Sling Blade is the first thing that came to mind, being from Arkansas myself. The other movie Billy Bob Thornton wrote back then that’s set in (and also was filmed in) Arkansas, One False Move, also gets lots of it right. And my college classmate Natalie Canerday was in both (as the boy’s mother in Sling Blade, and the sherriff’s wife in One False Move), which somehow adds to the sense of familiarity.
It’s not an ethnicity, and it’s a cheesy movie, but Volcano was pure L.A. An Angelyne billboard (destroyed in such a way that it looks as if she’s gyrating on stage). Dennis Woodruff’s car (mired in flaming lava). The train driver reading “How to Sell Your Screenplay.” The “Mark Fuhrman” firefighter vs. homeboy from the hood. The Hard Rock Cafe giving free food and t-shirts to survivors. The local news choosing to do a segment on the victims “who can’t tell us where it hurts” (animals). The scramble to save art from the LACMA. Every minute of it had me nodding and saying, “Oh, yeah.”
I’d have to say the first movie I had ever seen that seemed to capture the mood and tone of old-school Bikers is Mask with Sam Elliot and Cher. Many of their friends seem like people I have known.
Not an entire movie, but snippets of Beerfest, especially the Grandma’s house and the Bad Guy (Jurgen Prochow) who is Bavarian, caught parts of the German culture to a T. Whomever wrote the movie really captured off-the-boat germans cliches perfectly. My inlaws would not find this movie funny, but we cracked up.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding was another one that transends all nationalities.