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56 Up

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United Kingdom · 2012
2h 24m
Director Michael Apted
Starring Peter Davies, Neil Hughes, Tony Walker, Lynn Johnson
Genre Documentary

Starting in 1964 with Seven Up, the UP series interviewed fourteen children from all over England, asking them about their dreams for the future. Every seven years, the director has returned to ask them about their lives. Now, as they turn 56, more life-changing decisions and surprising revelations are revealed in this towering achievement of cinema.

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What are critics saying?

80

Time Out by David Fear

Apted once wanted to give us "glimpses into Britain's future," per the archival-footage announcer. With this installment, he's delivered an intimate portrait of settling down and finally making peace with one's well-publicized past.

100

New York Post by Kyle Smith

56 Up is as good a point as any to get hooked on the magnificent half-century series of documentaries, beginning in 1964 with "7 Up."

80

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

Life rushes by so fast, it flickers today and is gone tomorrow. In 56 Up - the latest installment in Michael Apted's remarkable documentary project that has followed a group of Britons since 1964, starting when they were 7 - entire lifetimes race by with a few edits.

70

Village Voice by Michael Atkinson

By now, grandchildren are ever-present, and stasis has set in. Apted's entire project is awesome in scale but subject to inevitable diminishing returns.

60

Variety by Ronnie Scheib

Certain moments in the film resemble nothing so much as attending a school reunion, being buttonholed by an old acquaintance and shown snapshots of the grandkids. A complacently conservative acceptance sometimes seems to blanket all of 56 Up, as if maturity entails a serene blessing of the status quo.

75

The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson

However crafted their stories may have become, and however reluctantly they participate, their sacrifice will be appreciated by history, and by the next generation of voyeurs as well.

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