Sherlock Jr.

Buster Keaton's superb, sophisticated silent comedy in which he dreams himself into the movie he's watching, in order to win back his girl.

A masterly study of the cinematic medium, exposing its technical trickery and the way it plays on personal fantasy - this decades before Godard and other modernists. Buster plays a projectionist, rejected by his girl and her family, who dreams himself into the movie he's screening to prove his worth and solve the crime that's discredited his name. Extraordinarily exact comic timing accentuates the imaginative virtuosity and philosophical insights at work.

Ranked joint 54th in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll.