Reloading: 5 Flights Up Up and Away!

Hey folks. I know our review schedule has been weird with a mix of older movies and newer movies, but this is nearing the end of the backlog. So thanks for sticking around and letting me do this. With that in mind, Reloading another review for you today. This week, it’s going to be 5 Flights Up, which stars Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton. 

One genre I never got into much was the “slice of life” genre. That is until I saw the same genre showcased in various anime. There it could be exaggerated or silly in just the right ways to make it entertaining. You see, slice-of-life pieces feel a lot like the filler episodes of a given show. There’s not really much in the way of plot and it’s about a small part of a person’s life with no overarching narrative to connect it to anything else. It’s just a day in the life of Morgan Freeman or Fox McCloud.

So, today, we’re talking about a slice-of-life piece featuring Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton as they’re trying to move from their 5^th floor New York apartment to something a bit more manageable in their older years. During this time, Morgan’s feeling down about his art, thinking it won’t sell. Their dog also gets hurt and costs them thousands of dollars to fix. And, of course, their niece is trying to push them into selling their home and is being excessively pushy about it.

They meet lots of strange characters who come to their place to see their apartment. For example, there are the obvious gay couple, the dog-trainer couple, the heartless psychiatrist who talks about tearing down walls in front of the current owners, and a weird lady who sleeps in the bed to see if she likes the bedroom while her daughter talks to Morgan about life. The daughter, surprisingly enough, is quite insightful with what she says and makes for a rather interesting conversation.

We also get looks into the lives of Morgan and Diane before they lived together including how they first met and what it was like growing up without the support of their families. There’s a touching moment when they discover what their situation with kids will be like as well. After a while, the two get fed up with being told what to do in this moving/selling process they look for a place of their own, but ultimately don’t like it either and decide to stay where they are for now.

The acting is solid as you’d expect from the well-cast crew you see on the screen. But, for me, the writing feels very old-school. Like this film was written to appeal to the baby-boomer crowd with jabs at the modern age, younger people, technology, and constantly talking about how good the old days were. I’m not trying to accuse the film of being a hater, but you do get that distinct “things were better in my day” vibe that you hear from your aging racist grandpa while he’s downing his whiskey. But that helps give the film its tone and lets you follow along and understand the decisions and actions of our two main characters.

This review is short because the film is short. So I’ll summarize everything here. Overall, the production is good, but feels very much geared towards a specific audience for whatever reason you can probably imagine. But just because it’s targeted to them doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it. There are enough light-hearted moments to give me a nice chuckle or to just see the weird people out there doing their weird stuff. Clearly, not the best movie of the year, but a solid indie film to see for the year if you’ve got the time and energy to do so.

That’s all for Reloading this week. Please be sure to like, share, comment, and subscribe and we’ll see you next time with more reviews. Also, don’t forget to check out the YouTube channel or our social media feeds to keep up on all of our latest stuff. See ya next time!