Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
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In 2005 a number of provocative, award-winning ads appeared that touted the Helvetica font; Gary Hustwit explores the subject protractedly with his feature-length essay film Helvetica. The documentary, produced in 2007 (and thus commemorating the typeface's 50th anniversary), uses the omnipresent font as a lens through which it examines contemporary visual culture and how typeface is used, aesthetically, spatially, and culturally, to impart shape and character to urban environments. Hustwit then
May 8, 2007 Wide
Nov 20, 2007
All Critics (18) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (2) | DVD (2)
Even viewers who've never given a serif a second thought are in for an exclamation point of joy from such a well-designed doc.
Overlong but fascinating, Gary Hustwit's documentary posits Helvetica, a sans-serif typeface developed in 1957.
Helvetica keenly distills the eternal aesthetic battle between the classical and the baroque and explores what happens when a revolution goes mainstream.
The computer revolution may have democratized graphic design, letting anyone decorate his own desktop or MySpace page, but a certain amount of conformity is necessary for society to function.
A splendid documentary about one typeface, designed in 1957 in Switzerland.
By rounding up a great group of eloquent obsessives eager to explain their feelings about a font, Hustwit has come up with 80 unexpectedly blissful minutes.
Helvetica is one of those rare films in which the exploration of a specific topic leads to expanding horizons of perception.
Director Gary Hustwit opens our eyes to the visual culture of typography in much the same way as Andy Warhol once freed us from the tyranny of advertising, by inviting reflection upon that which is intended as a subliminal encounter.
Hustwit doesn't just poke his camera in the faces of experts on typography; he tells a story
The tweaky world of typography is not perhaps as much at the heart of how we live as these designers would have us believe, but it's enjoyable to watch them rhapsodise sans serifs and spacing.
A little like a study of the American Civil War that discusses the Confederacy without mentioning the Union.
Though their interest sometime borders on obsessive, [director] Hustwit's stellar roster of experts parse Helvetica's origins and implications with engaging passion and striking articulateness.
Helvetica spins its wheels for a good part of its rather short running time, making the same points over and again, with diminishing effect each time.
Helvetica makes a game attempt to understand how typefaces have been applied to contemporary modes of information and how battle lines have been drawn about their usage.
Hustwit's talking heads, an endearingly geeky bunch, weigh in on the pros and cons of such ubiquity. Cage match! Not that kind of film.
Funny to think that the font movie would have the potential to restore one's faith in art and its myriad meanings, but it does.
Appropriately, once the final credits roll, you're likely to sit through them with an enhanced understanding of the typeface they're in.
Typeface designer Jonathan Hoefler, one of the many interviewees for this film, compares Helvetica, the font, in the film's introduction to off-white paint. No one really notices or cares about it. In terms of describing the average person's attitude toward the font, he couldn't have been more right.The film starts out
January 19, 2011Super Reviewer
My lukewarm reception of this documentary may be due to the fact that I abhor the eponymous font itself. I'm loath to use sans serifs anyway, but Helvetica really just makes me feel yuck. Perhaps I'm not in this movie's target audience. It seems interesting and well-researched enough for designers in the industry.
January 10, 2011Super Reviewer
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