The Circus
United Artists | Release Date: January 1, 1929 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
90
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 7 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Slant MagazineChristian Blauvelt
It is Chaplin’s great elegy to the lost art of music-hall pantomime and, for that matter, the soon-to-be lost art of silent-film comedy. Read full review
100
Time OutKeith Uhlich
There’s an edge to The Circus that suggests a man gazing deep into the void, laughing at the darkness and urging us to do the same. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Charlie Chaplin was a perfectionist in his films and a calamity in his private life. These two traits clashed as he was making The Circus, one of his funniest films and certainly the most troubled. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Mixing sweetness, darkness, violence and delirious gags, this 1928 must-see showcases film's greatest comic. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh Larsen
Mostly the movie registers as a comedy flag being planted, a claim being made. Anything your average clown could do, Chaplin could do better. Read full review
70
The New York TimesMordaunt Hall
There are passages in The Circus that are undoubtedly too long and others that are too extravagant for even this blend of humor. But Chaplin's unfailing imagination helps even when the sequence is obviously slipping from grace. Read full review
70
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
In clinging to a tale of logical sequence, without the expected interpolations or detached incidents, Chaplin's Circus for speed, gags and laughs has not been equalled on the sheet. But it's very broad, for Chaplin makes no attempt at subtlety in this one. Read full review
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