Original-Cin by Kim Hughes

If themes about the importance of friendship, hope, and love land a bit on the nose, there’s no denying Brian and Charles takes an innovative approach to delivering them, even if — see above — the tack is brazenly metaphorical. Yet its distinctive charms are resonant enough to offset a slender story in what nevertheless amounts to a sweet and earnest, modern-day fable.

Slashfilm by Ethan Anderton

An endlessly charming, funny, and delightfully lo-fi British comedy.

Film Threat by Sabina Dana Plasse

With Brian and Charles, Archer delivers a heartwarming and timeless film. The witty and clever screenplay efficiently sets up Brian’s quirky behavior in a touching and funny way.

The Observer (UK) by Mark Kermode

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

NME by Paul Bradshaw

Archer’s film always feels utterly unique. Looking as handmade as its loveable leads and carrying enough odd wit and subtle warmth to put the multiplex to shame, this is British indie cinema at its weird best. See it before it all falls apart at the seams.

Empire by John Nugent

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 Irish Times by Tara Brady

Brian and Charles themselves, meanwhile, make for an irresistible two-step in a delightful tale of friendship and loneliness, dramatised and written in beats that make one think of Wallace & Gromit without the clay.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

It isn’t easy to develop a sketch-length idea into a feature film and not easy to pivot from ironic comedy into dark Straw Dogs-style menace, and then into a sweet-natured happy ending. But Earl, Hayward and Archer have managed it. It’s the bromance of the year.

Time Out by Phil de Semlyen

It’s a testament to the deftness and love with which Brian and Charles is made that its sweetness never becomes saccharine, and the eccentricity never feels forced. The result is a total delight – the surprise package of the year.

The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden

The performances by Brealey, Earl and Hayward are terrifically sweet and sincere, in sync with the film’s unaffected attitude of silly but serious. The magic that Brian and Charles taps into is handwrought and underplayed, with Archer letting the weird details cast a low-key glow.

Paste Magazine by Aurora Amidon

Brian and Charles isn’t striving to be a technical achievement, and it works well as a thoughtful, sentimental, funny, uplifting buddy comedy. It’s quite a feat for a feature debut, and is guaranteed to leave you waiting for what Jim Archer will do next.

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

It’s all of a piece, and just as charming and engrossing as a silly mockumentary about a robot maturing from boot-up to rebellious teens can be. No, Wales doesn’t come off as anything but grey and repressed and backward. But whatever Brian and Charles don’t do for Welsh tourism they more than make up for in warm, goofy entertainment value.

TheWrap by Fran Hoepfner

Earl and Hayward developed these characters first as a live stand-up show and then in a short film, and natural chemistry and cheeky rapport make “Brian and Charles” a laugh-out-loud comedy.

Variety by Tomris Laffly

A deceptively unserious movie it may be, but Brian and Charles leaves a serious trace through its pure sense of optimism.

Screen Daily by Amber Wilkinson

Comedy is a serious business and it is Earl and Hayward’s deadpan delivery, coupled with Archer’s maintenance of a documentary shooting style in the face of the ridiculous, that ensures the situation generates physical and verbal laughs.

Polygon by Oli Welsh

The warmth and tenderness with which the film explores the relationship between Brian and his creation are real.

The Film Stage by Michael Frank

Brian and Charles didn’t need to be a feature. It could have continued to peacefully and joyfully exist as a short, and its material stretches the story thin as a sheet in this extended form. But the charm and fun of its story outweighs a scrawny narrative.

Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele

Even as the low-key mockumentary Brian and Charles impressively scales down a sci-fi concept to fable size, it neither does much to maintain its oddness nor finds that right mix of comedy and pathos to have much impact.

Slant Magazine by Derek Smith

The original Brian and Charles short focused entirely on its titular characters, and it’s clear that was for the best.