Emblematic of a ‘Hollywood realism,’ with a rather immaculate industrial setting, strategically tattered clothing and deliberately designed destitution.

| Nov 15, 2023

The surreal scene of Chaplin being wound through the gears of the factory machinery remains one of the most iconic images in film history: the little guy who manages not to get ground up in the machine.

| Jun 11, 2023

Modern Times was Chaplin's last brilliant foray into that singular craft that made him a great artist: a pantomime.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 21, 2022

Chaplin at his most inventive and ingenious.

| Mar 11, 2022

It's the greatest comedy - and funniest movie - of all time. ... But, as with most of Chaplin's other films, it'll also make you cry your eyes out.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 28, 2021

Several high spots stand out as notable examples of Chaplin's expert timing of slapstick burlesque, scenes that are apt to make the spectator shed tears from the strain of laughter.

| May 6, 2021

The sequence in which the modern mechanical feeder for workers is introduced is a gem of comedy invention. It is one of the funniest episodes, and certainly the most ingenious.

| May 6, 2021

There are reminders of every Chaplin picture that was ever made all through Modern Times and there are enough brand new comic inventions to explain why Charlie takes such a long time between pictures and why they are so superlatively worth waiting for.

| May 6, 2021

What most amazes you about Modern Times, is the fact that, in this day of superfine sound films, it says everything without saying anything.

| May 6, 2021

In many ways Modern Times is old-fashioned film comedy, but it is the kind of comedy which has made millions of people laugh all over the world and which has won Mr. Chaplin the great affection and love.

| May 6, 2021

While he has borrowed a few symbolic touches from the Russian picture makers, there is nothing of real significance in Chaplin s work except his earnest desire, and his really great ability, to entertain.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 6, 2021

Modern Times, underneath its farce, is a curiously passionate jibe at the herd-instincts and herd clangour of a machine age.

| May 6, 2021

The monotony of this Job "gets" Charlie and he runs wild, attacking everything and everybody in view with his brandished wrenches in one of the funniest scenes ever filmed.

| May 6, 2021

Miss Goddard put us in mind more of a ballet dancer in portraying her role than a screen player, which fits in, on the whole, rather well with Chaplin's style. She's attractive and has charm.

| May 6, 2021

It is episodically hilarious but never consistently so, and you come away from the Penn remembering, not so much the heroic Chaplinesque figure as a nut-and-bolt factory, a red flag, a feeding machine and a song.

| May 6, 2021

It doesn't seem possible to inject a large quantity of heart appeal in a heavily gagged-up comedy but Chaplin does it. That's Chaplin's forte, and that's what distinguishes his comedies from all others.

| May 6, 2021

Chaplin exhibits his amazing versatility in the fast-forgotten art of pantomime and makes you laugh when you had perhaps expected to cry.

| May 6, 2021

Remaining silent, Charlie is more eloquent in pantomime than many other comedians are with the added use of spoken words. Poking gentle fun at mechanized industry, Charlie is comic indeed.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 6, 2021

Five years absence from the screen has not diminished Chaplin's art. In his usual fashion, he can provoke laughs or tears, and keep the audience absorbed in whatever he is doing.

| May 6, 2021

What begins as a rather heavy lampooning gets lost in a series of first-rate slapstick acts and ends up as an idyll. Modern Tunes is, of course, funny picture; it Is also a very disappointing one.

| May 6, 2021