35up

Year: 1991

Grade: B

Country: UK

Director: Apted

Review

good idea for a documentary…every seven years they film a group of english people and see what they’ve been up to since the last installment. this is the fifth such installment and it speaks to all sorts of things…the differences of class, differences between the british and americans, the human spirit, etc. i liked the idea more than the execution. i didn’t really get emotionally involved with the characters, perhaps had they chosen fewer people to study it would have been more effective in that respect. not fantastic, but intriguing and intimate enough for me to want to see 42 up.