Five years, folks. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for just over five years.

Five years of reviews, Oscar liveblogs, year-end lists, comments, and talkbacks; not only here, but also at CHUD and Manic Expression, where I repost my thoughts on new releases. And in that time, I’ve had the privilege to meet many wonderful people among my reader base and my fellow movie bloggers.

For last year’s birthday project, I sought to engage my colleagues and correspondents by taking suggestions for films to review. And if I’m being honest, it didn’t go as expected. Like, at all. So for this year’s project, I’m trying a different approach.

Last summer, I had the privilege of doing my very first tag team review over at CHUD. For those who’ve never heard of the concept, a tag team review is a collaboration between two reviewers, with each commenting on the other’s thoughts. Ideally, the end result would read as a conversation between the two critics.

So for this year’s birthday project, I reached out to five of my friends and fellow film bloggers and wrote a tag team review with each one. Variety was the name of the game with this one, as each correspondent had their own different background, cinematic taste, and style of reviewing. We ultimately reviewed an impressive blend of movies from several different genres, dating anywhere from the 2010s to the 1930s.

As with every birthday project, the goal with this one was to push my boundaries and find something new. Sure enough, a lot of the movies suggested by my peers were ones that I had never heard of or ones that could never quite reach the top of my to-watch list. I had a great time discovering such hidden gems, and I hope you will too.

Coordinating these back-and-forth reviews was a massive project, months in the undertaking. I’d like to thank all of my friends and colleagues for their effort and patience in making it happen. Moreover, I hope you readers at home will enjoy these reviews, learn about some new movies, and go visit some new cinematic blogs.

The project starts tomorrow with the first tag team review. A new one will be posted every day until my birthday on July 18th. Stay tuned!