Urbanized is the third part of director Gary Hustwit's design series (is it a proper series? I'm going to call it a series.). Helvetica was his brilliant examination of the modernist typeset, Objectified was a less wonderful survey of contemporary design of things we use on a daily basis and now this film is a look at the design of cities. He explores how towns end up looking like they do and how municipalities have tried innovations to make things more useful or more beautiful and how sometimes people respond negatively to these changes.
Hustwit makes beautiful looking films filled with wonderful photography, this time by Luke Geissbuhler, and interesting shots of things that we might take for granted (like the sun setting over a highway). There are some absolutely wonderful transitions from one chapter to another here, one element that is rarely used but really helps in documentaries.
There are a bunch of talking-head interviews with international "starchitects," including Rem Koolhaus, Norman Foster, Oscar Niemeyer and designer/critic Michael Sorkin. Overall this is a pretty, fun and interesting film. It's much better than Objectified, but not nearly as good as Helvetica.
Stars: 3 of 4
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