Review: The worst sin a filmmaker can make (besides hiring Joan Cusack) is to make a movie that tries to be highbrow and snobby without adding substance.  It's the worst combination one can have in a film.  Summer popcorn flicks are at least entertaining (don't believe me, watch this Eddie Izzard standup), and if possible, you can appreciate the substance behind more sophisticated films.  Having neither means your left with crap no one can even feel sorry for (see Uwe Boll).  Unfortunately, Helvetica commits this cardinal sin of filmmaking.            Watching Helvetica is like staring at that piece of modern art that has a blue dot in the upper left hand corner of the screen: despite all the pompous ramblings of the artist and the dealer, you know it's mindless crap.  So there, I said it.  The best part about a film like Helvetica (where the director is clearly trying to pay homage to the font) is that the most entertaining parts of the film involve talking to anti-Helvetica artists.  Those guys are cool and their manipulations of font styles just blows me away, too bad the director didn't see the obvious and go with the better story line. But, instead of some cool artists, we get treated to 40 year olds who try to detail how the Helvetica font is about the “interelationalship of negative space.” Now if that sounds interesting to you, then by all means, you will be in love with this documentary. But if you prefer more tangible ideas (what I like to call reality), then you might want to pass on this one.            While I can’t fault the filmmaking and technical aspects that went into developing the documentary, I just can’t get beyond the overall painfully superficial story and interviews- no matter how pretty you dress up nothingness, it’s still nothing. Give Gary Hustwit a decent idea and I’m sure he could create both a critical and box office success, but with this garbage, it’s just too hard to even consider praising his talents. With that, I leave this painful mess behind me. Review by Matthew Abshire Informative: 3- if you can prevent yourself from clawing your eyes out in madness, you’ll learn a lot about the history of the Helvetica font and its impact on the world. Entertainment: 1- so painful to watch it might just make waterboarding seem like a pleasant day at the beach Technical: 3- can’t fault the filmmaking, good use sense of pacing, camera choices, etc. Overall: 1.5- so bad it even pained me while I wrote the review.
 
Format: DVD Year: 2007 Running Time: 80 Min Distributor: Veer and Swiss Dots Producer: Gary Hustwit Director: Gary Hustwit Date Reviewed: 5-8-2008 Story: We use it every day on our computers, we see it on street signs -- and we take it for granted. Now, Gary Hustwit’s unique documentary introduces us to Helvetica, whose readability has made it the most popular font in the world. Interviews with designers and artists offer insight into the development, use and universal acceptance of Helvetica as the typeface of choice for everything from writing letters to creating corporate logos (NetFlix).