Yet another disjunctive 'documentary' about the 'horrible evils' of suburbia, even tho millions of people want to live there.One 'expert' says, 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." Um...he is talking about cities.Let see cities...crowding, rat like feelings, noise, pollution, crime, high cost of condos, poor schools, constant construction noise why would you ever leave?Oh, the burbs, nice yard, garage, garden, wholesome activities, clean environment, no noise, birds, squirrels, deer and a closer touch with nature, more bedrooms for kids, better schools, and no high rise Soviet style urban housing.If you think kids taking gymnastics is funny, try having them on the street shooting each other and lingering on corners selling drugs. How is that for your cityscape.In a funny ironic twist - this clone of other 'documentaries' is a carbon copy to the same worn out theory - suburbs bad, city good. Give me a break. And the same 'experts' with their pet theories on human behavior. Ever ride the subway in NYC? No one and I mean no one looks or talks to each other - they know better. They might get shot. So much for their bogus 'community theories' that are fantasy.

I was initially attracted to this movie because there is a song by Alien Sex Fiend called, "Radiant City". It doesn't have anything to do with this film. But I am half way through it and it creeped me out as much as Gothic bands might creep conservative people out. As a person who has lived three places in her life -- small country town, European city and American city, San Diego, where I am now -- suburban life creeps me out. These people don't seem for real and since I took a breather to look this up half way through, I notice that maybe these people in the movie are actors and not really true suburbanites, so is this a play on how fake suburban life is in the first place? I thought this might be about the history of the suburb, which parts of it are, but it is more of showing it as a blight, but maybe not a 100% correct one...that loses favor with me. If these people aren't actors, then it is a good piece, because it shows me why I don't want to live in a big new house in the suburbs and be content with my overly small for American consumption 700 sq. ft. condo that is in a neighborhood that is one of the oldest in San Diego and walking distance to non-corporate restaurants, stores and local indie theatre, which ironically, would show this movie. The mom is like frantic Julianne Moore, maybe they should have gotten her for the role. Except I don't want to insult Julianne Moore by saying that.I am not a typical American, unlike a lot of people I know. Many people I know drive long distances to work in their overly large SUVs, SUVs they don't even need because they don't even have kids yet. Then these people complain about not being in walking distance of anywhere, how much gas is, or the time wasted commuting. Well, there are many places to live that are affordable besides the suburbs and I can't be convinced that more crime happens in the city than in the suburbs. There are plenty of kids in my neighborhood that play here and don't get shot, get in a gang or do drugs. I think the level of drug use might be higher in suburbs anyway, since those kids would have more money to buy them and less options as far as entertainment.In short, I am not sure how if I should recommend this or not. For one, it is a bit depressing and not too informative about the history of suburbs and if the director hired actors to play the roles, it is even sadder. It would get about an 8 if I knew these were real people, a 4 if they aren't so I guess I'll average those into an "ok" 6, since so many people in this film say their new large house are just "ok".I am glad I live where I do, even if there is crime here and there. It has a history, a sense of space, art and music festivals happen down the street and you can walk to a lot of places. I guess the film is scaring me into believing all suburbanites are crazy, neurotic, close minded people who can't get out of the circle of their own opinion enough to empathize with anyone else. Their kids grow up dysfunction because they can't walk anywhere or get a sense of an independence. The kids shooting paintballs really brought up school shootings to me, since most of the time, it happens in suburban areas. I think that might have been acted out rather than reality...I wonder how much of this movie is real and not staged. OK, maybe this film is just making me mad more than making me think!I have yet to see the end, but I feel it will be unsatisfying or at best, "ok".

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.

Is there anything more deadening and depressing than the suburbs? This excellent Canadian documentary perfectly captures the anodyne character of North American bedroom communities with daft, inappropriate names like 'Evergreen','Copperfields' and 'Bordeaux'. Blending interviews with social scientists, architects, and just plain folks who find themselves commuting two hours of more every day in exchange for a cookie-cutter house in a cookie-cutter sub-division, Radiant City cuts to the meat of the matter when one of the talking heads equates the suburban lifestyle to a zombie movie. If you've ever lived in one of these wretched non-communities (as I did for ten long, tortuous years), you'll recognize yourself or someone you know amongst the film's protagonists, the Moss family, and their assorted friends and neighbours.