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Radiant City (2009) DVD Review
Radiant City (2009) DVD Credits:
Radiant City (2009) Directed by:
Jim Brown Gary Burns
Radiant City (2009) Written by:
Jim Brown Gary Burns
Radiant City (2009) Cast:
Hong Cheng, Kyle Grant, Amanda Guenther, Daniel Jeffery, Mikeala Jeffrey, Bob Legare, Jane MacFarlane, Curt McKinistry, Chantal Perron, Karen Planden
Radiant City (2009) Released by:
Burns Film Ltd.
Region:
1
Radiant City (2009) DVD Release Date:
4th March 2008
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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Radiant City (2009) Synopsis:

Amidst the fresh foundations of monster homes, the exploration of the dark side of suburbia takes place, creating a provocative reflection on why we live the way we do.

Radiant City (2009) DVD Review:

Surrealist filmmaker Gary Burns (Waydowntown, A Problem with Fear) joins journalist Jim Brown on an outing to the good ol’ ‘burbs. Together they focus a semi-informative and surprisingly entertaining documentary (perhaps better labeled a mockumentary) on the Late Suburban Age and the twisting humanities and realities that form the interesting piece of social decline.

Radiant City focuses mainly on a family of four that lives in Evergreen, a suburban community in progress that seems to be under never-ending construction and yet far away from anything. Evan and Anne have lived in their slowly evolving neighborhood for a little over a year with their three children: Kyle, Tina, and Emma. Evan is an aspiring actor who is working on a musical that pokes fun of the suburban lifestyle. Anne is an obsessive-compulsive housewife that somehow fails to notice obvious deviations in her family. Kyle is a young rebel who is forced to find ways of entertainment in a boring suburb that is far away from his school and friends. Tina is a nice little girl and Emma is a baby. That’s the happy little suburban family.

There are a couple of interesting tidbits thrown into the mix to expose disturbing facts about suburbs and social climates as a whole in the twenty-first century. For instance, eighty percent of everything built in the United States was built in the last fifty years. Odd. Still though, these sporadic facts don’t help this film really feel like a true documentary and there’s a reason for that. It’s not.

I hate to spoil it for you but the family and characters in this documentary are fictitious. However, they are played by actors that do live in suburbs and give there own two cents on the film and their true-life experience in the end. This is supposed to come as a big shock but I was not surprised. I had spent so much of the film wondering if these were actors or not that it ruined it for me. And even though the film is at times funny, poignant, and entertaining, it’s unbalanced and not enough to really stand out.

Radiant City has many good things to say and the plotline maps out some great and interesting ideas that dance within the mind. And though it did well in the festival circuit (Toronto International, Vancouver International), it finds itself lost in mediocrity. Maybe that’s the point since the film is focused so heavily on the suburbs. I doubt it but it’s a nice thought.

There are no special features, which is disappointing. I suppose that the last ten minutes of the film are more or less a behind-the-scenes segment but still it would have been nice to get some more information about why they filmed where they did, how the idea was conceived, how long had this project been in the works, etc. Most of the time, documentary special features are delightful so it was a let down to find nil on this DVD.

The suburbs are a strange place—there’s no doubt about that. Burns and Brown try to describe that as best they can in Radiant City and they do a decent job but in the end, you can’t help but wonder how different it may have been for the better had it been a strict documentary. It’s a novel idea and a fresh concept but unfortunately, it doesn’t play out as well as they hoped.

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Radiant City (2009) DVD review written by: Bryce Carlson

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