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United Kingdom · 2012
2h 24m
Director Michael Apted
Starring Peter Davies, Neil Hughes, Tony Walker, Lynn Johnson
Genre Documentary
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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.
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.
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
It shows that life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. And how, in case we forget, every age can predict the next.
The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore
Self-contained enough for theatrical audiences new to the series, it will play best with those who've come to care for these Brits over time.
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."
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.
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.
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
What gives the series its force is not just its universality but also its particularity. These grown-ups may be Everyman, but they are also singular.
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.
Slant Magazine by Steve Macfarlane
The series is both a testimonial to the vagaries of chance and an endlessly cyclical study into the implications of being studied.
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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