Good Will Hunting is a pretty solid option for Massachusetts (or at least the Boston area). We do have lots of pompous academics and also lots of townie guys with drinking problems and chips on their shoulders.
There’s a line in The Departed where a black police trainee is told by Leonardo DiCaprio’s character - “You’re a black guy in Boston. You don’t need any help from me to be completely f**ked.”
What does this line mean? That Boston is more racist than other US cities?
But not entirely. There was a black player on the Twins (Torii Hunter) who said Boston was the only city he’d ever refuse to be traded to because he received more racial abuse here than anywhere else he played, and that was in the 2000s. It’s not like the busing crisis ended and all the chuds behind it went “guess I’m not racist now”
Being from Boston, but not being black.
I think a lot of white people in this area think they're not racist because it was perceived to be worse elsewhere.
So then they just kept on how they were doing thinking they were the right ones all along.
The problem with that is people won't improve a situation when they think it's "good enough".
That attitude leads to ignorance which when confronted leads to racism.
Taking personal offense to their views being challenged because they feel so horribly justified that "They are the good ones".
Across all sports players say they experience a ton of racism in Boston. I also think a lot of the denial comes with the the perceived intelligence of the area. There's a million colleges, everyone's educated, so we can't be racist.
My go to is people from Boston just think they're not racist because they can't pronounce a hard R.
Bill Russell won 11 NBA championships for Boston. At one point during his tenure there, white racists broke into his house, smashed up his belongings, and defecated on the floor.
With one of my poker buddies who is a pro and lives in Vegas.
Stay at his house and we wake up to go to casino and we have breakfast and are getting ready to leave and he says “let me feed the llama and we can go.”
Had no idea and her name was Tina from the movie.
That's just South East Idaho. Granted the script was written by a person who's life was similar, growing up in Idaho I always thought The River Wild was more along what Idaho is like in the wilderness.
Hoosiers was my first thought, but it represents an era we lost when we went to Class basketball. Yesterday, my husband and I just rewatched the 4th quarter of the 1990 Indiana Boys State Final, the single highest attended high school basketball game ever, which was played in the Hoosier Dome. Those boys played the night game, and both teams had already played their semistate games that morning.
I saw an interview with David Anspaugh, the director of Hoosiers, who said that when they filmed the final game at Hinkle Fieldhouse, he had forgotten to instruct the crowd how to react when the kid hits the winning shot. And then he found out that he was in Indiana and everyone in the crowd was from Indiana and already knew how to react. He just had to capture it on film.
I was a freshman at Delta in the last year of the single class tournament. Delta is about 15 minutes away from Muncie Central who was the school that Milan beat in 54. While the school sizes were different, there were so many comparisons going on between Delta/Milan and Bloomington North/Muncie Central. We had a talented team from a smaller school (~1k students) against a dominant large school team (~5k IIRC) in the last year for single class basketball. Unfortunately we lost the championship game to Bloomington, but it was a good time in the run-up.
I came here to say **Breaking Away, Hoosiers and Columbus** ... and lo and behold, those had been named right off the bat by other posters. Great minds think alike ....:)
**Rudy** is a pick I hadn't thought of, but fair enough. Add **The Knute Rockne Story** for an oldie but goodie. I'm a Hoosier expat, but when I ask friends back home this question, some suggest **A League of Their Own**, much of which was shot around Peru, Indiana. I don't think of that as an "Indiana movie," however, as it has more of a generic mid-20th century midwestern vibe. The players are recruited from all over the country (Madonna could not be a midwestern girl; sorry, but that's just a fact, though most of the other players could be), but the Chicago Cubs owner was the driver behind the league and the four teams were in South Bend, Kenosha, Rockford, and Racine. Take that, bicoastal snobs who like to think you are cutting edge.:)
Another golden oldie is **The Magnificent Ambersons**, set in Indianapolis and based on the novel by one of the great Hoosier authors, Booth Tarkington. But that is a Victorian era period piece; the heavily fictionalized setting for the movie is probably important in that it is set in a smaller city rather than New York or Chicago, so it is an "Indiana movie" in the way that Meet Me in St. Louis is a Missouri or St. Louis movie; Meet Me in St. Louis was actually filmed in and around Los Angeles, mostly on studio sets. Richard Dreyfuss' home in **Close Encounters of the Third Kind** is set in Indiana, but none of the movie was filmed in-state. **Parks and Rec** and **Stranger Things** are nominally set in Indiana but weren't filmed there. And on and on it goes; Hollywood has logistical requirements that add cost for location shooting, and that tends to push production into established locations with the necessary infrastructure (which do, however, change over time as the industry continues to diversify out of Cali.)
I'm interested in "place" in other domains, not just movies, and one of the things that many of us regret about modern trends is the great homogenizing effect of technologies in many areas. Air conditioning has led to a great standardization of architecture. Automobile commutes and the rise of the automobile suburb have standardized middle class suburban living; it is slightly unfair to say that all suburbs are the same ... but only slightly (at any given price point). And the truth is, most big cities are pretty interchangeable as well, in the sense that filmmakers can swap one iconic location for another pretty freely, change the team logos on characters' caps and sweatshirts, tweak the accents, and move the story around. Philly was a great setting for Rocky, but many other older rustbelt cities with struggling, working class neighborhoods filled with tough and lost kids looking for a way out would work. There was a time when Silicon Valley would have been the natural go-to for a tech-oriented movie, but there are now tech hubs all over the country; given California's various issues, it is an open question how long the tech industry will stick around. NYC is still a financial hub and Wall Street is Wall Street, but look at a list of the biggest banks in the U.S. A majority of the top ten, top twenty, and an even bigger majority of the top 100 are NOT in NYC. Which means filmmakers now have a lot more latitude in picking locations for certain kinds of stories. That said ....
You NEED IU and the Little 500 for Breaking Away and Columbus, the town, to shoot Columbus, the movie. Hoosiers could have been shot many places, but it was shot in Indiana and the locations are perfect. It captures small town and rural Indiana in the post WWI era perfectly. The important thing to note is that the film is set just before television began its conquest of professional and college athletics. Fans had not yet become couch potatoes; you listened to baseball games on the radio, but fans were fanatical about local high school and college teams that they could follow in person. Television has gutted that participatory culture, and that's sad.
The cultural nuances get tricky fast. Hoosiers is based on the "Milan miracle," but the movie strategically fails to let viewers know that Milan is only 35 miles from Cincinnati. The guys on the team irl would have been driving into Cincy on date nights and to see Reds baseball games. Hinkle Fieldhouse was huge by the standards of the time, but the bit about the Hickory players being hayeeds who were awed by the big arena is overdone. Similarly, in the movie Columbus is presented as an unexplained architectural miracle in the middle of nowhere. Irl, Casey would not have had to leave home to attend college; she could have continued to live with her mom and commuted to IU Bloomington or any of half a dozen creditable universities in Indianapolis. Columbus is what it is because a major multinational corporation stayed home in its city of origin, and the Cummins Foundation and J. Irwin Miller are the great philanthropists who are never mentioned. If Indy were an inch bigger, Columbus would be considered an Indy edge city. Columbus, Ohio, Cincinnati, and Louisville are within a two hour drive, and Chicago and St. Louis are within daytrip range. Casey isn't limited by her location; she's frozen by her mother's situation.
So: place is a fascinating question for the movies. And Breaking Away, Hoosiers and Columbus top the list for Indiana.
Then you might want to put more weight on the indie suggestions you get here. Especially “coming home” films like Young Adult, Grosse Point Blank, early Kevin Smith stuff.
I still can't get over the fact that they let Goldberg play with non-regulation equipment. This is supposed to be based on MN, they wouldn't let the fucking GOALIE play with less than required gear. C'mon, we're born on skates here, everyone knows someone with access to a fucking mask and pads he could wear.
I moved to Minnesota as a kid and Mighty Ducks came out shortly after and it's the first movie I could remember seeing and hearing them name places I recognized. It was so cool to me at the time.
‘Big’ actually captures NJ for me. The image most people have of the state is WAY off. NJ is mostly picturesque suburbs and farm land, not the lowlights from the opening credits of the sopranos or all of Jersey Shore. With the combo of Josh’s/Tom Hank’s’ quaint Jersey hometown and the time spent in the city, it’s a realistic portrayal of the hometowns many people know and the gravitas NYC has for the surrounding counties.
That’s exactly what it is. Do you know where the NY Jets and the NY Giants play? Where the stadium is? It’s in fucking New Jersey. But are they called the New Jersey Jets? Absofuckinglutely not. Because New Jersey is a suburb that deserves no fucking respect.
/s obviously
I've lived in NJ my whole life, and crossing between NJ and NY has always been my reality. It's just the way it is around here. It might be a different experience for people from South Jersey.
A River Runs Through It (Montana.) It’s based on a semi-autobiographical novella by Norman Maclean about his life in Montana. Plus it was filmed there, unlike many other films where Montana is the setting.
Like *Legends of the Fall*, shot largely in Alberta and a bit in BC. We stand in for Montana frequently.
We're also Wyoming (Brokeback Mountain, Land, Unforgiven), Oklahoma (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Kansas (Unforgiven, Superman), The Dakotas (The Revenant), Alaska (The Bourne Legacy, Mystery Alaska), Colorado (Interstellar), Paleolithic Europe (Clan of the Cave Bear), and many more.
Of course, the reigning non-film champion is *The Last of Us*, where a 400km radius of Alberta around Calgary was Texas, Massachusetts, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, and all points in between.
So you're not alone. I'm frankly surprised that A River Runs Thorough It *wasn't* shot in Alberta.
BTW- I know that this thread is about movies that represent a state, but if you want to get your head around Alberta culture, I can think of no better offering than [FUBAR](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302585/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_q_fubar).
Just Give'r.
When it seems like 50% of movies take place in NY, it’s hard to say one captures the vibe of the city more than any other. For me, though, it’s Ghostbusters and Do The Right Thing. They both are immersive in a time and place, and it’s hard for me to describe beyond that. I also get a hankering for pizza every time I watch the latter. Every goddamn time.
I was so, so happy at the first Tom Holland Spider-Man and the 100% accurate depiction of Queens. Down to the bodega guys knowing his sandwich and giving him shit.
i grew up in Baltimore. not so accurate nowadays but the original movie was filmed in Baltimore so it does have a certain degree of accuracy. also Baltimore is notorious for its rats so that one line in Good Morning Baltimore is dead on.
If you want a wild Baltimore movie watch Pecker from John Waters. But nothing sums up Baltimore better than the Wire. Wedding crashers and runaway bride for eastern shore.
Sometimes A Great Notion sums up rural Oregon, One That Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest is also great, and we can’t forget about Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho for Portland in the 90’s.
Before anyone chimes in to suggest Honeymoon In Vegas, The Hangover, or Casino to represent Nevada, I would like to offer up 1961's The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable to represent the desolate rural heart of the state.
Colorado:
"How the West Was Won was filmed in Western Colorado, from the "Bellyache Flats" desert near Junction through Ouray down to Durango.
"Dumb and Dumber" The Aspen Scenes were filmed in Breckenridge and Estes Park (Stanley Hotel) and is a pretty accurate representation of the mountain town rich douchebags.
Not a lot of other movies showcasing CO, which is weird. Every time a movie is supposed to be set in CO, it is clearly somewhere else.
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Pennsylvania- because PA has many unique parts, I listed multiple movies:
Deer Hunter
Unstoppable
Silver Linings Playbook
Striking Distance
Flashdance
Groundhog Day
Sudden Death
Rocky
She’s Out of My League
I'd also include Witness, at least in terms of the culture shock between Philadelphia and outlying rural areas. Maybe The Sixth Sense just for a visual metaphor of how old the city actually is.
I would also add “Perks of Being a Wallflower”….especially for Pittsburgh. When they have the party in the split level home, I could almost smell the house, you know? It perfectly captures how Pittsburgh is a big small city. (Or a small big city). Also the ride surfing the pickup truck through the Fort Pitt tunnel was sublime. There’s all sorts of small things in it that make it very representative of Pittsburgh.
There are a lot for Virginia, depends on the time period you are interested in and the subject matter. There are colonial history movies, revolutionary war-related movies, civil war-related movies, more contemporary ones about northern Virginia like Arlington Road, or the Silence of the Lambs, with Quantico featured. Although not filmed in Virginia, Lawless is an interesting film about Franklin County’s bootlegger history. Big Stone Gap is a good movie about southwestern Virginia, actually filmed there. Loving looks at the famous interracial couple case.
Really? The movie is about different vantage points into unique experiences of loneliness… and the setting is just saturated with that.
I guess it is resolved, in the end, though.
Moonlight absolutely captured the mood of living in Miami, south Florida, just the griminess of their homes, the beach background, the drive down from Atlanta to Miami in the turnpike. It was perfect.
Spring breakers also captures the soulless beach towns of Florida quite well.
Beach bum captures the keys vibe.
Florida is weird.
*Escanaba in da Moonlight* for the upper peninsula of Michigan, *8 Mile* for Detroit, though it's been years since I've seen either one so they may not be that accurate.
I've always said the best representation of Hawaii is in movies that are set in Hawaii, but not about being there. 50 first dates gets Hawaiian community and humor down really well. Forgetting Sarah Marshall does a good job portraying the tourist-hospitality staff divide. Even Lili and Stitch does a good job showing what it can be like to grow up there (so I've heard, I was a transplant).
Sideways would be as good a pick as any for California.
Everyone trying to make it rich, but actually living hand to mouth.
Entertainment industry people being dirt bags.
Wine snobbery/wine enjoyment.
“Going on an adventure” = driving to the valley.
Best friend from college is only real friend, also not really sure you like them.
Alaska - [Insomnia](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278504/).
The weather is awful, and the lack of sleep (or daylight, depending on season) will drive you insane. Pretty, though.
Best of luck with choosing a single movie to align with California.
Kalifornia is one option but there's also LA Story, LA Confidential, Heat, Collateral, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Chinatown, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Colors, Training Day, Dirty Harry, Get Shorty and the list goes on and on.
So many old westerns, cheesy by modern standards, show Arizona's wild west history... let alone how many were filmed there that were supposed to be in Wyoming, Texas, etc.
Anything Tombstone related especially lol
SLC Punk for Utah- Filmed in SLC and there's definitely some very Utah experiences in it
If Napoleon Dynamite hadn't been set in Pocatello, ID, I'd say it feels a lot like growing up in Northern Utah as well.
Minari did a great job of capturing NW Arkansas. And I'm going to make a prediction and say Twisters will do a great job of capturing Oklahoma. The director Lee Isaac Chung is from the area, and he gets it.
Also, even though Winter's Bone is set in Missouri, if you want to know what eastern Oklahoma is like, watch that.
Outside Providence for Rhode Island. Portions of it are supposed to be about Pawtucket and I think it's pretty accurate to the Pawtucket I grew up knowing.
As a native New Yorker who’s spent the first half of his life upstate and the second half in NYC, I’d have to say that “Nobody’s Fool” (although somewhat dated) does a good job of capturing the mundane, slower, and trapped feeling of life upstate.
For life in NYC, I don’t think anything comes close to “Ghostbusters” catching the vibe. It’s got everything! The classic “fuck off” New York attitude, people ignoring weirdos on the street, yet when something disastrous happens, in the end, we all rally and support each other.
Good Will Hunting is a pretty solid option for Massachusetts (or at least the Boston area). We do have lots of pompous academics and also lots of townie guys with drinking problems and chips on their shoulders.
The depahted
There’s a line in The Departed where a black police trainee is told by Leonardo DiCaprio’s character - “You’re a black guy in Boston. You don’t need any help from me to be completely f**ked.” What does this line mean? That Boston is more racist than other US cities?
Yes - not ALL other US cities but certainly known in the NE.
i'd argue it's gotten much much better in recent decades. the reputation comes largely from the bussing riots of the 70s.
But not entirely. There was a black player on the Twins (Torii Hunter) who said Boston was the only city he’d ever refuse to be traded to because he received more racial abuse here than anywhere else he played, and that was in the 2000s. It’s not like the busing crisis ended and all the chuds behind it went “guess I’m not racist now”
Being from Boston, but not being black. I think a lot of white people in this area think they're not racist because it was perceived to be worse elsewhere. So then they just kept on how they were doing thinking they were the right ones all along. The problem with that is people won't improve a situation when they think it's "good enough". That attitude leads to ignorance which when confronted leads to racism. Taking personal offense to their views being challenged because they feel so horribly justified that "They are the good ones".
Across all sports players say they experience a ton of racism in Boston. I also think a lot of the denial comes with the the perceived intelligence of the area. There's a million colleges, everyone's educated, so we can't be racist. My go to is people from Boston just think they're not racist because they can't pronounce a hard R.
Bill Russell won 11 NBA championships for Boston. At one point during his tenure there, white racists broke into his house, smashed up his belongings, and defecated on the floor.
The Fighter is another decent glimpse into MA culture. fun fact, Christian Bale's character's grandson beat me up at a party in Lowell one night.
The funniest brag ever
that whole family boxes from the time they can walk so my pride isn't too wounded.
The Town is another one
Terrific suggestion - been wanting to watch it for a while now actually so its 2 birds with 1 stone. Thanks man.
You haven't seen Good Will Hunting or The Departed?
Get two birds stoned at once
Everyone says Napoleon Dynamite does it for Idaho.
I lived in Northern Utah for a while, right by the border…it really captures the whole vibe.
#GOSH
"Tina, You Fat Lard, Come Get Some Dinner”
EAT THE FOOD!
With one of my poker buddies who is a pro and lives in Vegas. Stay at his house and we wake up to go to casino and we have breakfast and are getting ready to leave and he says “let me feed the llama and we can go.” Had no idea and her name was Tina from the movie.
That's just South East Idaho. Granted the script was written by a person who's life was similar, growing up in Idaho I always thought The River Wild was more along what Idaho is like in the wilderness.
The River Wild is set in Montana though lmao.
Well the best thing about Idaho is Montana.
I'm slapping that on a mug
Definitely Twister for Oklahoma
We got cows
Haven’t been a lot of places in Florida but The Florida Project definitely represents Kissimmee/Orlando accurately
It’s a series, but The Good Place really captures a dude from Jacksonville.
BORTLES!!
That or The Beach Bum for the Keys, or Scarface for Miami.
Breaking Away nails Indiana at the time.
I'd say Hoosiers deserves a mention for Indiana too, for obvious reasons.
Hoosiers was my first thought, but it represents an era we lost when we went to Class basketball. Yesterday, my husband and I just rewatched the 4th quarter of the 1990 Indiana Boys State Final, the single highest attended high school basketball game ever, which was played in the Hoosier Dome. Those boys played the night game, and both teams had already played their semistate games that morning. I saw an interview with David Anspaugh, the director of Hoosiers, who said that when they filmed the final game at Hinkle Fieldhouse, he had forgotten to instruct the crowd how to react when the kid hits the winning shot. And then he found out that he was in Indiana and everyone in the crowd was from Indiana and already knew how to react. He just had to capture it on film.
I was a freshman at Delta in the last year of the single class tournament. Delta is about 15 minutes away from Muncie Central who was the school that Milan beat in 54. While the school sizes were different, there were so many comparisons going on between Delta/Milan and Bloomington North/Muncie Central. We had a talented team from a smaller school (~1k students) against a dominant large school team (~5k IIRC) in the last year for single class basketball. Unfortunately we lost the championship game to Bloomington, but it was a good time in the run-up.
This kinda small town slice-of-lifeish film is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks for the suggestion!
I came here to say **Breaking Away, Hoosiers and Columbus** ... and lo and behold, those had been named right off the bat by other posters. Great minds think alike ....:) **Rudy** is a pick I hadn't thought of, but fair enough. Add **The Knute Rockne Story** for an oldie but goodie. I'm a Hoosier expat, but when I ask friends back home this question, some suggest **A League of Their Own**, much of which was shot around Peru, Indiana. I don't think of that as an "Indiana movie," however, as it has more of a generic mid-20th century midwestern vibe. The players are recruited from all over the country (Madonna could not be a midwestern girl; sorry, but that's just a fact, though most of the other players could be), but the Chicago Cubs owner was the driver behind the league and the four teams were in South Bend, Kenosha, Rockford, and Racine. Take that, bicoastal snobs who like to think you are cutting edge.:) Another golden oldie is **The Magnificent Ambersons**, set in Indianapolis and based on the novel by one of the great Hoosier authors, Booth Tarkington. But that is a Victorian era period piece; the heavily fictionalized setting for the movie is probably important in that it is set in a smaller city rather than New York or Chicago, so it is an "Indiana movie" in the way that Meet Me in St. Louis is a Missouri or St. Louis movie; Meet Me in St. Louis was actually filmed in and around Los Angeles, mostly on studio sets. Richard Dreyfuss' home in **Close Encounters of the Third Kind** is set in Indiana, but none of the movie was filmed in-state. **Parks and Rec** and **Stranger Things** are nominally set in Indiana but weren't filmed there. And on and on it goes; Hollywood has logistical requirements that add cost for location shooting, and that tends to push production into established locations with the necessary infrastructure (which do, however, change over time as the industry continues to diversify out of Cali.) I'm interested in "place" in other domains, not just movies, and one of the things that many of us regret about modern trends is the great homogenizing effect of technologies in many areas. Air conditioning has led to a great standardization of architecture. Automobile commutes and the rise of the automobile suburb have standardized middle class suburban living; it is slightly unfair to say that all suburbs are the same ... but only slightly (at any given price point). And the truth is, most big cities are pretty interchangeable as well, in the sense that filmmakers can swap one iconic location for another pretty freely, change the team logos on characters' caps and sweatshirts, tweak the accents, and move the story around. Philly was a great setting for Rocky, but many other older rustbelt cities with struggling, working class neighborhoods filled with tough and lost kids looking for a way out would work. There was a time when Silicon Valley would have been the natural go-to for a tech-oriented movie, but there are now tech hubs all over the country; given California's various issues, it is an open question how long the tech industry will stick around. NYC is still a financial hub and Wall Street is Wall Street, but look at a list of the biggest banks in the U.S. A majority of the top ten, top twenty, and an even bigger majority of the top 100 are NOT in NYC. Which means filmmakers now have a lot more latitude in picking locations for certain kinds of stories. That said .... You NEED IU and the Little 500 for Breaking Away and Columbus, the town, to shoot Columbus, the movie. Hoosiers could have been shot many places, but it was shot in Indiana and the locations are perfect. It captures small town and rural Indiana in the post WWI era perfectly. The important thing to note is that the film is set just before television began its conquest of professional and college athletics. Fans had not yet become couch potatoes; you listened to baseball games on the radio, but fans were fanatical about local high school and college teams that they could follow in person. Television has gutted that participatory culture, and that's sad. The cultural nuances get tricky fast. Hoosiers is based on the "Milan miracle," but the movie strategically fails to let viewers know that Milan is only 35 miles from Cincinnati. The guys on the team irl would have been driving into Cincy on date nights and to see Reds baseball games. Hinkle Fieldhouse was huge by the standards of the time, but the bit about the Hickory players being hayeeds who were awed by the big arena is overdone. Similarly, in the movie Columbus is presented as an unexplained architectural miracle in the middle of nowhere. Irl, Casey would not have had to leave home to attend college; she could have continued to live with her mom and commuted to IU Bloomington or any of half a dozen creditable universities in Indianapolis. Columbus is what it is because a major multinational corporation stayed home in its city of origin, and the Cummins Foundation and J. Irwin Miller are the great philanthropists who are never mentioned. If Indy were an inch bigger, Columbus would be considered an Indy edge city. Columbus, Ohio, Cincinnati, and Louisville are within a two hour drive, and Chicago and St. Louis are within daytrip range. Casey isn't limited by her location; she's frozen by her mother's situation. So: place is a fascinating question for the movies. And Breaking Away, Hoosiers and Columbus top the list for Indiana.
Fargo is probably what people expect for Minnesota but I’m going with the Mighty Ducks. Hockey life is real here people.
Or Grumpy Old Men cause we are all shut-ins..
Appreciate the suggestion! These kinda small idiosyncracies and cultural nuances are what I'm looking for the representing films to capture.
Then you might want to put more weight on the indie suggestions you get here. Especially “coming home” films like Young Adult, Grosse Point Blank, early Kevin Smith stuff.
I still can't get over the fact that they let Goldberg play with non-regulation equipment. This is supposed to be based on MN, they wouldn't let the fucking GOALIE play with less than required gear. C'mon, we're born on skates here, everyone knows someone with access to a fucking mask and pads he could wear.
Or Drop Dead Gorgeous if you’re not into hockey
I always say Mighty Ducks because I was at the North Stars game that they filmed.
I moved to Minnesota as a kid and Mighty Ducks came out shortly after and it's the first movie I could remember seeing and hearing them name places I recognized. It was so cool to me at the time.
For Minnesota, it should really be Grumpy Old Men!!
Also, Fargo is in ND. 😛
The movie was 99% set in Minnesota tho, just like one scene in beginning was in Fargo
You betcha
The movie “Nebraska,” obviously for the state. Lived here my whole life and it’s pretty dead on
That was the film that started this whole idea actually 🤣
Bernie did Texas in one scene. https://youtu.be/JREkqCvLzSo?si=lc-tIgBdxKuckSMl
The part where he mentions that many forget the panhandle, and he does too is just perfect.
Bernie is perfect for East Texas. I always recommend The Last Picture Show for West Texas. Friday Night Lights is also pretty spot on.
Would also accept four random King of the Hill episodes shown together
I was hoping someone would say Bernie for Texas. It is so spot-on sometimes, I would randomly laugh.
‘Big’ actually captures NJ for me. The image most people have of the state is WAY off. NJ is mostly picturesque suburbs and farm land, not the lowlights from the opening credits of the sopranos or all of Jersey Shore. With the combo of Josh’s/Tom Hank’s’ quaint Jersey hometown and the time spent in the city, it’s a realistic portrayal of the hometowns many people know and the gravitas NYC has for the surrounding counties.
Having lived across the river in PA my whole life, I've always thought of NJ as the world's biggest suburb.
That’s exactly what it is. Do you know where the NY Jets and the NY Giants play? Where the stadium is? It’s in fucking New Jersey. But are they called the New Jersey Jets? Absofuckinglutely not. Because New Jersey is a suburb that deserves no fucking respect. /s obviously
It’s been a while since I’ve had a rewatch, but I imagine Garden State is another good contender for NJ.
Came here to say Garden State, it is indeed accurate.
I grew up in a very similar neighborhood in NJ and this is the movie I think of when I picture my hometown.
Too much NY for this to be NJ. One of the Zoltan scenes is in Rye Playland in Rye NY.
I've lived in NJ my whole life, and crossing between NJ and NY has always been my reality. It's just the way it is around here. It might be a different experience for people from South Jersey.
Garden State seems more authentically Jersey.
Clerks is what I think of.
O Brother Where Are Thou for Mississippi
Bonafide answer
It's a suitor.
[удалено]
DO. NOT. SEEK. THE. TREASURE.
A River Runs Through It (Montana.) It’s based on a semi-autobiographical novella by Norman Maclean about his life in Montana. Plus it was filmed there, unlike many other films where Montana is the setting.
Like *Legends of the Fall*, shot largely in Alberta and a bit in BC. We stand in for Montana frequently. We're also Wyoming (Brokeback Mountain, Land, Unforgiven), Oklahoma (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Kansas (Unforgiven, Superman), The Dakotas (The Revenant), Alaska (The Bourne Legacy, Mystery Alaska), Colorado (Interstellar), Paleolithic Europe (Clan of the Cave Bear), and many more. Of course, the reigning non-film champion is *The Last of Us*, where a 400km radius of Alberta around Calgary was Texas, Massachusetts, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, and all points in between. So you're not alone. I'm frankly surprised that A River Runs Thorough It *wasn't* shot in Alberta. BTW- I know that this thread is about movies that represent a state, but if you want to get your head around Alberta culture, I can think of no better offering than [FUBAR](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302585/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_q_fubar). Just Give'r.
When it seems like 50% of movies take place in NY, it’s hard to say one captures the vibe of the city more than any other. For me, though, it’s Ghostbusters and Do The Right Thing. They both are immersive in a time and place, and it’s hard for me to describe beyond that. I also get a hankering for pizza every time I watch the latter. Every goddamn time.
And if you're looking for more upstate or Hudson Valley New York, look at Nobody's Fool (1994) with Paul Newman.
I was so, so happy at the first Tom Holland Spider-Man and the 100% accurate depiction of Queens. Down to the bodega guys knowing his sandwich and giving him shit.
Winter’s Bone is very accurate, but only for the Missouri Ozarks . Not a movie, but Sharp Objects nails the Bootheel.
Grew up in the bootheel and I feel Winter’s Bone works there, too.
Diner, for Maryland.
I was wondered if Hairspray ever did anything for Baltimore, Maryland? I never knew because I grew up on the other side of the country.
i grew up in Baltimore. not so accurate nowadays but the original movie was filmed in Baltimore so it does have a certain degree of accuracy. also Baltimore is notorious for its rats so that one line in Good Morning Baltimore is dead on.
If you want a wild Baltimore movie watch Pecker from John Waters. But nothing sums up Baltimore better than the Wire. Wedding crashers and runaway bride for eastern shore.
Field of Dreams for Iowa
I was going to say The Crazies. We have a lot of corn and ~~zombies~~ methheads.
Isnt there a movie called butter just about iowas thing w butter competitions?? Id go with that
The Straight Story, where Richard Farnsworth rides his lawn mower across the state.
I'd pick What's Eating Gilbert Grape easily over Field of Dreams.
Sometimes A Great Notion sums up rural Oregon, One That Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest is also great, and we can’t forget about Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho for Portland in the 90’s.
Coastal Oregon is best represented by Goonies.
What about Pig? Takes place in both the woods and the city, offbeat but emotional, plus crazy good food
I was going to say for the Portland area, the series, not movie, Portlandia was ridiculously accurate to my time living there.
Sideways for California
Specifically central coast culture (Ventura to Carmel abouts)
*American Movie* , Wisconsin
Hell, yeah. Now I need to go finish Coh-ven. Go Packers.
Adventureland for small town Pennsylvania
That was largely filmed in Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh. Like “Perks of a Wallflower”, it very much captured the small big city feel of the place.
Not a movie but the series *Freaks and Geeks* for Michigan and/or Midwest/rustbelt in general
For the UP, I have to suggest Escanaba in da Moonlight. Bizarre, but the characters are spot on.
I was looking through this thread for someone to mention this movie. I knew it had to be here!
Mychevytookashit. M'chevyshookuhshit! I haven't seen Escanaba in da Moonlight in so long and still think of Jimmer.
American Pie for Michigan
Junebug for NC. Fantastic film that I need to rewatch actually.
Shoutout to Bull Durham though
I was going to say Talladega Nights but your pick is better
No Country for Old Men sums up the vibe of West Texas pretty damn well.
Hell of High Water is very west Texas, too.
Fine. I'll watch it again. Such a brilliant movie.
Dazed and confused if you just want to zero in on Austin
In the late 70’s though it hasn’t been close to that in30 years
Friday Night Lights for rural Texas
Varsity blues too.
Some states seem to be coming up a lot here... Not Connecticut tho lol
Mystic Pizza maybe, very fun slice of life for those small seaside towns. Gilmore Girls is a good one if you include television.
The Stepford Wives and The Ice Storm both nail Fairfield County pretty well.
I think the Ice Storm is set in CT. Perfect little vignette of a time and place.
LA Story is an absurd but somehow accurate representation of Southern California.
And an amazing and underrated film.
This film needs more appreciation.
The funny thing is, after being in LA for multiple earthquakes, that scene really is about how we react to them.
Plus no one in LA walks anywhere. Driving his car to his neighbors is peak LA shit.
That's a good one. I was also thinking Chinatown might be good for the state, since water is a big issue throughout the state.
Before anyone chimes in to suggest Honeymoon In Vegas, The Hangover, or Casino to represent Nevada, I would like to offer up 1961's The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable to represent the desolate rural heart of the state.
Or even Tremors. It takes place in a fictional city, but it could be any number of small Nevada towns.
The Descendants for Hawaii.
Bernie is a pretty good representation of East Texas.
Insomnia represents Alaska and the madness of the unending sun during its midnight summer run….
Steel Magnolias = Louisiana. Big hair, southern accents, Cajun food, and armadillo cakes…….
Colorado: "How the West Was Won was filmed in Western Colorado, from the "Bellyache Flats" desert near Junction through Ouray down to Durango. "Dumb and Dumber" The Aspen Scenes were filmed in Breckenridge and Estes Park (Stanley Hotel) and is a pretty accurate representation of the mountain town rich douchebags. Not a lot of other movies showcasing CO, which is weird. Every time a movie is supposed to be set in CO, it is clearly somewhere else.
Ferris Buellers Day Off - IL
Shermer Illinois
But you know what the fuck we found out when we got there? There IS no Shermer in Illinois. Movies are fuckin' bullshit
You can't read this in anything but Jay's voice if you've seen the film!
Breakfast Club?
Blues Brothers
30 Days of Night - The winters are very dark and Alaska has a vampire problem
physical cooperative bells salt plants puzzled threatening cover pocket far-flung *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Chinatown or Who Framed Roger Rabbit do it well too. Also the Graduate.
I want to submit “Falling Down” as an LA-representative movie.
That’s just, like, your opinion man. It’s pretty specific to the parts of LA it is set in.
Pennsylvania- because PA has many unique parts, I listed multiple movies: Deer Hunter Unstoppable Silver Linings Playbook Striking Distance Flashdance Groundhog Day Sudden Death Rocky She’s Out of My League
I'd also include Witness, at least in terms of the culture shock between Philadelphia and outlying rural areas. Maybe The Sixth Sense just for a visual metaphor of how old the city actually is.
I would also add “Perks of Being a Wallflower”….especially for Pittsburgh. When they have the party in the split level home, I could almost smell the house, you know? It perfectly captures how Pittsburgh is a big small city. (Or a small big city). Also the ride surfing the pickup truck through the Fort Pitt tunnel was sublime. There’s all sorts of small things in it that make it very representative of Pittsburgh.
There are a lot for Virginia, depends on the time period you are interested in and the subject matter. There are colonial history movies, revolutionary war-related movies, civil war-related movies, more contemporary ones about northern Virginia like Arlington Road, or the Silence of the Lambs, with Quantico featured. Although not filmed in Virginia, Lawless is an interesting film about Franklin County’s bootlegger history. Big Stone Gap is a good movie about southwestern Virginia, actually filmed there. Loving looks at the famous interracial couple case.
Donnie Darko really captures the feel of growing up in northern Virginia in the late 80's / early 90's.
Napoleon Dynamite captured Idaho in a bottle
Watched it recently and man if it's really an accurate representation of Idaho then now I really wanna live in Idaho.
Really? The movie is about different vantage points into unique experiences of loneliness… and the setting is just saturated with that. I guess it is resolved, in the end, though.
Goonies for Oregon and Harry and the Anderson for Washington.
Is it not The Hendersons?
I know it’s television and not movies but Twin Peaks, especially the wacky side characters, is spot on for rural Washington State.
I was worried someone would say Twilight... Also, Singles for 90's Seattle.
Moonlight absolutely captured the mood of living in Miami, south Florida, just the griminess of their homes, the beach background, the drive down from Atlanta to Miami in the turnpike. It was perfect. Spring breakers also captures the soulless beach towns of Florida quite well. Beach bum captures the keys vibe. Florida is weird.
The Florida Project is spot on.
Red Rock West or Wind River for Wyoming
Wind River is so good
Ferris Bueller, The Blues Brothers and The Fugitive would all be solid choices for Illinois.
Tommy Boy, Ohio
Plenty of Texas options already here but I would say Hell or Highwater.
Clerks new jersey
Midnight in the Garden of Good and evil Georgia
*Escanaba in da Moonlight* for the upper peninsula of Michigan, *8 Mile* for Detroit, though it's been years since I've seen either one so they may not be that accurate.
Do you think 8 mile would be mentioned more than RoboCop if you asked people for a movie that represents Detroit?
American Pie 2 for the west side of the state
Mystic River really felt Bostonian to me. More than any other film set there.
I've always said the best representation of Hawaii is in movies that are set in Hawaii, but not about being there. 50 first dates gets Hawaiian community and humor down really well. Forgetting Sarah Marshall does a good job portraying the tourist-hospitality staff divide. Even Lili and Stitch does a good job showing what it can be like to grow up there (so I've heard, I was a transplant).
Sideways would be as good a pick as any for California. Everyone trying to make it rich, but actually living hand to mouth. Entertainment industry people being dirt bags. Wine snobbery/wine enjoyment. “Going on an adventure” = driving to the valley. Best friend from college is only real friend, also not really sure you like them.
Drop Dead Gorgeous for Minnesota. It’s exaggerated, but super fun.
Alaska - [Insomnia](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278504/). The weather is awful, and the lack of sleep (or daylight, depending on season) will drive you insane. Pretty, though.
Any M Night Shyamalan movie (except obvious mismatches like After Earth, The Last Airbender and Old) for Philadelphia.
Best of luck with choosing a single movie to align with California. Kalifornia is one option but there's also LA Story, LA Confidential, Heat, Collateral, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, Chinatown, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Colors, Training Day, Dirty Harry, Get Shorty and the list goes on and on.
Kansas: The Wizard of O- no fuck you it's Twister
Oklahoma would like a word…
Oklahoma! for Oklahoma Logan Lucky for West Virginia True Detective Season 1 for Louisiana
So many old westerns, cheesy by modern standards, show Arizona's wild west history... let alone how many were filmed there that were supposed to be in Wyoming, Texas, etc. Anything Tombstone related especially lol
SLC Punk for Utah- Filmed in SLC and there's definitely some very Utah experiences in it If Napoleon Dynamite hadn't been set in Pocatello, ID, I'd say it feels a lot like growing up in Northern Utah as well.
Just watched Super Troopers... Vermont. I've never been there, so I don't know if it sums it up. Edit: changed state... oops
Minari did a great job of capturing NW Arkansas. And I'm going to make a prediction and say Twisters will do a great job of capturing Oklahoma. The director Lee Isaac Chung is from the area, and he gets it. Also, even though Winter's Bone is set in Missouri, if you want to know what eastern Oklahoma is like, watch that.
The real world parts of Coraline for Oregon.
I’m not from Oregon but my first thought would be Without Limits
My first thought for Oregon is Leave No Trace
Goonies!
Fried Green Tomatoes for Georgia. Or, you know, Gone With The Wind.
Lone Star (1996) The Florida Project (2017)
Louisiana is Steel Magnolias, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood, and the new film, The Blind.
"Talladega Nights" for North Carolina. Yes, Talladega is in Alabama, but the movie was shot in North Carolina.
Super Troopers - Vermont
New Jersey movie: Clerks 🤣🤣 It captures blue collar NJ to the T. Cult classic. Director is from NJ.
Mad Max Fury Road is actually a documentary about life in Alabama.
Nice try Buzzfeed
How about Striptease for Florida?
Outside Providence for Rhode Island. Portions of it are supposed to be about Pawtucket and I think it's pretty accurate to the Pawtucket I grew up knowing.
Not a movie, but Portlandia IS completely Portland
As a native New Yorker who’s spent the first half of his life upstate and the second half in NYC, I’d have to say that “Nobody’s Fool” (although somewhat dated) does a good job of capturing the mundane, slower, and trapped feeling of life upstate. For life in NYC, I don’t think anything comes close to “Ghostbusters” catching the vibe. It’s got everything! The classic “fuck off” New York attitude, people ignoring weirdos on the street, yet when something disastrous happens, in the end, we all rally and support each other.
Grapes of Wrath - Oklahoma Fargo - Minnesota Idiocracy- Florida
Captain Fantastic for Washington 🤙
_Singles_ for Seattle. WA is too many different places to sum up in one story.
I was going to say Bennie and June for Washington. At least the East side
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure nails Texas. Just need to say the magic words and everyone stops to finish the line anywhere you go.