FANS of design have undergone something of a shift in the last few years, from unalloyed fascination with the beauty that design can produce to a more sober appreciation tinged with issues like pollution and exploitation.
The director Gary Hustwit can certainly relate. His film “Helvetica” (2007) — perhaps the first documentary made about a single typeface — became an unlikely hit that helped establish the design-geek film as a viable genre. He followed it up with “Objectified” (2009), a documentary on industrial design that veered into more real-life concerns, and interviewed well-known designers like Apple’s Jonathan Ive on what qualifies as good design.
But the realities of the modern-day world have a far more powerful presence in his latest film, “Urbanized,” which looks at the design of cities. (It opens on Friday in New York and later in select cities.)
(4.00 out of 5)