Michael Apted's Up series remains one of the great imaginative leaps in film.
Comment
11/03/06
49 Up (2006)
92
%
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Reviews Counted:25
Fresh:23
Rotten:2
Average Rating:8.2/10
Consensus: The latest installment in this remarkable series, 49 Up is a satisfying continuation of Michael Apted's singular sociological and cinematic experiment.
Theatrical Release:Oct 6, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: Seven years have passed since 42 UP, which means it's time for another installment in Michael Apted's landmark documentary series. What began as a project to expose harsh class distinctions in... [More]
Director: Michael Apted
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Reviews for 49 Up
Top CriticI can think of no single movie, fictional or factual, that more strongly awakens our common humanity or that establishes such a marvelous, tight bond with its characters.
11/02/06
Top CriticThe segments are so cleverly arranged -- [director Michael Apted] includes past pictorial references for each of the people we revisit -- that now there is something almost mystical involved.
10/26/06
Top CriticBut a funny thing happened on the way to the class-warfare lecture: Most of the subjects got on with living their lives, ignoring their class distinctions in the process.
10/13/06
Top CriticThere are some clear themes to these zig-zagging life journeys, but they tend to be truisms (marriage is hard work but worth it) rather than chest-clutching surprises.
10/12/06
Top CriticOn the cusp of their half-century mark, Apted’s British subjects have accommodated themselves to what they were, what they are, and what they will be.
10/09/06
Top CriticWhether we actually 'know' these individuals or not is beside the point; we feel we do, and this enriches the experience of watching the most ambitious documentary project ever committed to celluloid.
10/09/06
Top CriticApted is a busy director in between these documentaries, the maker of Coal Miner's Daughter and Gorky Park and one of the James Bond pictures. But these Up films are his unique contribution. On to 56 Up.
10/06/06
Top CriticThe latest riveting, heartbreaking chapter to one of the supreme creations of documentary filmmaking, the 7 Up series.
10/06/06
Top CriticTaken as a whole, these films constitute one of the greatest uses of cinema a documentary filmmaker has ever devised. Like the other films in the series, 49 Up is alternately touching and mundane.
10/06/06
Top CriticDropping by on the same people every seven years like an old friend -- or an unwelcome relative -- Apted has constructed a peerless, suspenseful work that develops character to a depth that would make Tolstoy jealous.
10/06/06
Top CriticWhen I saw 42 Up in 1999, I thought the series had run its natural course and that it was time to leave the "kids" alone. I was wrong. They have just entered a new and exciting phase of lives that are very much works in progress.
10/06/06
Top CriticI won't bother you with all the particulars because that would steal the film's thunder. Know, though, that Apted includes enough footage from previous films to remind us of details we may have forgotten.
10/06/06
Top Critic49 Up marks the latest chapter in one of the most ambitious documentary projects in movie history. Make that the history of any medium, for how often do we get to witness a time-lapse study of human life?
10/06/06
Top CriticMore than a deeply satisfying movie; it's a reminder of the wonder contained in ordinary lives.
10/05/06
Top CriticA deeply moving meditation on the natural evolution of existence.
10/05/06
Top CriticThe films have taken on an autumnal shade as we revisit people who seem quietly aware that the years behind them are more than those ahead.
10/05/06
Top CriticTo the extent that it opens a window into the puzzling business of growing older and affirms - with touching reflectiveness and exuberant humor -- the suspicion that we are all in the same boat, 49 Up is priceless.
10/05/06
Top CriticWhat 49 Up shows is how the past is forever changing in its significance, its context. The more you watch, the more you are committing yourself to watching 56 Up and beyond.
10/05/06
Top CriticIn the same way that none of us ever do turn out as expected, neither do they. And that's more or less the point of continuing the series, even as they drone on about their disappointing marriages and dashed dreams, just like the rest of us.
10/05/06
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