Bros: The Movie

From the November/December issue of Film Comment:

Mining a similar mockumentary vein to more rewarding ends, Brothers of the Head is the narrative-feature debut of Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, best known for their Terry Gilliam documentary, Lost in La Mancha. Based on a Brian Aldiss novel and adapted by Gilliam collaborator Tony Grisoni, Brothers is about two conjoined twins who are groomed to become a novelty musical act only to rebel and become punk-rock legends. The faux-documentary form is used mostly to get gloomy and atmospheric shots of the twins trying to avoid the camera, brought off with characteristic flair by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle. Ken Russell makes an appearance as himself to talk about his collaboration with the twins on a (fictive) film that led to their discovery, and Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks co-wrote some of the songs. There is something not quite fully formed about the film, but it works as a tribute to that specifically English brand of windswept, misty-moors eccentricity, before plunging into amphetamine-damaged punk psychosis.