Helvetica

One of the least-expected dividends of the digital revolution is the way that computers have increased popular awareness of typography, even to the extent that you can make a documentary called Helvetica and your average Cubs fan doesn’t need to be told what it’s about.

Invented 50 years ago by some Swiss dude, the world-conquering font is—depending on whom you ask—either an optimally transparent typeface perfectly suited to the needs of modern society; a bland typographic weed whose ubiquity reflects the moribund state of contemporary visual culture; or a crypto-fascist alphabetical virus antithetical to all that is good, beautiful and true.

This amiable doc does a more than adequate job of demonstrating the omnipresence of the font, which truly does permeate your life to a degree you can’t imagine. Helvetica also opens a window on the surprisingly passionate subculture of type designers, next to whom Iraqi Muslims appear relatively immune to schismatic fervor.

But if you’re going to make a film this dorky, it behooves you to dork out all the way and explain the hell out of your subject. Focusing narrowly on aesthetics, director Hustwit blows off economics entirely, leaving us to ponder a million nerdy questions. Are fonts copyrighted intellectual property? If so, who collects the licensing fee and how much money is involved? And why can’t Helvetica sue Arial for infringement? Inquiring minds wanna know.