davidh777

Rules

The initial 2020 Challenge overlapped with two well-established Challenges--the Academy Award Movie Challenge and the Quadrennial Leap Day Challenge--but that shouldn't happen in 2021.

Eligible titles include romantic movies and TV shows, filmed concerts, music-themed movies, and musicals--they don't have to fit all three categories! So this is the time to catch up on Greta Gerwig's Little Women, Sleepless in Seattle, Blinded by the Light, Casablanca, leftover Hallmark Christmas movies, James Taylor Live at the Apollo, and West Side Story. Use your best judgment on qualifying titles or ask in the discussion thread, but we tend to be pretty lenient. Live events (concerts, stage musicals, etc.) can also be listed, but sorry, not your Valentine's Day date with your sweetheart or streaming an album on Spotify.

Post your list in the forthcoming list thread. Be as creative or as basic with your list as you want.

You may number (or not number) the items on your list any way you like. We're still breaking new ground here!

davidh777

• 2021 EXCLUSIVE: Watch a performance that was recorded/presented during COVID (virtual choir, isolated or distanced performance, etc.)
• Watch a rom-com
• Watch a concert film
• Watch an eligible title with an LGBTQ+ theme or elements
• Watch an eligible title that is a period piece or is based on a book or historical event
• Watch an eligible title that features dancing
• Watch an eligible title starring at least one Black actor, where starring =/= in the cast somewhere
• Watch a melodrama
• Watch an eligible title based on/recording of Broadway show
• Watch a winner of an Oscar or the Grammy Award for Best Music Film
• Watch an eligible title set in Paris, London, or NYC
• Watch a film listed in AFI's 100 Years of Musicals
• Watch an eligible title featuring one of the following: Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn
• Watch an eligible title featuring one of the following: Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Anne Hathaway, Rachel McAdams, Julia Roberts, Will Smith
• Watch an eligible title featuring one of the following: Julie Andrews, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Marilyn Monroe
• Watch an eligible title featuring one of the following: Anna Kendrick, Barbra Streisand, John Travolta, Renee Zellweger
• Watch an eligible title that includes music by one of the following: George Gershwin, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim
• By decade:
• -1930s
• -1940s
• -1950s
• -1960s
• -1970s
• -1980s
• -1990s
• -2000s
• -2010s
• -2020s

davidh777

List thread will follow soon. I don't remember if we discussed the checklist last year so I left the original until I review that thread.

TheBigDave

Sounds good. I've got a big list of Rom-Coms backlogged. This will give me an excuse to plow through it.

Indy24LA

Count me in, although it's a bit blasphemous to watch Hallmark Christmas movies outside the Holiday Challenge

LJG765

Looking forward to this one! I think I need some lighter hearted films right now.

davidh777

List thread is live

shadokitty

I have a couple concerts on digital, plus this would give me a chance to watch some movies on Disney+.

Travis McClain

Some checklist ideas:

Starring at least one Black actor, where starring =/= in the cast somewhere
Melodrama
Based on/recording of Broadway show (for a deep dive, make it a show that won a Tony)
Winner of Grammy Award for Best Music Film
Set in Paris

Also maybe by decade, as is common in other challenges?

davidh777

Thanks for the suggestions, Travis! I've incorporated them into the checklist, though dumbed down a couple to make them easier to check. The 2020s decade will be enough of a challenge by itself.

I decided to cut last year's one about acting musicians as that always seemed pretty limited.

I've added a new category for 2021 only (I hope): Performances that were recorded/presented during COVID quarantine, so virtual choirs, isolated or distanced performances, etc. Zoom sessions on related material (e.g., Hamilton cast reunion) would work as well.

Hope everyone gets in some good watching!

LJG765

I'm not sure if I'm going to do the checklist or not, but I'm glad you added the last one. For her birthday in November, I bought my mom tickets to a virtual concert of a band she likes. It came with a free download of the program, so this will give me an excuse to finally watch it.

davidh777

I’m currently watching on D+ High School Musical: The Musical - The Series, about East Side High putting on a production of HSM. I saw the original films multiple times and am a fan of backstage movies/shows, so it’s fun. I’ll have to rewatch the original afterward to see what they’re riffing off of.

The high school where one of my kids participated in band and choir just had their annual performing-arts fundraiser, which was a takeout spaghetti dinner and YouTube compilation of past performances. I watched a bunch of these kinds of things during the holidays and tried to track them in my challenge list.

davidh777

I was watching a 2016 Hallmark movie called The Irresistible Blueberry Farm, and appearing in a small role was Shirley Jones of Partridge Family and movie-musical fame (Oklahoma, Carousel, The Music Man). It was nice to see her.

shadokitty

While I haven’t really watched anything yet that has stood out, I just wanted to say that since I really started earlier this week, I have been enjoying the music. I struggle a lot, and music helps to make me feel good.

davidh777

Just watched Wild Mountain Thyme with Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades of Grey). I guess it’s a comedy, with characters who are meant for each other but just can’t work it out for one reason or another. Kind of annoying, but ultimately turns out OK, and the Irish scenery is nice.

shadokitty

The past few days I have discovered that YouTube Music has a lot of concerts. I’ve been taking advantage of my subscription to watch some of them. I’m enjoying the music.

davidh777

I’ve been neglecting music films in favor of clearing out the DVR, but I really enjoy them. The problem with this challenge is that I like all the genres represented! I’m currently watching DA Pennebaker’s Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back. I like the fly-on-the-wall style of documentary where you just observe what’s happening without any narration. Obviously it doesn’t work for films where you’re trying to explain and inform.

davidh777

Watched the 1995 film of The Fantasticks. Pretty weird little movie, but I guess the stage show (which I’ve never seen) is also weird. Jean Louisa Kelly who was so good in Mr Holland’s Opus was the lead here, and she’s a nice throwback ingenue type, though not really a modern leading-lady type so I can see why she didn’t make it big in the movies.

Watched a Netflix film called Work It, then realized it was about a performing dance team and I could count it.

shadokitty

While looking up Cusco concerts on YouTube Music, I stumbled upon a group that I had never heard of, but similar style of music, Inka Gold. One of the highlights of the concert was an instrumental of one of my favorite songs, Ghost Riders In The Sky.

davidh777

Final day of the challenge!

I watched The Secret: Dare to Dream with Katie Holmes. Frankly I don’t know much about The Secret and wondered if it’d be preachy or something like that, and I probably wouldn’t have watched it if I hadn’t been a Dawson’s Creek fan back in the day. But it was fine, pretty much like a Hallmark drama.

Cardsfan111

I caught a few "Rom-Coms" this month. The majority of my viewings were continuing to work through the 70s/80s run of Dallas. I should finish up season 7 soon. I was too young for this show when it aired, but I'm enjoying it now.

davidh777

Thanks to everyone for participating in the challenge! I forgot to track the checklist but I’ll probably go back through it just for curiosity on how I did without really trying.

I know series ran long back in the day, but I’d forgotten Dallas lasted 14 seasons. I only watched one episode during the original run, and yes, it was that one.

LJG765

Ugh, I totally crashed and burned this challenge. Work picked up and I ended up just not turning on the TV hardly at all, much less to watch movies. Hopefully next year, I'll have a calmer month!