Sunnyside Is More Average But Still Pretty Humorous Charlie Chaplin Fare

Sunnyside, released 100 years ago this year, is about par for the course for a late 1910s Charlie Chaplin comedy featurette. Wacky physical comedy, Chaplin playing a kind of precursor to The Tramp character, a thinly-sketched love interest for Chaplin's protagonist to pine after, it's all here. That means Sunnyside offers little in the way of surprises but if one is watching Charlie Chaplin films from the 1910s, it's doubtful you're looking for a twisty-turny thriller on par with Se7en. If you're just looking for the kind of amiable comedy only Charlie Chaplin could deliver, Sunnyside will do alright.

Charlie Chaplin's First Foray Into Feature-Length Storytelling Was A Delightful Film Called The Kid

Transitioning from short films to feature films is a daunting prospect that many filmmakers and production companies have faced over the years, among them being Charlie Chaplin, a star of silent short films that found himself trying his hand at a longer-form of storytelling with 1921's feature The Kid. The runtime may be longer, but Chaplin's character The Tramp is very much the same fellow audiences had come to know and love while the type of physical comedy and level of quality that had made Chaplin such a revered cinematic icon in the past were very much in hearty supply on this bold new step in Charlie Chaplin's fascinating career.

Lars And The Real Girl Finds So Much Power In Kindness And A Terrific Ryan Gosling Performance

There is, to quote Avenue Q, "a fine fine line" between kindness and schmaltz. The latter element is widely detested and, not unfairly, looked at a manipulative way to generate pathos without actually generating substantive characters or plot details for the audience to get invested in. There are times where I've seen movies that get too schmaltzy for their own good (remember that ending of The LEGO Ninjago Movie that smothered the audience in too many hollow dramatic monologues?), but I'm always gonna root for a movie to charge towards kindness, even if it stumbles along the way. Kindness is such a vital thing in our lives and it's always good to see art championing it. Well-done kindness is one of my favorite things in all of cinema and you can see it in all kinds of movies like The Muppets, Blockers, City Lights or even the 2007 dramedy Lars And The Real Girl.

City Lights Has A Heart As Big As The City It Takes Place In

There's an undeniable sense of wonder that creeps into one's body while watching Charlie Chaplin move around on-screen. He makes the artforms of slapstick and physical comedy seem so natural, like he realizes that this was what he was put on this Earth to do and he's gonna do it as well as he can. The rhythm of his body movements is impeccable, ditto for the timing found in his humorous pratfalls. To watch Charlie Chaplin in a film like City Lights is to see a master at the top of his game and to be astonished that one man can carry such command over his craft.