Advanced Search Beta »
Basic Search Fields
The Five Obstructions
User Score
6.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 2 out of 5

Review this movie

  1. Your Score
    10 out of 10
    Rate this:
    out of 10
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling

  3. Characters remaining: 5000 out of 5000

view
per page
  1. ChadS.
    Nov 9, 2005
    8
    Mikheil Kalatozishvili's "Soy Cuba"(American title: "I am Cuba) used a traditional editing style to convey its communist ideology which sort of undermined their intent to be oppositional to first-world cinema. In Jorgen Leth's first film(set in Cuba), cineasts wake up because the two Danes make a correction on the 1964 classic by applying a Vertovian(Dziga Vertov) approach to editing(eyeblinks) that would've been helped strenghten its pro-Castro stance. "The Five Obstructions" is dazzling, sometimes infuriating. Jorgen Leth proclaims that all animated films are uninteresting, which would seem to infer that his own stab at a cartoon is better than "Fantasia", "Princess Mononoke", and Richard Linklater's "Waking Life", whom Leth owes a nod to. That said, the animated short is great; the Calcutta film, likewise, which Von Trier hillariously slams. Hillarious, because the author of the Dogma manifesto ignores his own obstructions(mainly the tenet which states that there be no genre) when he made "Dancer in the Dark". "The Five Obstructions", like Jonathan Caouette's "Tarnation", finds a new way to document real life.… Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. DmitryP.
    Jun 10, 2004
    10
    This fast-paced and endlessly surprising movie starts out uproariously funny, then transcends itself to become emotionally moving and, yes, profound.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. CarlB.
    Jan 3, 2009
    3
    The concept behind the film is interesting, but the film itself is boring.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
prev next
Page:
  • 1

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
79 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Staff (Not credited)
    60
    As Leth overcomes each obstacle set before him, the film becomes a work of extraordinary artistry, intellectual exhilaration, emotional uplift, and outright affection.
    Read full review
  2. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    88
    Keep "Survivor" and "Fear Factor," and give me this spellbinding mind teaser, the ultimate game for movie buffs.
    Read full review
  3. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Stratton
    80
    Though billed as a documentary, The Five Obstructions doesn't easily fall into any category. Perhaps it's best described as a game, in which a pair of Danish film directors from different generations spar with one another in a highly civilized, and surprisingly entertaining, fashion.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »