56 Up (2012)
Average Rating: 8.5/10
Reviews Counted: 57
Fresh: 56 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8.7/10
Critic Reviews: 22
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 2,646
My Rating
Movie Info
"Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man." Starting in 1964 with Seven Up, The UP Series has explored this Jesuit maxim. The original concept was to interview 14 children from diverse backgrounds from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Every seven years, renowned director Michael Apted, a researcher for Seven Up, has been back to talk to them, examining the progression of their lives. (c) First Run Features
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All Critics (57) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (56) | Rotten (1)
Yes, on some level it's just a seven-year check-in with people maybe half-remembered, if that. Yet the films also serve as a kind of check-in with us, too.
Top CriticWhat ultimately is so compelling about 56 Up is the universality of the experiences. We were all once children. And we all will die. And in between, there is everything else.
We feel good, refreshed and depressed in watching these people get older, also embarrassed in moments and cautioned about the passage of time.
Apted, himself now in his early 70s, says he hopes to continue the series further. Long may it live.
Watching "56 Up" gives you the wonderful feeling of seeing a sociological experiment blossom into something novelistically rich and humane.
Time has been neither kind nor cruel to the 13 men and women profiled in "56 UP." It has just been time, which is what this groundbreaking series is about.
56 Up has become a stirring reflection, even tribute, to the little bends and turns of ordinariness, the ebbs and surges of everyday lives.
Apted's subjects would object to the idea that we really know them, but we think we do -- and that's good enough to make his film feel like a reunion, a visit with an old friend. Or 14 of them.
Chances are that you'll come away from this long film feeling a sense of knowing its characters.
We might say that '56 Up' serves much the same function as 'Amour,' but it responds to the inevitability of decline with compassion, not dread.
What started as a crafty way of looking at the U.K.'s rigid class structure has grown into a portrait of melancholy middle age, with its heartbreaks and minor-key triumphs.
Those British kids are now 56
Watching the eighth film is intriguing but, in a way, disappointing. At this point in the game, it feels as if all the characters have determined their lots in life and are simply plodding through their interviews.
Quite simply one of the great documentary projects in the history of cinema, an engrossing sociological experiment on film; and though this mostly mellow installment isn't as revelatory as some earlier ones, it's still a remarkable document.
... feels like a retrospective and summation of the whole series, with ample quotation from the previous films, an approach that makes it interesting even for viewers who haven't seen the previous installments.
A completely unique and remarkable documentary project.
Apted skillfully weaves old footage with the new, and we become poignantly aware of another factor shaping their lives (and our own): biology, as the we watch the once-cute kids grow gray and heavy.
Perhaps the boldest and probably longest running sociological experiment on film.
I think the best thing about this movie (and the entire series) is that it forces the viewer to think about their own lives. It's kind of an awakening experience.
Once again, Apted assembles a captivating documentary that's profoundly educational, essential viewing to aid the understanding of the human experience.
Audience Reviews for 56 Up
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Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| There's something strangely unnerving about this film series's premis | 36 days ago | 0 |
| Shouldn't Apted get a Best Documentary Oscar sooner or later for this? | 38 days ago | 2 |
Latest News on 56 Up
January 3, 2013:
Critics Consensus: The Impossible is Certified FreshThis week at the multiplex, we've got a family in peril ("The Impossible," starring Naomi Watts and...
January 3, 2013:
Michael Apted 56 Up Interview"As long as my marbles stay in order, we'll keep doing it."
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But what I gained this time around was a profound knowledge of how different Great Britain really is, especially how university education is not necessarily a given over there, unlike here in the States. So, maybe the class system is alive and well in Britain, despite one who protests it was never there in the first place, followed by a scene of a fox hunt.
This time, the politics is less about the subtext, becoming front and center with Michael Apted even calling out one of the participants for some of his objectionable comments. This is all in the wake of the Great Recession which drastically alters some lives at an age where people would be ordinarily starting to look forward to retirement, just as London takes center stage in the world for the Summer Olympics in 2012.