Popular reviews

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  Review by Joe ★★★★★

  "Gags!"

  A movie of a truly dying breed - a film comedy that demands your undivided visual attention pretty much constantly. Look away at your peril, and you'll probably miss either a brilliant sight gag or a setup for one. I love how so many of the gags are predicated on the flatness of the screen vs the three-dimensional nature of reality, anamorphic visual gearshifts that could only exist in a cinematic context. It's also one of the very best movies about being a performer, artist or entertainer, far more than just a joke delivery device. But those jokes are pretty great too.

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  Review by Wes ★★★★★

  instant top 10 material.

  one of those films where you never knew you needed it until you're watching it. contains some of the most inventive visual misdirections in any film i've seen, as well as some of the most moving and heartbreaking images this side of chaplin. if you have the criterion channel, this needs to be your next watch immediately.

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  Review by Ford H ★★★★½ 1

  Yoyo is perhaps the greatest classic that virtually no one has seen. I implore anyone who has a heart and a soul to watch this french slapstick masterpiece. It’s one of a kind. Showed this to a group of friends and they all loved it. In fact, watching french slapstick with a bunch of lads is pretty cool really. Try it someday.

  That main tune that is played over and over again, each time with a different instrument, is so catchy. I love the simplistic melancholic tone that it creates, especially in that it adds to the visual splendor of the film. That is just one reason why this feels like a classic. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the song anywhere online. Oh well.

  This film needs to be seen!

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  Review by ༺ ⋅₊˚⋅ ୨ moon ୧ ‧˚₊⋅ ༻ ★★★★★

  - how do you come up with GAGS?
  – oh, i don't know. i watch, i observe.

  yoyo is a film that overflows with joy and makes you feel it too, but there's a balance, sadness is also present at times and i think that's very beautiful. you can see how much pierre etaix was inspired by chaplin and you see a lot of chaplin in his film, with clever, amusing jokes and quips. etaix combines comedy and humour with some much-needed emotional touches. of those special ones. 🤍

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★★★ 1

  masterpiece.

  full review to come this week on film.com.

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  Review by Neill Shaughness ★★★★½

  Fellini's "8 1/2" meets Jacques Tati's "Playtime" meets Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last". The sound design alone is worth at least four stars.

  Early on there's a scene of a woman stepping out of the back of her circus trailer as a topless car tows it through theagestic countryside and it's so clearly a better lifestyle than anything available in modern America that it broke my heart.

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  Review by russman ★★★ 2

  This movie had its ups and downs

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  Review by Jack Moulton ★★★★ 1

  Oh man Wes Anderson, you have a debt to pay this movie. He's borrowed so much of the visual language, it's glorious.

  (Recommended to me by the Dog from Robot Dreams, as per the poster in his living room. He has great taste, of course.)

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  Review by Ford H ★★★★½

  Yoyo starts off as a silent film and then becomes a talkie as we transition out of the 20s. Just brilliant!

  French slapstick brings a smile to my face, particularly ones made in the 50s and 60s. Jacques Tati was a mentor to Pierre Étaix, the director of this film, and one might say the influences are apparent in Yoyo. However, I think Pierre Étaix has such a beautiful style of filmmaking that is very much his own. I'll definitely be checking out his other work.

  I cannot recommend this movie enough if you have a taste for slapstick humor reminiscent of the silent era.

  Also, this movie has an amazing Felliniesque ending, involving an elephant that interrupts a party (Remind you of anything?). But that's all I'll say.

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  Review by Zeke ★★★★

  The Criterion Challenge 2023: Round 2

  A clear successor to the immense talents of Charlie Chaplin and his own mentor, Jacques Tati, Pierre Étaix's Yoyo is an amusing and poignant story of artistry. Much like his predecessors, where Étaix's gags shine is not solely or even necessarily in how funny they are – which they are – but rather in the intricate staging of each and every sequence, leaving us laughing and also smiling at how impressive the mise-en-scène's mechanisms are.

  We begin in the 1920s with an homage to silent films, replacing dialogue with cue cards and pure physicality. Sound is introduced as time progresses, moving away from the Roaring Twenties to two decades of ruination with the Great…

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  Review by SylvainL ★★★★½ 14

  Wow, c'est tout un film ça, qui réussit à la fois à rendre hommage à Keaton, Chaplin, Tati, Groucho Marx (on voit son visage défiler sur des affiches à côté de Staline - c'était difficile à expliquer à mon gars lol), jusqu'à Fellini et le cirque, à travers une structure audacieuse qui commence en muet pour faire arriver le son avec la Dépression, se poursuivre avec la Seconde guerre mondiale et se rendre jusqu'à la télévision, pour faire évoluer le personnage et son humour à travers le temps, un récit sur la nécessité du regard de l'artiste, et de la facilité avec lequel il peut se perdre... Ça rentre pas mal de stock en peu de temps, et en étant constamment drôle, du moins inventif, autant aux cadrages qu'au son. Une petite merveille pour amateur de burlesque, il était temps que je le vois.

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  Review by hilyelo ★★★★ 4

  People always ask me, “hilyelo, how do you come up with gags?” Clown life you wouldn’t get it