Those eagerly anticipating the latest installment of the legendary 7 Up documentary series will not be disappointed. Again directed by Michael Apted, 49 Up (which played a brief theatrical run here) takes our nowfamiliar subjects into middle age. And while the leap from 42 to 49 is not as profound as some of the other seven-year intervals in between entries, 49 Up proves, were there any doubt, that great things arrive every seven years.

The subjects of the film are now grappling with issues surrounding middle age—divorce, illness, grandparenthood among them—while staring down their own mortality. They appear to be much more comfortable with themselves and with life in general, but where things get intriguing is watching them get feistier with Apted the interviewer. A couple of them get flat-out hostile with him, wondering aloud about the negative ramifications of the attention the series has brought them. In Britain, after all, the group have become celebrities. One tells Apted bluntly that she won’t be appearing in 56 Up, and she sounds so pissed when she says it, you believe her.

If you feel the need to catch up with this series—and lordy, if you’re not in on it, catch up, it’s a simply brilliant doc concept—First Run Features has released all of the series on DVD in the past year. And in the trivia dept, it’s worth noting that the original short, 7 Up, which was always supposed to be a one-off documentary on class consciousness among wee Britons, was the brainchild of trailblazing Canadian director Paul Almond. —Matthew Hays