Radiant City (2006)

An examination of the nature of modern suburbia.

Directors:

Jim Brown, Gary Burns

Writers:

Gary Burns, Jim Brown

Stars:

Daniel Jeffery, Bob Legare, Jane MacFarlane

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Jeffery	...	Nick Moss
Bob Legare	...	Evan Moss
Jane MacFarlane	...	Anne Moss
Ashleigh Fidyk	...	Jennifer Moss
Curt McKinstry	...	Ken (as Curt McKinistry)
Karen Planden	...	Karen (as Karen Jeffery)
Mikeala Jeffrey	...	Nicole (as Michaela Jeffery)
Amanda Friesen	...	Tina (as Amanda Guenther)
Hong Cheng	...	Hong
Kyle Grant	...	Kyle
Austin Penny	...	Austin
Cayla Wolever	...	Terry
Aaron Elekes	...	Himself
Delphine Brooker	...	Play Director
Stirling Karlsen	...	Play Actor

Storyline

Since the end of World War II, one of kind of urban residential development has dominate how cities in North America have grown, the suburbs. In these artificial neighborhoods, there is a sense of careless sprawl in an car dominated culture that ineffectually tries to create the more organically grown older communities. Interspersed with the comments of various experts about the nature of suburbia, we follow the lives of various inhabitants of this pervasive urban sprawl and hear their thoughts. However at the end, there is a twist that plays on the falseness of the world in they live.

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Plot Keywords:

suburb | urban sprawl | child | canadian | shopping mall | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Comedy | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 May 2007 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,608, 8 April 2007, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alberta Foundation for the Arts,Burns Film Ltd.,Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 86 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

James Howard Kunstler: Eighty percent of everything ever built in North America has been built in the last 50 years. And most of it is brutal, ugly, depressing, unhealthy, and spiritually degrading.

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Connections

Features Execution Paintball (2006)

User Reviews

A documentary with slight of hand

I figured this would be a run of the mill documentary with lots of talking heads, stock news reel footage and a point of view that's negative at first but ends with a positive outlook. I was right for the most part. The movie follows a "typical" suburban family who move out to the suburbs and do everything that everyone else is doing in the suburbs. It's an interesting fly-on-the-wall examination of life in the suburbs.

Then there's the "twist" and it definitely knocks the movie down a notch or two. What's the point? The explanation is that the filmmaker thought no one would want to watch a straight film about the suburbs and a family. He's wrong. Basically he underestimates his audience and gives us a bogus epilogue. I've seen a lot more dry topics like genetically modified food in "The Future Of Food" done without relying on the technique of fictional elements. I think it's a poor slight of hand. I recommend the movie for the interviews with real experts but I think the fictional parts don't belong in the movie. It also confuses some people and leads them to believe the experts are also actors.