Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
After a 7 year wait, director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born children from Seven Up! The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
The second installment of the legendary Up documentary series, 7 Plus Seven captures the fascinating transition from childhood to adolescence for the original Seven Up subjects. The longitudinal concept — revisiting the same individuals every seven years — was genuinely groundbreaking and remains one of documentary filmmaking's most distinctive conceits. While the cinematography is functional rather than artistic (standard BBC documentary style of the era), and the 'acting' category barely applies given the unscripted nature, the raw social observation and class-consciousness embedded in the interviews give it real substance. The novelty of the format is what elevates this series above nearly all other documentaries.