Clerks. It’s half a state away, but that was my life, those were my people.
It pretty much ties with The Royal Tennenbaums.
Good Will Hunting captures it nicely, but the neighborhood where a lot of it takes place is very unlike my own. 21 does a much better job of showing the Boston that I know.
If we’re allowed to include TV shows, then the establing shots of Ally McBeal totally nailed it. There was one that showed State Street, pretty much at the site of the Boston Massacre. At the time I walked by there almost every day.
FB doesn’t even make my short list. I could name some great Chicago movies, but nothing ever has or ever will come close to The Blues Brothers.
For any Clevender of a certain age, A Christmas Story will always bring back fond memories. and it was shot in Cleveland!
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge was fairly decent. Much more accurate than Kansas City.
Deliverance.
I don’t want to talk about it.
I grew up just outside Aurora, IL. So I guess that my only choice is Wayne’s World.
Oh, wait–nothing in that film is anything like the real Aurora. For starters, there are no dance clubs there even .01% that rad. So, never mind.
Fargo very neatly captures the interstitial areas that were an important part of my youth. I’ve met every character in the movie but one.
Where in the midwest did you grow up?
That movie – at least some of it – was shot in Salina, KS. My brother, my parents, and almost all of my relatives were born there. Six generations, in fact.
For the decade I lived in far west Texas, No Country for Old Men.
For the two decades before that (esp. 15 yrs in DFW), the setting of Office Space rings true. The movie definitely feels like suburban Dallas County.
For the near-decade since I left west Texas, I’ve got nothing.
Same comment for The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. Pepper Mill is actually from Grovers Mill (which is a small section of West Windsor, N.J.), and we laugh every time we see that film. Yoyodyne’s factory looks bigger than the entire town (which has no palm trees)
Growing up it was probably Stand By Me.
In college, Fandango.
Early oil patch years were tough living in The Last Picture Show.
Nowadays, it’s Arlington Road.
I’ll be retiring to No Country For Old Men.
ETA: Yossarian ol’ buddy, you posted No Country while I was typing. We’re not far apart, you south and me north.
The only movie I can think of that is set in/around Charlotte and admits it is Days of Thunder. They did some shooting for Talladega Nights here, too.
I really don’t care for NASCAR, though.
My home town is Columbia, SC, and the only movie I can think of that filmed there is Renaissance Man, which I’ve never seen.
I guess I don’t really have a My Town movie.
For where I grew up it would be Coal Miner’s Daughter.
I can’t really think of anything for where I live now, though.
Redwing must have grown up down the street from me, because I get homesick every time I watch Fargo. Frances McDormand could’ve been my mom.
My high school years would be Dazed and Confused
Now that I’m up in Seattle - **Singles **
Between the painfully Irish Southie scenes that reminded me of being a kid, the Harvard scenes that reminded me of living in Cambridge, GWH nailed my Boston experience
The Legend of Billie Jean is practically required viewing for Corpus Christi.
This Boy’s Life was shot in and around Concrete and the Skagit Valley in Western Washington, where I grew up. It does a great job showing the area, and even though it was set in the 50s, the area, espescially in the mountain towns looks almost exactly the same.
I think I’ve got you beat on the “North” these days; plus I’m a time zone ahead, so if it’s any consolation, it’s like you beat me by 59 minutes or so!
That said, clearly No Country for Old Men is the quintessential “My Town” movie for all of the following towns: Van Horn, Marfa, Alpine, Sanderson, Fort Stockton, Marathon…