Announcing My Participation in the Five Obstructions Blogathon

And it’s time for me to participate in another blogathon! I’ve done two so far, but they were both a walk in the park compared to the long, grueling haul this is going to be. “The Five Obstructions Blogathon” has officially started, and the object of this one is to write five different posts according to the constraints the creator of the blogathon, Nostra of My Filmviews, puts out each month. Five months, five obstructions, and ultimately five posts. Since this is such a big undertaking, I’ve decided to officially announce my participation in it.

The idea for the blogathon came from a documentary, called The Five Obstructions, in which a director had to remake his film five times under various constraints. Keeping with this spirit, I’ve decided to do all of my reviews on the same film, making each one different based on the obstruction Nostra puts out. The film I’m choosing and the nature of the first obstruction is another reason I’m devoting an entire post to explaining the blogathon. The first obstruction is to write a negative review of a film you love, or a positive review of a film you hate. I decided to go with the first one, since I’ll be watching it every month for the next five months. As long as it doesn’t kill me to write bad things about it.

It very well might. I wanted to choose a film I was very familiar with. I wanted to choose a film I thought I knew everything about. A film I had grown up with and could never imagine viewing differently (in this case, not loving it). I also wanted to pick one that was pretty familiar to everyone, and since I’m going with the negative approach here, one that is as close to being universally loved as you can get. I’ve decided to go with Singin’ in the Rain.

There are few films I know as well as Singin’ in the Rain. I feel like I’ve known it since birth, maybe even sooner. I don’t ever remember not knowing it. When all of the other kids were watching The Lion King or whatever, this, and some other musicals, is what I was watching. Singin’ in the Rain is not currently in my top ten films, but it’s due for an update and it probably should be. It’s my second favorite movie musical after The Band Wagon, which I didn’t choose because that really would kill me to write bad things about and it’s not as universally recognized or acclaimed.

I’m going to update this post throughout the blogathon to make sure I can keep track of all the posts I do on this film, and this will be the post linked in my “All the Films” page. I’ll add the links to all my reviews here once I publish them:

Singin’ in the Rain… honest review
Singin’ in the Rain… The First Obstruction
Singin’ in the Rain… The Second Obstruction
Singin’ in the Rain… The Third Obstruction (wimped out on)
Singin’ in the Rain… The Fourth Obstruction (on another film, Prisoners (2013), because my honest review had already fit the requirements)
Singin’ in the Rain… The Fifth Obstruction

I don’t even know how I’m going to accomplish the first obstruction, and I’m also worried about the others that haven’t been announced yet, but I think I can do it and I’m excited to get started. Good luck to everyone participating, and if haven’t considered joining I would highly recommend it.