Whether for relatability, or digestibility, the American coming-of-age genre tends to focus on broadly awkward characters with mild social anxiety. Will Ropp’s feature debut “Brian” makes that idea more specific and turns it up to 11, with a teenage protagonist whose mental health issues cause not infrequent outbursts, and who maintains a keenly self-aware sense of self-loathing. That sounds like a recipe for gloomy melodrama, and the film does get serious on occasion, but “Brian” is also one of the most relentlessly, darkly funny films of its kind.
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This is thanks in no small part to screenwriter Mike Scollins, whose monologues for
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