budget and a little catharsis aside, it all being a little underwhelming. That said, all is forgiven with a pitch-perfect epilogue that wraps everything up nicely.
Brian and Charles is either the funniest film of 2022 or a completely and utterly baffling faux-mockumentary, and it depends largely on how weird your sense of humour is. If you like deadpan delivery and surreal asides, you’ll have a great time, and will get a really moving and bittersweet story of a dreamer making himself a robot dog/friend/son as a bonus. The campaign for a follow-up short or even a full sequel documenting Charles’ further adventures begins now.
Score: 20/24
