PlayTime

Variety by

Tati is not an active satirist nor does he use slapstick. He has assimilated the greats but is an individual comic talent who builds meticulous gags founded on a gentle, anarchic individualism that is always sympathetic, personal and, above all, funny and constantly inventive.

Time Out by Dave Calhoun

French actor-filmmaker Jacques Tati’s 1967 masterpiece still holds up as a feast of subtle sight gags, playful noise and, above all, visual wonders.

Slant Magazine by Eric Henderson

With Playtime, Tati made one of the most fully inhabitable films ever.

San Francisco Chronicle by G. Allen Johnson

Playtime is sharp and colorful, and visually makes quite an impression.

Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

In this landscape everyone is a tourist, but Tati suggests that once we can find one another, we all belong.

The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps

Tati's most elaborate film, Playtime stands as his masterpiece, an awe-inspiring work of intricate choreography with a heart to match its technical expertise.

The New Yorker by Richard Brody

Emotions, identities, and even bodily functions are distorted by the mechanized uniformity, but Tati’s despair is modulated by a sense of wonder.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

Instead of plot it has a cascade of incidents, instead of central characters it has a cast of hundreds, instead of being a comedy it is a wondrous act of observation. It occupies no genre and does not create a new one. It is a filmmaker showing us how his mind processes the world around him.

The New York Times by Vincent Canby

Jacques Tati's most brilliant film, a bracing reminder in this all-too-lazy era that films can occasionally achieve the status of art.