Movies that best highlight a city

[warwickland]

Dark Knight - yeah it's "Gotham" but really it's 100% straight Chicago, a totally unimaginitive rendition of a fantasy city. I mean, it's more Chicago-y than most movies set in Chicago.

Yeah, that's spot on. Forgot about that.

[grovester]

Chicago - Blues Brothers, High Fidelity, Ferris Beuller (as mentioned)
San Diego - Anchor Man, Top Gun?

Houston is in a lot of movies about space, but it is always just a launch pad and some people in a control room, then worried families at home.

Top Gun might have featured elements of San Diego but what I took away was the Kansas City poster in the airport bar where Cruise and McGillis meet up at the end.

Houston, bleh. Why show anything but a launch pad and the glee the astronauts have when they get to leave that hellhole for a few days.

Side note: piano scene in Top Gun was filmed at Kansas City BBQ in San Diego, owned by some KCK cousins of mine.

[NDTeve]

cool idea for a thread - I loved MIL in Bridesmaids too.

A couple more -

Interview with the Vampire - New Orleans and surrounding plantation road
Home Alone - Classy suburban Chicago
Easy Rider - a few unforgettable (to me) scenes in New Orleans cemetaries.
Paris Je T'aime - yeah it's Paris, but the entire movie is a strange series of short love letters to the city; wish there were films like this of other cities. And more films like this, period.
Persepolis - Animated Tehran around the Iranian revolution
A Christmas Story - Cleveland
Zodiac - It's been mentioned, but San Fran was haunting in this film.
Gran Torino, 8 Mile - Detroit
Dark Knight - yeah it's "Gotham" but really it's 100% straight Chicago, a totally unimaginitive rendition of a fantasy city. I mean, it's more Chicago-y than most movies set in Chicago.

I think A Christmas Story is supposed to take place in Hammond IN just east of Chicago.

[kcmetro]

cool idea for a thread - I loved MIL in Bridesmaids too.

A couple more -

Interview with the Vampire - New Orleans and surrounding plantation road
Home Alone - Classy suburban Chicago
Easy Rider - a few unforgettable (to me) scenes in New Orleans cemetaries.
Paris Je T'aime - yeah it's Paris, but the entire movie is a strange series of short love letters to the city; wish there were films like this of other cities. And more films like this, period.
Persepolis - Animated Tehran around the Iranian revolution
A Christmas Story - Cleveland
Zodiac - It's been mentioned, but San Fran was haunting in this film.
Gran Torino, 8 Mile - Detroit
Dark Knight - yeah it's "Gotham" but really it's 100% straight Chicago, a totally unimaginitive rendition of a fantasy city. I mean, it's more Chicago-y than most movies set in Chicago.

I think A Christmas Story is supposed to take place in Hammond IN just east of Chicago.

Correct. Takes place in Hammond (actually a fictionalized town called Hohman, IN), but was filmed mostly in Cleveland.

[rxlexi]

^^^ hmm, I could have sworn they mention Cleveland in the opening shots with the shopping scene downtown. I seem to even recall a shot of terminal tower or downtown cleveland...or something along those lines. Could be totally wrong. Of course, it will be really easy to find out in the next couple of weeks as the movie will be on repeat on various channels...

[chrizow]

^^^ hmm, I could have sworn they mention Cleveland in the opening shots with the shopping scene downtown. I seem to even recall a shot of terminal tower or downtown cleveland...or something along those lines. Could be totally wrong. Of course, it will be really easy to find out in the next couple of weeks as the movie will be on repeat on various channels...

the "downtown department store" scene is definitely filmed in cleveland. i just saw on IMDB that the "only he didn't say 'fudge'" roadside scene was filmed in toronto though (even though it was "on the way" back home). also the school and chinese restaurant were in canada too.

the family home has been restored to "a christmas story" glory and is available for touring. it is in the tremont area of cleveland.

[KCMax]

I don't know if it was filmed there, but "Wayne's World" kinda showed off Aurora, IL, a suburb of Chicago, and a bit of Milwaukee or "the good land."

[chingon]

The only reason I watch A Christmas Story is because Cleveland is my favorite-looking American city.

[chrizow]

The only reason I watch A Christmas Story is because Cleveland is my favorite-looking American city.

it is a very cool looking city. there are parts of it that remind me of parts of KC too.

i think my favorite-looking american urban area is the parts of brooklyn that are mostly single-family victorian or shirtwaist-y type homes. ditmas park, fiske terrace, parts near prospect park, etc. there is something very cozy about a neighborhood of big old 110-year old houses packed tightly together with lots of trees - within the broader context of a very dense, walkable and amazing city.

edit: to keep on point, i think the area and vibe of brooklyn i am talking about is ably encapsulated in the film "the squid and the whale." big old drafty houses, trees, station wagons, bookish and boozy parents raising kids (although the family in the film was kind of fucked up). sometimes if i squint right i see hyde park in KC in a similar light.

[brewcrew1000]

edit: to keep on point, i think the area and vibe of brooklyn i am talking about is ably encapsulated in the film "the squid and the whale." big old drafty houses, trees, station wagons, bookish and boozy parents raising kids.

Pretty Sure Squid and Whale was filmed all around Park Slope, i think Prospect Park is still kind of up and coming, Park Slope is really nice though

[chrizow]

edit: to keep on point, i think the area and vibe of brooklyn i am talking about is ably encapsulated in the film "the squid and the whale." big old drafty houses, trees, station wagons, bookish and boozy parents raising kids.

Better Sure Squid and Whale was filmed all around Park Slope, i think Prospect Park is still kind of up and coming, Park Slope is really nice though

youre right. jeff daniels' "new house across the park" that he buys during the divorce is in prospect park or maybe ditmas park though, which during the era of the movie was probably pretty edgy. these days i think those areas are pretty tame. the houses are like $300K hyde park houses, but in brooklyn they are $1-2M. that said, if i had the money i'd personally rather pay $1.5M for a three-story house in ditmas park than a small apartment in another area of NYC!

[KCMax]

"Away We Go" takes place in a lot of locales, but the scenes in Montreal make the city seem really cool. I guess that's not "American", but we can include our Canadian brethren.

[chrizow]

"rushmore" almost makes houston seem cool/attractive.

[brewcrew1000]

"rushmore" almost makes houston seem cool/attractive.

Sure does, and I am pretty sure most of the Royal Tenebaums were filmed in Houston with the exception of the House, which is in Harlem. Wes Anderson is from Houston

[chrizow]

another houston movie showing a "hip" side of the city is "reality bites."

yet another houston movie is "sidekicks" with the late jonathan brandis and chuck norris.

[Highlander]

another houston movie showing a "hip" side of the city is "reality bites."

yet another houston movie is "sidekicks" with the late jonathan brandis and chuck norris.

Don't believe everything you see in movies. Every city has cool and hip places, yea, even Houston. There's a lot of money too. But it's a huge city and the cool and hip places are less than what KC offers, which is less than half the size, and they come with baggage....like you still need your car to do absolutely everything.

[chrizow]

another houston movie showing a "hip" side of the city is "reality bites."

yet another houston movie is "sidekicks" with the late jonathan brandis and chuck norris.

Don't believe everything you see in movies. Every city has cool and hip places, yea, even Houston. There's a lot of money too. But it's a huge city and the cool and hip places are less than what KC offers, which is less than half the size, and they come with baggage....like you still need your car to do absolutely everything.

but chuck norris could turn me into a kickboxing champion in houston.

[phuqueue]

Paris Je T'aime - yeah it's Paris, but the entire movie is a strange series of short love letters to the city; wish there were films like this of other cities. And more films like this, period.

Well they did remake this exact movie in New York too. I think my favorite Paris movie though is probably the 400 Blows. I love the opening sequence (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsJpEgEGcig) so much. The FNW in general highlights Paris really well, love the intro to the Bakery Girl of Monceau (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNFEuYlbTA4) too, and tons of other movies show the city off or set iconic scenes there (for instance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4l00kP2XWM). There's also an anthology kind of like Paris je t'aime, Paris vu par... (there's a "sequel" of sorts, Paris vu par... Twenty Years Later, which I've never seen and doesn't even appear to have a wiki page).

"Away We Go" takes place in a lot of locales, but the scenes in Montreal make the city seem really cool. I guess that's not "American", but we can include our Canadian brethren.

If Canada's fair game, I really like Toronto as it appears in Scott Pilgrim. The movie has kind of a weird relationship with the city because on the one hand the location is referenced heavily throughout the movie in like every other line of dialogue, but on the other hand you only actually see very much of the city in a handful of scenes; even a lot of the outdoor scenes take place at night with unnatural lighting/shadows obscuring everything but the central characters in the scene, with only out of focus city lights visible in the far off background. Even so, it made Toronto (a city I'd never really been particularly interested in visiting before) look like a really cool place to check out. Toronto as it appears in the movie actually reminds me of Chicago in a lot of ways, but feels somewhat smaller (maybe because the city is so often deliberately obscured just beyond the limits of the action). I think it's a really cool depiction of the city.

but chuck norris could turn me into a kickboxing champion in houston.

Jean-Claude Van Damme could turn you into a kickboxing champion in Bangkok and then you wouldn't have to go to Houston or meet Chuck Norris.

[KCMax]

Rushmore is one of my favorite movies and I never picked up that it was set in Houston.

The Royal Tenenbaums was set in Houston???? It seems like they're in NY the whole time.

[warwickland]

Drugstore Cowboy (1989), a depressed/depressing Portland, OR/ NW. William S Burroughs is in it, of course.

Old Joy (2006) w/ Will Oldham...a more up-to-date rendition of Portland, OR/ NW. I really enjoyed this film...super slow. It could have been because I saw it when it came out and I was uber obsessed with Oregon and had just visited. It expresses more of a vibe, than is a visual showcase, if you know what I mean.