“63 UP”: Will you still love me when I’m 64?

Published January 16, 2020 by Robert W. Butler at Butler’s Cinema Scene

“63 UP”  My rating: A- (Playing Jan. 17, 19 and 20 at the Tivoli at the Nelson-Atkins)

125 minutes | No MPAA rating

When Brit director Michael Apted first launched his “7 Up” documentary series back in 1963, among its major themes were politics and class.

The project’s big idea was to take a bunch of 7-year-olds from various social backgrounds and study them over time, returning every seven years with an update of how they’re doing (“21 Up,” “35 Up,” “56 Up”).  Originally much was made of the differences between the privileged kids and those who were struggling in the lower levels of the British beehive.

More than a half century later the world’s longest-lasting cinematic experiment continues, but the emotional tenor of the piece has mellowed. At age 63 Apted’s subjects have been seasoned by the death of parents and friends and the expectations of their own demises (in fact, we learn that one woman subject died just a couple of years ago).

So now it’s not so much about Tories vs. Labour or even Brexit (though the subject does come up) as about figuring out what to do with the time you’ve got left.

Apted’s methodology remains unchanged. He approaches his still-participating 12 subjects one at a time, alternating past footage with current interviews. It’s weird watching someone age instantaneously before our eyes; in the dad guts and double chins and graying (or missing) hair we are forced to confront the forces working on our own bodies.

Tony, the once-aspiring jockey who became a London cabbie, now laments that Uber is putting him out of business. The self-described “Cheekie Chappie” augments his income with walk-on film roles and retains his working-class childhood belief that in class warfare “it’s us or them.”

Corporate lawyer Andrew at age 63 laments that he was so career driven he failed to make time for his family.

Neil

Divorcee Sue has been engaged to a charming fellow for 14 years; she proudly regards this as a record.  This college administrator laments that hers is probably the last generation to get decent national health care.

Physicist and educator Nick, who has spent most of his adult life in the U.S.,  reveals he is suffering from throat cancer (“I’m focused on the short-term future”); Jackie still rankles all these decades later that back in the early stages of the series Apted asked the boys about politics and social issues while pitching the girls softball questions about marriage and family.

Apted arranges for Paul and Symon (the latter the only person of color in the project) to return to the now-abandoned orphanage where he found them both years before.  Paul now lives in Australia; Symon and his family make the trek Down Under for a joyous reunion.

The most heartbreaking subject remains Neil, beset by mental and emotional issues and homeless for a good chunk of his adult life. Today he still suffers from alienation and loneliness; he continues his work as a grass-roots operative for the Labour Party and, in recent years the one-time agnostic has become a lay minister.  He credits religion with making his life bearable. And thanks to a small inheritance, he’s finally out of the welfare system.

Still, his is a life of uncertainty: “I wake up every day and don’t know what will happen, where I’ll be.”

Their stories are specific but remain universal. The “7 Up” series is uplifting, devastating, profound…and it will leave viewers filled with admiration and awe for these creatures we call human beings.

Will there be a “70 Up”?  Apted (whose resume ranges from “Coal Miner’s Daughter” to “Gorillas in the Mist” and TV series like “Rome,” “Ray Donovan” and “Masters of Sex”) is about to turn 80; the mortality bug must be gnawing at him as well. Perhaps at some point someone else will pick up the mantle and carry on with the project. Let’s hope so.

| Robert W. Butler