Audience Member
I'm still really digging this totally unique social project and feel a stronger emotional stake in these updates as each new segment appears.
I was so happy to see Tony married with two kids, one being his son, when the first segment began. It also appeared Suzy and Andrew may have softened somewhat, or at least became more self aware, as a result of their marriages.
Paul looked like he was living his best life down under and seems to have found a really good partner who has made him a happier, more confident, and content guy.
The toughest watch here was no doubt my guy Neil who I have felt most drawn to since the beginning of this and unfortunately have been able to sympathize with to a large degree throughout most of this series. He nearly brought me to tears here and had me wishing I could go back four decades, give him a hug, and explain what society has learned regarding mental health issues in 2022.
I was happy the film concluded with Simon, who may have made me happiest in this installment, similar to the way Paul did in the previous special. He appeared so much more confident and content with the path his life was taking, while also nonchalantly starting a family and having five new children with his wife in the intervening seven years.
I was disappointed a few of the original personalities chose not to participate this time but figured this was an unavoidable likelihood at some point as well, and was actually a bit surprised they all had returned for 21.
I'm excited to now see how these very different people I feel I've come to know as individuals to some small degree, will now appear and get on in the time periods I will finally start being able to recognize having, unlike in this and the previous specials, lived through them as well.
NYT 1000: #267
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/20/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"We have always known that the motion picture is a time machine," Ebert wrote in his review of this installment, a month before I was born. He continued: "What is awesome is that we can see so clearly how the 7-year-old became the adolescent, how the teenager became the young man or woman, how the adult still contains the seeds of the child." To that end, the film is a testament to that basic Marxist or Freudian insight that the relationships and environment within which a person is raised to a great degree determine (but perhaps not ineluctably) their relationships and environment later in life. The two subjects who recognize this truth the most in themselves are, oddly enough, the polar opposite outcomes of the group, the high and the low: Nick the physicist and Neil the drifter. For one your heart swells, for the other it absolutely shatters. Both articulate, bright, and charismatic—yet how different they were from the very start, and what divergent paths they ended up taking. We grow, we change, yet our roots remain planted even when our feet don't.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
Full Review
david f
A great documentary.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Apted's questions are much more intelligent and less judgmental now than in the previous films, making this the best installment so far as it shows us how fascinating those people and their lives have become with time, even if he leaves the most interesting stories for the beginning.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This is instalment number 4 in Apted's ongoing social experiment, charting the progress of several individuals who he keeps revisiting every 7 years. This is the longest of the films as it has a lot of ground to cover and it continues to be fascinating at every turn.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
It definitely hurts the series that a few of the subjects have quit the project and we dont get any hint as to whats happened to them. Nonetheless, each installment remains intriguing viewing
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/16/23
Full Review
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