There are many delights in “Brian and Charles,” the Sundance crowd-pleaser that tells the story of a lonely inventor and the robot he builds to keep him company, but one of its greatest is the attention to detail evident in every location inhabited by the characters. The charm and earnestness of the performances and screenplay are deepened and expanded by sets and props that tell a lifetime’s worth of stories; when we enter Brian’s cluttered home, overflowing with homemade contraptions and vintage furniture, there’s an enveloping sense of his uniqueness as well as his isolation — an isolation more keenly felt and ironic given his warm surroundings.
To create Brian’s house, production designer Hannah Purdy Foggin took her lead from both the script and the real Welsh farmhouse that was used as a set. “It was such an inspiring place,” Foggin told IndieWire. “We went in and...
To create Brian’s house, production designer Hannah Purdy Foggin took her lead from both the script and the real Welsh farmhouse that was used as a set. “It was such an inspiring place,” Foggin told IndieWire. “We went in and...
- 6/29/2022
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
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Brian Gittins, the bearded and bespectacled oddball played by David Earl in Brian and Charles, might strike you at first as a scruffy Welsh cousin of Marc Maron. And as he leads an unseen documentarian on a tour through the hodgepodge in his converted cowshed, the place where he turns flotsam and jetsam into items of questionable utility — a belt for carrying eggs, an air-suctioning mask, a flying cuckoo clock — you might find yourself waiting for a satiric blade to slice through the homey clutter. But as the story proceeds, zeroing in on Brian’s bond with his latest invention, a gangly 7-foot contraption with an endearing personality, a strange calm settles over the proceedings: This is an irony-free zone, and Brian and Charles, too nuanced to feel like a kids’ movie, is all-ages fare in the very best sense, free of condescension or frenetic contortions.
Brian Gittins, the bearded and bespectacled oddball played by David Earl in Brian and Charles, might strike you at first as a scruffy Welsh cousin of Marc Maron. And as he leads an unseen documentarian on a tour through the hodgepodge in his converted cowshed, the place where he turns flotsam and jetsam into items of questionable utility — a belt for carrying eggs, an air-suctioning mask, a flying cuckoo clock — you might find yourself waiting for a satiric blade to slice through the homey clutter. But as the story proceeds, zeroing in on Brian’s bond with his latest invention, a gangly 7-foot contraption with an endearing personality, a strange calm settles over the proceedings: This is an irony-free zone, and Brian and Charles, too nuanced to feel like a kids’ movie, is all-ages fare in the very best sense, free of condescension or frenetic contortions.
- 6/17/2022
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“I was very low,” we hear lonesome inventor (and cabbage enthusiast) Brian’s voiceover say at the start of Jim Archer’s “Brian and Charles,” a textured, melancholic and eccentrically funny mockumentary set in a remote corner of North Wales. With the camera luring the audience into his charmingly cluttered country-home workshop straight out of a storybook, Brian thoughtfully continues to reflect on some topsy-turvy circumstances he’s battled with in his past and how inventing original tools and gadgets was the calling that helped him reclaim his life.
If only he were actually making something marketable or even remotely useful. But despite mostly creating impractical junk that no one in his town wants — like a cabbage bin, a pinecone bag, a belt to carry eggs, a nonsensical puzzle made of ping pong balls and a ridiculous flying clock that crash-lands during a hysterical test run — Brian still stares into...
If only he were actually making something marketable or even remotely useful. But despite mostly creating impractical junk that no one in his town wants — like a cabbage bin, a pinecone bag, a belt to carry eggs, a nonsensical puzzle made of ping pong balls and a ridiculous flying clock that crash-lands during a hysterical test run — Brian still stares into...
- 6/15/2022
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
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