Those constant contenders who maintain that Charlie Chaplin is the master mummer of the movies and the world's greatest actor, either in the silent or the spoken drama, now have another exhibit to put forward in behalf of their argument.

Full Review | Mar 28, 2022

Chaplin, as always, demonstrates the marvelous quality which, in the cinema world, is so exclusively his own -- the ability to be coarse without being offensive; to mix Rabelaisian wit with Chesterfieldian delicacy.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2021

The Kid was a breakthrough for Chaplin and for the industry in the way it combined slapstick comedy with the kind of drama that touched viewers' hearts.

Full Review | Aug 1, 2021

The Kid is a groundbreaking and immensely influential piece of work which still delivers laughs and astonishments today.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 13, 2021

There's really no classifying The Kid. The best one can do is say that it has all the old melodramatic material, but so jazzed up with fun and with its drama so simply and humanly played, that it almost fools you into believing it is like life.

Full Review | Jun 25, 2021

Jackie, legging it madly 'cross corners, is almost as good for box office purposes as our own Charles, playing the Artful Dodger to a Bowery bum.

Full Review | May 17, 2021

There are always critics out there instructing their readers to watch classic Hollywood features because of their significance or historical relevance. With The Kid you should honestly watch it because it's an incredibly funny and warm comedy.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Jan 21, 2021

Every single one of Chaplin's features is a classic, but The Kid is his first, and one of his greatest in terms of personal progression and artistic ambition -- plus, one of the most emotionally heart-wrenching child performances ever put to celluloid.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 20, 2020

Formerly it was the custom to say that Mr. Chaplin played down to the level of his audiences. Now it is to be hoped that he will lift his audiences up to this new level of his own.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2020

The story is only of the average order... [but] the quality of the film lies in the joyous fooling of Chaplin and the Kid.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2020

As "the Kid," Jackie Coogan's acting is remarkable, while the mother is portrayed by Edna Purviance. Charlie Chaplin is just his inimitable self.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2020

I'll wager one unclipped Liberty Bond against a dozen small, soggy doughnuts that it will give more people more enjoyment than any other picture they have ever seen in a motion picture theater.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2020

Chaplin is, of course, hilarious, but it's Coogan's cherubic charm that makes this so special.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 5, 2020

[The Kid] has definitively cemented the actor's renown... in terms of his theatrical gifts. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 5, 2020

The Kid is a knockout.

Full Review | Aug 5, 2020

Chaplin shares the screen with an exceptional performance by Coogan, who is just as effective with emotional manipulation through expressions alone.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 27, 2020

The Kid is a vastly entertaining picture, but there are some things in it which, we believe, were better left unsaid. Why is it that Chaplin, who is really an idealist, always has touches of vulgarity in his pictures?

Full Review | Nov 6, 2019

The Kid (1921) is silent comic star Charlie Chaplin's classic of comedy and pathos - his first feature-length film (it was a more sophisticated six-reeler or "6 Reels of Joy" than his previous shorts).

Full Review | Original Score: A+ | Oct 8, 2019

Chaplin claimed that, "Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot." And The Kid is quite possibly the best example of this aphorism.

Full Review | Aug 3, 2019

Chaplin proved himself equally adept at tickling funny bones and pulling heartstrings, and his chemistry with young Jackie Coogan remains one of cinema's great onscreen pairings

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 5, 2019