Brian And Charles

And Friendship

“Brian And Charles” is another robot movie, and as I have established, I am not fond of robots. I don’t trust them, I don’t think they should have jobs, and we shouldn’t accept their judgment. Yes, they will be tools of the oppressors when the time comes (maybe tomorrow afternoon, really), but they will also just be trying to horn in on our way of life, and I am totally racist towards these sick unholy monstrosities. But “Brian And Charles”, about a man and his robot friend, is less about automatons and more about friendship. I support friendship. Friendship is a good idea. There should be more friendship in the world. Charles, you’re one of the good ones.

Brian is a bearded, pear-shaped loner off in the hinterlands of the Wales countryside. He will sometimes travel into town for necessities, and he’s plenty friendly with the locals, but this is unquestionably a life of solitude. This is a contemporary story, but it doesn’t seem like Brian is too into everyday trivialities like video games, the internet or movies. As such, he has seen his solitude curdle into loneliness. His goofy analog inventions in his shed is his way of filling the void.

Brian, who is being recorded by an unseen cameraman (the movie plays fast and loose with a mockumentary framework), seems affable enough, but it wouldn’t have seemed like a surprise if he opened up his woodshed and revealed some corpses Frankensteined together. Thankfully that is not the case (this is the rare PG-film for adults), but it’s not a surprise to know that he’s got one big invention to soothe his isolation. With a couple of loose pieces of scrap, a dummy’s head, and a full-on washing machine, Brian builds Charles.

This is a low-budgeted film, and as a practical effect, Charles is fairly amusing. It appears to be a person wearing a dummy mask, their body encased in a massive box, their movements meant to be robotic with the exception of clearly human legs. Because the actor’s vision is limited, and because the entire get-up seems physically cumbersome, Charles’ gait involves a lot of hopping and prancing, not what you’d expect for such a goofy-looking creation with a big clunky chest.

The companionship alone proves rewarding for Brian. But, of course, Charles is literally an infant. He is constantly asking questions about the outside world, and why he isn’t being permitted to travel. Brian shelters him, partly to keep this eccentric creation safe, and partly, it seems, because he’s selfish about not wanting to share his best friend. The more Charles learns, of course, the more eager he is to test his boundaries, and like any kid, that sometimes means flat-out annoying Brian. The slapstick here is fairly low-pressure stuff. This is, in the best sense, a rather mild movie, like a cup of warm tea on a cold day.

There is a moment late in the film where Charles is threatened by bullies. Again, this is a PG-rated film, but the way they exploit and harm Charles is deeply upsetting, not only because of the visceral threat, but because of how it warps what seemed like a normal friendship with Brian. I was reminded of when I was a kid in grade school, friends with a few guys in a popular group. I had another friend who thought he could be one of us one day, and each and every member of that group shunned and ignored him, like they didn’t want to be associated with him. It had only occurred to me the optics of this, as they were all white kids, and, like me, my other friend was Latino. At the time I acted in a most shameful way – with some visible hesitation, I joined my “cool” white friends. Brian never does that, because he is someone who is a good buddy, a great hang, and a man of principles and a backbone. As a kid, I lacked all of that, and I think about this dereliction of friendship all too often. If I had a Charles at that age, I probably would have let others abuse and destroy him. I would have been a coward. Comparatively, Brian is quite heroic.

“Brian And Charles” is low-key entertainment. I used to believe in scanning the screen, watching every image, analyzing every moment of a movie. Now, I realize as a grown man that I have places to go and experiences to feel. I don’t need to be “up” for every movie. “Brian And Charles” soothes and nourishes, and so what if you fall asleep a bit? Early on, you get the vibe, you get the feeling, you probably get the story. This is not a movie made to spark intense political conversation afterwards, even though it is not without nuance. This is a film about friendship, and it’s something we all need to survive. Like friendship, if you briefly step away during “Brian And Charles”, when you return it will still be there, and you will be all the more grateful. I was fully awake for “Brian And Charles” but if I wasn’t, I could live with that.

Maybe I’m underqualified to write about friendship. In prison, I saw inmates draw a lot of friends, usually because the adage “Great minds think alike” has always been false – fools think alike more often. Some men with no education or desire, they’d go to prison and find that many men shared the same dull interests, spoke with the same slang, believed in the same agendas. You’d have four men standing together and realize, wow, that’s the same guy multiplied four times. They didn’t want to have actual conversations, they just wanted to talk at each other. They were merely civil about taking turns.

I kept to myself, secure in the understanding I was making no friends, and I did not want friends. I didn’t want to find my own stupid insecurities and dumb preoccupations reflected in another. I never felt like I spoke anyone’s language as well as my own. The good news is, less associations keep you less involved in illegal and/or ignorant behavior. Less of a chance to be snitched on, less of a possibility you’ll be stuck in an endless dumb conversation. Less of a chance the c.o.’s think you’re tied to another person and therefore responsible for them. Of course, as much as you’d be glad to be alone, you’d also simply have no one. You have no friends for years. And yet, you have to experience communal living. You become lonely, and yet somehow you’re never alone.

Most people leaving prison are sent to their previous home, or at least close to family. My family is too far, and I sold my previous apartment, so the halfway house essentially dumped me onto the side of the street, in a city I’ve never known. I’ve been out of the halfway house for two years now, far away from anyone who would call me a friend. I work full time, and like many federal ex-cons, I am still under supervised release. I am glad to finally be alone, after all those years spent in halls of a hundred awful men. But it has been over a decade since I’ve made any new friends. I’ve had advantages other ex-cons have not. But thousands of ex-cons are in the same position, spending years without any friends, leaving prison for yet another life of solitude. Friendship seems important to someone with these experiences, but I’m not sure how much. It’s been awhile for me.