Von Trier's antic documentary The Five Obstructions...comically reveals the Dogmatist at his torturous worst while tapping into appealing depths of insecurity he's never allowed himself.

| Mar 16, 2020

[...]The reason The Five Obstructions lingers as an essential part of von Trier's filmography [...] is because it reveals so much about why von Trier has worked the way he has in the past [...]

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 21, 2014

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 30, 2006

Fascinating (and oft-times infuriating).

| Original Score: B+ | May 3, 2005

Riveting.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 19, 2004

It's amusing only if you agree not to think very much about it.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 10, 2004

A film like this has a limited audience, I suppose, but for that audience it offers a rare fascination.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 10, 2004

For those who treasure not only watching the intricate challenges of filmmaking but also feeling the thrill of tomfoolery and sharing the demonic joy of psychological twists, Obstructions is enthralling.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Sep 9, 2004

The relationship between the two filmmakers raises it above the category of academic experiment. Von Trier brings a diabolical glee to his role, and Leth matches it with an older, wiser brand of mischief.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 16, 2004

In this enjoyable if trivial battle between von Trier's psychodrama theatricality and Leth's cool formalism, it's ultimately the viewer who comes out the winner.

Full Review | Jun 17, 2004

Part of what hooks you to this movie is how Leth outsmarts his taskmaster, and how the two men have divergent, almost incompatible aesthetic ideals.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 11, 2004

In only 90 minutes it encourages you to reexamine the nature of cinema, the sources of creativity, the unexpected joys of the unanticipated moment. And it couldn't be more fun to watch.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 3, 2004

A special auteurist treat that's easier to enjoy than to describe or categorize.

| Jun 3, 2004

A movie that's so eager and playful and inspired that it made me a von Trier believer again.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jun 2, 2004

Leth leaves the viewer both exhilarated and maybe even optimistic about the capacity of human intelligence and creativity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | May 27, 2004

Watching The Five Obstructions is at once like witnessing two chess masters playing dominoes and like spying on a series of therapy sessions.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 26, 2004

An essay on art as a matter of solving problems posed by a capricious deity -- that is, an expos of von Trier's own method, both of making a movie and directing actors.

Full Review | May 25, 2004

Leth is hypnotically unstoppable.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 20, 2004

The success of the film depends almost distressingly on the audience's cheeky sense of bad faith toward Lars Von Trier.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 23, 2004

Hardly conventional entertainment, but seeing what happens next provides much of the fun in this far-from-academic exercise.

Full Review | Mar 26, 2004