Radiant City
| Radiant City | |
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| Directed by | Gary Burns and Jim Brown |
| Produced by | Shirley Vercruysse, Bonnie Thompson |
| Music by | John Bissell, Natalie Baartz, Joey Santiago |
| Release date(s) | September 10, 2006 (TIFF) |
| Running time | 93 min. |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
Radiant City is a National Film Board of Canada film[1] released in 2006 at the Toronto Film Festival, about suburban sprawl and the fictional Moss family who live in the suburbs, written and directed by Gary Burns and Jim Brown. The movie is openly critical towards suburban sprawl and its negative effects, being at the same time amusing and ironic.
The film has a documentary form but it is actually mixing fiction and documentary components, which is not revealed to the spectator until the end of the movie.
The fictional part is about the five member Moss family who have just moved from the city into a brand new suburban development. The narrative is set in the Evergreen suburb of Calgary, Alberta. The family discuss and portray life in the suburbs and the various flaws and advantages of modern suburban life, with a considerably greater emphasis on the flaws. While the characters and instances in the movie are fictional, the actors that play them all do live in real suburban areas.
Interspersed with this narrative, experts speak to the camera about their views of the suburbs. These include Ken Greenberg, Joseph Heath, Mark Kingwell, James Howard Kunstler, Marc Boutin, Andrés Duany and Beverly Sandalack. These portions are filmed in different suburban areas of North America, including Oakville, Ontario.
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[edit] Plot
The Moss family decides to move from inner city in Calgary to Evergreen, a suburban area, to satisfy Ann Moss desire to live in a new house. Evan, the husband, is still keeping his job downtown, which forces him to a two hours commuting time to work. Even if apparently the area offers everything that is needed by a family in walking distance, one is actually isolated due to constructions, buildings, distance and the area layout and is constantly forced to rely on the car for every little need. The family carries on its ordinary life with Ann having a positive opinion of their new life, while her husband, Evan, and the kids can see more clearly the flaws and disadvantages of this syle of life. They however go along with it, contantly trying to find their way to justify their choice.
[edit] Cast
- Daniel Jeffery - Nick Moss
- Bob Legare - Evan Moss
- Jane MacFarlane - Anne Moss
- Ashleigh Fidyk - Jennifer Moss
- Curt McKinstry - Ken
- Karen Jeffery - Karen
- Michaela Jeffery - Nicole
[edit] Soundtrack
The soundtrack features songs from Joey Santiago of The Pixies.
[edit] Release
Radiant City was presented at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival with a very warm reception,[2] and also at several film festivals, including Vancouver and Calgary International Film Festivals, the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival and the São Paulo It’s All True Documentary International Film Festival, San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, Miami International Film Festival and the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri.[1][2][3]
[edit] Reception
[edit] Critical response
Radiant City had a very warm reception when presented at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.[2] Also received several nominations, won also Genie Award for Best Documentary, was the runner up for best Canadian film on the 2007 Toronto Film Critic’s List.[1][2][3]
It was also awarded the Special Jury Prize at VIFF (Vancouver International Film Festival).[1]
Reviews were very positive both in Canada and the United States.[2]
Radiant City currently holds a 93% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, with no consensus yet.
[edit] Home Media
The movie has also been released in DVD on March 4, 2008. The DVD includes the original English version of the film and the English version with French subtitles.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d "National Film Board of Canada". http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=53256.
- ^ a b c d e "The Film Reference Library (FRL) - Essays, Andrea Whyte 2006". http://filmreferencelibrary.ca/PDFs/Radiant%20City.pdf.
- ^ a b "New York Times - Movies, Matt Zoller Seitz". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/358902/Radiant-City/overview.
[edit] External links
- Radiant City at the Internet Movie Database
- Radiant City at AllRovi
- Radiant City at Rotten Tomatoes
- Watch Radiant City at NFB.ca (Requires Adobe Flash)
