Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
When a cross-section of seven-year-olds were interviewed for 7 Up in 1964 it was immediately evident that their social backgrounds influenced their attitudes towards life. While the upper class children were confident and self-assured, those from middle and working class backgrounds were resigned to a challenging life of hard work. This premise was put to the test every seven years when the same group were interviewed about the progression of their lives. 49 years in the making, the changes that occurred to the original 14 make for fascinating television and are in many ways the stories of all our lives. From success and disappointment, marriage and childbirth, to poverty and illness, nearly every facet of life has been captured on film. Now, at the age of 56, the group are once more brought together and, with the benefit of hindsight, assess whether their lives have been ruled by circumstance or self-determination.
56 Up is part of one of cinema's most extraordinary longitudinal documentary projects — Michael Apted's Up series remains genuinely singular, a real-time chronicle of human lives across decades that no other filmmaking tradition has replicated at this scale or duration. Novelty is high not because the format is new within the series, but because the series itself is a one-of-a-kind cultural artifact. By the 56-year mark, the emotional and sociological weight is immense: watching these individuals age, succeed, struggle, and reckon with their choices is quietly profound. The 'plot' — such as it is — follows the same episodic interview structure, which works but is not dramatically constructed. Acting is not applicable in the traditional sense; the subjects are authentic and sometimes remarkably candid, earning a solid middle score. Cinematography is functional documentary work without particular visual ambition. The ending, like the series itself, is bittersweet and open — lives continuing rather than resolving — which is honest but not dramatically satisfying in a conventional sense.