REVIEW: Brian and Charles [2022]

Is this interesting? Director Jim Archer and screenwriters David Earl and Chris Hayward created a dryly comic odd couple five years ago in Brian (Earl) and his robot Charles (Hayward). Building upon their twelve-minute introduction seemed natural as the reasons for their friendship (Brian’s wintry isolation at his cottage miles from everywhere put a dark, depressive shadow across his life) provided ample opportunity to mine the emotional and psychological intricacies we have as a species when it comes to relationships. Charles becomes a sort of hybrid pet and child to…

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REVIEW: Brian and Charles [2017]

I was very low. Brian Gittins (David Earl) lives in a cottage well off the beaten path—proud that the nearest shop is about seven miles away. We assume this is his choice. That he enjoys the solitude. But even introverts need human interaction at some point. So, when the inevitable depression set in, Brian decided to build a friend. With a found head and some cogs to go with the levers he “knew were lying about,” Charles (Chris Hayward) is born. What starts as a one-sided dynamic wherein the latter…

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