--- title: "Modern Times: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/modern-times/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/modern-times" critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 11 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Modern Times (1936): what the critics said Critics' score 80 from 11 reviews: 11 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews are uniformly positive across eight decades, and the praise gathers around the same things: Chaplin’s pantomime, the factory sequences with the conveyor belt and the feeding machine, and the way the film puts a face on the Depression. Several critics single out the department store roller-skating and the waiter’s dance-floor climax. The notices from 1936 treat it as a welcome return of the Tramp after five years away; the later ones read it as his farewell. The reservations are mild and cluster around structure and sentiment. The New York Times finds the construction loose, with industrial satire and older antics not quite joined; The New Yorker thinks the scenes with the gamine and her family land less surely than the comedy; Eye for Film calls the romance underdeveloped and ranks the film below City Lights. Time Out observes that Chaplin’s political naivety now looks as striking as his pantomime. Nobody dislikes it; the spread runs only from warm to adoring. ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Rating A. 22 December 2010. The critic praises the film's synthesis of comedy, politics, and romance, highlighting the Tramp's dream sequence with the gamine as particularly poignant. They note it views progress through jaundiced eyes and brings a face to the Great Depression. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/modern-times-1798166805) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 25 January 1972. Ebert celebrates the enduring appeal of Chaplin's 1936 classic during its re-release, noting packed houses and audiences applauding at the end. He highlights how the film cleverly introduces limited sound effects and voices through media like television and recordings while preserving the Tramp's silent pantomime comedy. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/modern-times-1972) ## The Guardian — Robert Kemp Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 14 July 1936. The critic hails Chaplin as the greatest artist of the silent screen and deems Modern Times one of his very best films for its fresh comic inventions and satire of mass production. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/media/from-the-archive-blog/2011/may/25/review-chaplin-modern-times-1936) ## Variety — Abel. Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 11 February 1936. The critic calls it grand fun and sound entertainment from the world's top pantomimist, a box-office certainty. It highlights the one-man creative control and standout comedy bits like the feeding machine and department store scenes. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1936/film/reviews/modern-times-2-1200411268/) ## Slant Magazine — Bill Weber Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 24 November 2010. Chaplin's film is a treasure of Depression America's zeitgeist and the curtain call of the movies' first comedic icon. The review highlights the precise pantomime, social commentary on industrialization and the oppressed, and the piercingly sweet ending tableau of love and solidarity. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/modern-times/) ## Empire — David Parkinson Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic views Modern Times as an ambitious and frequently uproarious comedy that targets the dehumanising effects of mechanised industry and Hollywood's film factories. They single out the energetic factory conveyor-belt scenes and rollerskating sequence for particular praise. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/modern-times-review/) ## The New Yorker — John C. Mosher Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 8 February 1936. The review finds 'Modern Times' mostly in the old Chaplin vein despite contemporary social commentary, with superb laughs from factory and other sequences. It complains that the poignance involving the gamin and her family feels less successful than the comedy. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1936/02/15/modernized-times) ## The New York Times — Frank S. Nugent Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 6 February 1936. The critic welcomes Chaplin's return after five years with this comedy that restores the beloved Tramp to the screen. It singles out the classic Chaplin physical comedy and gag sequences for praise while noting the film's loose structure and mix of industrial satire with old-school antics. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1936/02/06/archives/heralding-the-return-after-an-undue-absence-of-charlie-chaplin-in.html) ## The Times — Peter Davalle Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 20 September 2003. The critic highlights Modern Times as a powerful silent denunciation of the machine age and its dehumanizing effects, while praising Chaplin above all as a master of slapstick comedy rather than a propagandist. The film is noted as the Tramp's final outing. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/silents-are-golden-lbvjzvjt3zt) ## Time Out — GB Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The review presents Modern Times as the final outing for Chaplin's Tramp character, reviving antics from earlier shorts in a framework about humanity's pursuit of happiness amid factory perils, poverty and Depression-era unrest. It notes that the tramp survives these challenges, while observing that Chaplin's political and philosophical naivety now appears as striking as his pantomime skill. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/modern-times) ## Eye for Film — James Benefield Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 15 February 2009. The critic finds Modern Times a strong, socially aware Chaplin comedy with iconic moments and virtuoso comic timing, though it is somewhat overshadowed by City Lights. They single out the inventive factory machine sequences and the waiter's dance-floor climax for particular praise while noting the underdeveloped romance. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/modern-times-film-review-by-james-benefield) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/modern-times.md