His Pick 1930s: Modern Times

This was my first Charlie Chaplin movie.

I'll be honest, I completely expected to hate it.  Don't know why, but I have always found anything with photos or clips or anything of Charlie Chaplin to be really annoying, haha.

I actually really enjoyed it.

This is the female star, a young girl with two young sisters who have fallen on hard times, as many have in this time period.

Charlie Chaplin plays a man who just can't get a break, but not for lack of trying.

He starts out as a factory worker who has a mental breakdown.

There are strikes, and homelessness (vagrancy abounds), and he's just trying to get back on his feet, and also tries to help his female friend he meets along the way.

The whole movie has a lot of commentary on many issues, but it's not heavy.  It has a lot of funny parts, which again, I thought would be annoying from what I just assumed would be the slapstick era. The humorous parts have some slapstick elements, but also have a more sophisticated tone when commenting on the social issues involved in the story.

It does kind of ramble a little in the unfolding of the plot.  And one tidbit in particular that wasn't addressed or resolved, which bugged me a little.

I really forgot I was watching a mostly silent film.  It wasn't completely silent, but it went back and forth between the styles in a much more pleasing manner than The Jazz Singer.

It didn't have a storybook ending, but the ending was still good.

I give this movie a 9/10.  I liked it completely as much as the other films we've watched that I rated a 9.  The commentary of plot points and how well they really showed the down on his luck can't get a break everyday man, and just the overall enjoyment of watching it made it very good to me. The main heroine was a little overly dramatic in a lot of her acting, but all in all I was completely drawn in to how they interacted together and bonded over the common needs they both had at the time.