After another 7 year wait, director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born children from Seven Up! and 7 Plus Seven. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.
UK
UK
There is enough here that feels vital, that is entrancing, and contains such insight. There is also a lot here that feels exploitative. 21 is a weird age, and at points a very vulnerable one.
In this film, Apted continues to forge a universal narrative across disparate people, to juxtapose experience to fascinating results. However, the same questions start to hit differently in different contexts, and you can feel it being built towards an orchestrated narrative. It is not that the responses are not genuine, it is that the leading questions - which are uncomfortable - push towards sensitive truths that are made more sensitive by certain circumstances.
Details match up and diverge beautifully but there is some exploitation to…
So wait, it's 1977 England, and we are following fourteen 21-year-olds, and not one of them is a punk rocker? Beginning to think that music journalism might mostly be hype.
unsurprisingly, symon and neil and jackie remain my favorite participants, and already this is all making me feel very emotional. it's so strange how apted frames his questions to neil about his homelessness as a choice related to rebelling against his parents, when he is clearly struggling to feel any hope or worth and is noticeably depressed. meanwhile fascist knob john continues to be The Worst, jackie continues to be so charming and spunky, symon continues to make me weep because he's so lovely, and suzy's trajectory is more wild than expected (but her personality? she still sucks). and bruce suddenly a socialist icon?? bruce the 7 year old aspiring colonizer?? i am simply spiraling, i think i need a few months before i watch the next installment.
"Do you wish you were 7 again?"
"No, because then I would have to be 21 again"
For those that aren't familiar, the Up series is an archived documentary on fourteen people as we visit them every seven years. The first two films, despite being the start to a revolutionary project, felt confusing and uninteresting. Every child wanted tea when they got home, every child was awkward, and every kid had similar responses to the questions. The first two had all the kids blend together for me, I struggled to tell them all apart because having them all in school and under guide by their parents, they acted so similar. This time we finally get to learn about each kid…
"I'm going to Africa and try to teach people who are not civilized to be more or less good."
I realize it was the 1960s but yikes.
Things start to get interesting here because the participants are now much more confident and mature when it comes to their own personas, but also in how they reflect on the very clear image of themselves that has been shown in the public space on national television. Raises interesting question on just how honest these people CAN be, knowing that they are going to be scrutinized and interpreted, and whether these periodic snapshots actually influence how they choose to live their lives even when the cameras aren't rolling. But on top of that,…
Joy or sadness, contentment or disappointment?
At this stage, it's becoming like a crystal ball gazing game to guess where this varied rabble of late 50s kids will end up on this spinning ball of confusion we all call home.
The episodes are getting longer now as they flit back and forth across each of our children's timeline, and it's clear that perched on the precipice of 'grown up', our friends still have quite a journey ahead of them.
Fascinating stuff.
62/100
[ANAL-RETENTIVE LOGGING CORNER: Though it's been retitled 21 Up to conform with subsequent installments, the series' third check-in is simply called 21 onscreen (just as its second is called 7 + Seven). And there's no director credit on the early ones, which were produced for the BBC with no expectation of any theatrical release; 28 Up was the first to become a "film."]
Watched this nearly six months ago but never wrote anything. Starting to get more interesting now as paths diverge across class lines, but inevitably all of the upper-class kids are at university, which means nothing terribly exciting is going on in their lives (as far as a viewing audience is concerned, at least). I was most…
Seven Up! ✅
7 Plus Seven ✅
21 Up ✅
I’m just now realizing the director, Michael Apted, has also done movies like Nell, Coal Miner’s Daughter, and Gorillas in the Mist. Idk why I just assumed he was some small name guy doing this documentary series.
After seeing these kids at ages 7, 14, and 21, I’m becoming attached to a few of them as if I’m watching them grow up/most of their life hasn’t already passed them by. 🥲 Being able to watch these on back to back days makes it hard to imagine waiting seven years to see the next installment.
Bruce feels less politically engaged at 21 than 14 but is still socialist. Two of the…
With the third installment of Granada TV's "UP" series things start to accumulate weight as disappointment, rather than happiness, appears to become the central thematic.
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
21 Up starts with a reunion, as the participants gather together to watch a screening of the previous two films, 7 Up and 7 Plus 7. Immediately after this experience, Nick (now looking like a handsome character from Emmerdale Farm) begins to question the validity or worth of the project in a rationalised, intelligent and eloquent manner. It proves to be a common theme in 21 Up as the participants are now at a point were they are beginning to own their own voice. As such, they are much less guarded as they were as 14-year-olds in 7 Plus 7, and far more insightful about their lives and the process of the series as a whole. Their criticism of Apted's…
Okay, three in and I'm not feeling it. The scope and ambition of this project is commendable, but the execution is too frustrating to watch in a rapid manner. I'll wait a while before hunting down the fourth installment. As likeable as many of the subjects are, I'm not so invested in them that I can keep coming back to them so quickly--especially since half of what they have to say isn't particularly enlightening or interesting.
The first one had a lot of potential and some intriguing context to it. The second flagged majorly, and this third one, while not quite as bogged down with past footage (even if it does have that flaw), captures the subjects at times in…
This is the Up documentary series from England. I have watched 4 of these many years ago. It follows the lives of ten boys and four girls one documentary every seven years. The first one was titled Seven Up. All the kids come from different backgrounds in Britain. This was the third film in the series. The film is a time capsule or social experiment.
There is something very interesting and compelling about watching these movies. Some of the characters or real people you get curious about seeing their futures. Some are kind of boring. The movie does seem a little long at times.
