Helvetica (2007)
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 6,037
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Movie Info
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
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All Critics (19) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (17) | Rotten (2) | DVD (2)
Helvetica is one of those rare films in which the exploration of a specific topic leads to expanding horizons of perception.
Top CriticEven 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Audience Reviews for Helvetica
Perhaps I'm not in this movie's target audience. It seems interesting and well-researched enough for designers in the industry. I do wonder, though, what exactly counts as Helvetica? Any blocky sans serif? Several different examples in the movie look very different from each other.
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The film starts out well enough, explaining typography and its nuances. Typography is, indeed, a mildly interesting topic. But that's not what the film is about. The film was simply a random potpourri of interviews with graphic designers and typeface designers who had varying opinions and different cute little metaphors to describe Helvetica. Between these interviews were rather random shots of Helvetica in everyday life.
That's fine and all, but listening to a typeface designer talk about his or her feelings toward Helvetica is like listening to a physics professor explain the aerodynamics of a football or listening to a linguist talk about the mouth's creation of various phonemes--it's really not interesting unless it's a subject you actually enjoy. And typeface design is a fairly dry subject.
This film might have worked better as a short documentary. It's a very narrow subject around which to create 80 minutes of film, and that becomes clear about halfway through. If you're into typeface or graphic design, you may enjoy this film. But if you're an average individual with average interests and hobbies, this film will eventually lull you to sleep.