Brian and Charles

... Its mixture of sweetness and silliness is wonderful.

Director Jim Archer’s mockumentary format dovetails neatly with Brian’s DIY aspirations and the film’s handmade, heartfelt aesthetic.

Made with genuine affection and innately British whimsy, this is really just an odd-couple comedy about two lonely blokes — one of whom has a “washing machine for a tummy”.

The result has homemade charm to spare, proving delightfully ridiculous but also poignant.

... A witty and eccentric series of events that in any other iteration would have been pruned by a Hollywood script doctor. Brian and Charles, however, is all mood (the best kind) and minor narrative thrust.

Works well enough on its own sweet but slight terms, and no one involved seems to want to push their luck.

The mockumentary style may be a little inconsistent, and the film itself may be very quirky... But it is never annoyingly whimsical, thanks in part to the sincerity and innocence of its characters.

There are worse ways to spend an afternoon than with Brian and Charles. In the rare moments when everything comes together, the potential of the film is obvious. Unfortunately, that charm cannot sustain a feature-length film.

Jim Archer takes David Earl and Chris Hayward's original screenplay and uses their extraordinary, humorous performances to bring to life a narrative about true friendship and authentic human connections.

The film at its best when these two lovable outsiders sit on a stone wall in the middle of nowhere, the overwhelming vastness of nature a lovely reminder that life’s natural rhythms move even the most artificial of creations.