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Michael Apted

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Michael Apted in the press room at the 70th Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards, which was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. This year saw Guillermo del Toro take home Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 'The Shape of Water', while other winners included Jordan Peele, Reed Morano, Beth McCarthy-Miller and Jean-Marc Vallee - Beverly Hills, California, United States - Saturday 3rd February 2018

Michael Apted, Jay D. Roth and Thomas Schlamme

Unlocked Trailer

Alice Racine (Noomi Rapace) is a CIA interrogator who gets embroiled in a terrorist plot when her investigation into a potentional biological attack in London gets infiltrated. She finds herself accidentally revealing information to a terrorist 'prisoner', and has to make a pretty swift escape when her life is threatened by nefarious spies. She's not alone in this though. An MI5 agent (Orlando Bloom) insists on joining her as she attempts to thwart what could be the most devastating extremist assault since 9/11. However, with an enemy at every corner, Alice isn't sure who she can trust anymore.

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Michael Apted and Paige Simpson at the 69th Annual Director Guild Awards held at the Beverly Hilton - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States - Sunday 5th February 2017

Michael Apted at the 69th Annual Director Guild Awards held at the Beverly Hilton - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States - Saturday 4th February 2017

Michael Apted - The 66th Annual DGA Awards 2014 Arrivals - Los Angeles, California, United States - Sunday 26th January 2014

Paris Barclay, Steven Soderbergh, Michael Apted and Taylor Hackford - The 66th Annual DGA Awards 2014 - Pressroom - Los Angeles, California, United States - Sunday 26th January 2014

Chasing Mavericks Trailer

When surfing legend Frosty Hesson pulled a drowning 8-year-old boy out of the water while he was surfing, he was unaware that their bond would develop and change their lives forever. Seven years later, Jay Moriarty is a teenager and an enthusiastic surfing amateur. Jay is estranged from his father and sees the aloof Frosty as his idol who first inspired him to ride the waves. One day, he discovers that the mythological surf break, Mavericks, is more than just a story; it's real and a matter of miles away from where he lives in Santa Cruz, California. He is determined to ride the massive waves at Half Moon Bay to the extreme worry of Frosty who cannot bear to see Jay at risk again. When Jay's mother tells Frosty that nothing he says will stop Jay riding the wave, he decides that he will instead train him to survive it with a variety of intense exercises. They soon come to release that their journey is no longer about surfing, but about freedom and believing in yourself.

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The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Trailer

C. S. Lewis's Epic tale continues this December with the third cinematic instalment from The Chronicles Of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

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49 Up Review

By Christopher Null

Excellent

I admit I've given Michael Apted a hard time about the Up series in the past. Recent installments have been meandering and have seemed to lose focus over what the series is really all about. In the last couple of films, Apted has erred toward sensationalism rather than introspection.

49 Up marks a return to basics and fine form. It's a more thoughtful documentary about life in England, and a better-organized one than the past entries. Finally, for the first time in years, the stories are told with grace and power, and the film really sucks you in. Now that Apted is in his 60s and he's hitting Up with its seventh installment, maybe he's finally determined the best way to present this material.

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Seven Up! Review

By Christopher Null

Good

In 1964, Michael Apted had a genius idea: Find 20 kids, all age seven, living in Britain. Find out what they think about, what makes them different, and where they think they're headed. The key will be to check in with them every seven years, forming the world's only filmed living document of how people change over long periods of time.

The 40-minute Seven Up! introduces the kids briefly, then promptly ends. The films that would follow: 7 Plus Seven, 21 Up, 28 Up, 35 Up, and finally 42 Up, duly check in with our kids to see where they've gotten to in life. (All six films are now available on a box set DVD edition.) But the problem with the Up series is that nothing changes in the lives of these kids year after year. They get older, and as expected their dreams of being movie stars and astronauts fade into more recognizable realities. And maybe this is part of the momentum of the British class system -- but no one dramatically leaps out of poverty, and no wealthy children ever fall from lofty heights. (Perhaps this series would have been more interesting if made in a more socially fluid country?)

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Inspirations Review

By Christopher Null

Michael Apted's Inspirations was made five years ago and only now is seeing much daylight -- documenting the art and entertainment world in much the same way he looked at the scientific community in his later Me & Isaac Newton.

The ostensible highlight here -- as Apted probes the titular "inspirations" for his collection of musicians, painters, sculptors, architects, and choreographers -- are interviews with renowned painter Roy Lichenstein and famous musician David Bowie. Unfortunately, their inspirations are not terribly compelling as cinema. The genesis of Lichtenstein's pop art is revealed (obviously) as his love of comics. Bowie doesn't seem to have any inspiration at all except to do what he wants to do, critics and audiences be damned.

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35 Up Review

By Christopher Null

If there's ever been a more telling indictment that, indeed, the poor stay poor and the rich get rich, I haven't found it. 35 Up is nothing less than a bleak yet scathing documentary skewering the class structure of Britain. Michael Apted began this series in the 1960s with Seven Up!, profiling a couple dozen 7-year-olds. He's come back every 7 years since, and 35 Up is the fifth installment in the series. It's remarkable how correct those kids were about where they'd end up in life, though the few exceptions are noteworthy, showing that yes indeed, a farmer's son can make it off the farm once in awhile.

Unfortunately, 35 Up is exceedingly long and repetitive. Apted repeatedly asks if the lower-class folks are upset they didn't have enough opportunity, and he asks the upper-class people if they feel guilty about it. Remarkably, everyone answers no on all counts. The controversy will have to wait. And so with the intrigue that goes along with it. C'est la vie. Literally.

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42 Up Review

By Christopher Null

Weak

It gets longer every seven years!

Now clocking in at a monstrous 2 hours, 19 minutes, the sixth installment of Michael Apted's ambitious but uniformly unenlightening Seven Up! series drags us down a familiar road, kicking and screaming all the way.

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