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Director Michael Apted continues to utilize cinema as a window into the lives of everyday people, and in the reflection of this documentary we can glimpse our own aging humanity.
All Critics (68) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (67) | Rotten (1)
This suffers as well from the fact that the subjects' lives haven't changed all that much since 49 Up (2005); perhaps the series will improve yet as they head into old age. Jan 1, 2014 | Full Review…
This suffers as well from the fact that the subjects' lives haven't changed all that much since 49 Up (2005); perhaps the series will improve yet as they head into old age.
J. R. Jones
The original documentary was intended to illustrate how the country's deeply ingrained class system inscribed itself on the aspirations and inner lives of its young people. But the successive movies have been far less polemical. Jan 1, 2014 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
The original documentary was intended to illustrate how the country's deeply ingrained class system inscribed itself on the aspirations and inner lives of its young people. But the successive movies have been far less polemical.
Ann Hornaday
We're now at 56 Up,, and with each passing calendar leap, the experience of watching has only become more soul-stirring. Jan 1, 2014 | Rating: A | Full Review…
We're now at 56 Up,, and with each passing calendar leap, the experience of watching has only become more soul-stirring.
Lisa Schwarzbaum
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. Mar 28, 2013 | Rating: 4.5/5 | Full Review…
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.
Bill Goodykoontz
What 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. Feb 21, 2013 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…
What 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.
Steven Rea
We feel good, refreshed and depressed in watching these people get older, also embarrassed in moments and cautioned about the passage of time. Feb 14, 2013 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…
We feel good, refreshed and depressed in watching these people get older, also embarrassed in moments and cautioned about the passage of time.
Mick LaSalle
56 Up is both an exceptional standalone documentary and an excellent teaser for the series as a whole. Feb 26, 2019 | Full Review…
56 Up is both an exceptional standalone documentary and an excellent teaser for the series as a whole.
Molly Templeton
It may be true that the character of a person may be more or less set by the time they are seven. But there's no predicting exactly where that character will lead. Aug 30, 2018 | Full Review…
It may be true that the character of a person may be more or less set by the time they are seven. But there's no predicting exactly where that character will lead.
Pat Padua
Fortunately, the structure of "56 Up" is complex enough to add layers of distance and irony to its subjects' present-day stories. As it reminds us, no one's life turns out quite like they planned it, even for relatively happy people. Feb 20, 2018 | Full Review…
Fortunately, the structure of "56 Up" is complex enough to add layers of distance and irony to its subjects' present-day stories. As it reminds us, no one's life turns out quite like they planned it, even for relatively happy people.
Steve Erickson
Here as always [Director Michael] Apted jumps between his subjects' variously aged selves with hypnotic, occasionally ruthless dexterity, mapping new narrative sequences and creating damning or salubrious conversations. Sep 11, 2017 | Full Review…
Here as always [Director Michael] Apted jumps between his subjects' variously aged selves with hypnotic, occasionally ruthless dexterity, mapping new narrative sequences and creating damning or salubrious conversations.
Michelle Orange
Perhaps predictably the mellowest of the movies. They for the most part seem to have settled into an autumnal contentment. The big conflicts have been largely resolved. Apr 28, 2015
Perhaps predictably the mellowest of the movies. They for the most part seem to have settled into an autumnal contentment. The big conflicts have been largely resolved.
Sean Burns
As the project hits its half-century mark, with the "kids" settling into middle age, the signature cross-cutting between then, now and everything in between feels downright Proustian in its emotional depth. Jan 1, 2014 | Rating: 4/5
As the project hits its half-century mark, with the "kids" settling into middle age, the signature cross-cutting between then, now and everything in between feels downright Proustian in its emotional depth.
Norman Wilner
This chapter makes for an always engaging look at middle age, even though there is not so much novelty here since 49 Up, especially as it feels that Apted is not that interested in exploring some issues more deeply (like when he barely questions Tony about his unconscious racism).
Super Reviewer
The best of the Michael Apted series thus far mainly because the subjects now have the wisdom of at least half a lifetime and can reflect back on what was said in previous programs with new knowledge of life.
Far more than just a movie 56 UP and the Up series stand alone as one of the most sociological important touchstones of our time. Astounding to see the child-like wonderment give way to harsh reality in most of the children. It gives one pause to reflect on their own life and see how far one has come...or not. This is cinematic perfection. (3-3-13 UT)
As fascinating as it can be for many to see the changes in the participants over the years, it can be just as interesting for cineastes to see how the series evolves over time, namely how it has become increasingly self-aware. For example, one person returns to the series after decades away to promote his band while another uses it to continue to promote Bulgarian charities successfully. And I loved the Buzz Aldrin story, by the way. 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.
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