Sherlock Jr. (1924)

There's a moment in Sherlock Jr. where Buster Keaton, playing a cinema projectionist who falls asleep on the job, simply walks up to the screen and steps into the film playing on it. Just like that. He's in the movie within the movie, and the world keeps shifting around him, cut after cut, the editing itself becoming the punchline. It's 1924, and what you're watching is genuinely extraordinary. I know that. I respect it completely. And yet, sitting here in 2025, I'll be straight with you: I didn't fully connect with it.

That feels like a strange thing to admit about a film this celebrated. Sherlock Jr. sits on best-of lists, gets studied in film schools, and is regularly held up as proof that Keaton was operating on a different level to almost everyone around him. The stunts are real and they're dangerous. The timing is precise. The way the film plays with reality and illusion, using editing as a kind of magic trick, was genuinely groundbreaking stuff. None of that is up for debate. You can see the imagination pulsing through every frame.

But admiration and enjoyment aren't always the same thing, are they? Stretched across barely 45 minutes, the film still manages to feel slow in stretches. The story itself is wafer thin, a wrongly accused projectionist, a missing watch, a romantic rival, and while there are one or two moments that land with real sharpness, plenty of the humour sits flat by modern standards. The comedy rhythm of the 1920s requires a kind of adjustment period, a recalibration of your expectations, and I found myself admiring the craft without always laughing along with it.

I've had a similar experience working through Keaton's catalogue. I think The General holds up brilliantly, one of those films where the spectacle and the comedy feel completely alive even now. And Steamboat Bill, Jr. has that house-front gag, one of the most jaw-dropping things ever committed to film. Sherlock Jr. has its equivalent showpiece moments, but for me they never quite add up to a sustained experience in the same way.

What Sherlock Jr. feels like, if I'm being honest, is a brilliant experiment rather than a complete film. The dream sequence section, where Keaton navigates a world that keeps rearranging itself around him, is fascinating to watch as a piece of film history. You can trace a direct line from what Keaton is doing here to all sorts of surreal cinema that comes decades later. He was thinking about the language of film in ways that most of his contemporaries simply weren't. That genuinely impresses me.

But there's a difference between a film that impresses and a film that grips you, and Sherlock Jr. sits firmly in the former camp for me. It's a relic in the best possible sense, something preserved and studied and rightly honoured, but not something that made me laugh out loud or lean forward in my seat. The historical context does a lot of heavy lifting. Strip that away and you're left with a series of clever ideas that don't quite cohere into something you can lose yourself in.

Three stars. Worth seeing, without question. If you've any interest in where cinema came from and how quickly it grew up, this is essential viewing. Just go in with your eyes open. It's a landmark, not a riot. A fascinating relic rather than a timeless crowd-pleaser, and there's absolutely no shame in walking away with respect rather than pure delight.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 1924  | Watched: 2025-09-24

View on Letterboxd →

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · MUBI · MUBI Amazon Channel · FilmBox Live Amazon Channel
Rent: Amazon Video
Buy: Amazon Video
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: FlixFling · IndieFlix · Kino Film Collection · IndieFlix Shorts Amazon Channel
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More from Buster Keaton: The General (1926) · Our Hospitality (1923) · The Navigator (1924) · Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
More with Buster Keaton: The General (1926) · Our Hospitality (1923) · The Navigator (1924) · Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)
More from the 1920s: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · The Docks of New York (1928) · A Throw of Dice (1929)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)