Movies or documentaries that successfully capture a real-life city and what it's like

Submitted by AChocolateHouse t3_11clyj7 in movies

I'm not sure of too many movies that I would say were able to capture the soul of a city or gave a realistic depiction of it. Even my 3 movies below felt a little incomplete.

I would say Good Will Hunting gave a pretty accurate depiction of what Boston and Cambridge look and feel like. What it did show was really accurate. Even the bar scene shows what a real bar looks like there.

In The Day After Tomorrow, it felt like they depicted New York City pretty well (if you subtracted all the crowds due to the movie being about a storm). Saw it long ago, so my memory might be faulty.

I have heard Child's Play (1988), the first movie with Chucky the killer doll, gave you a good idea of what Chicago was like. I felt what they did show was (some architecture, typical apartments, streets, etc), but felt like it was missing some key stuff.

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callmemacready t1_ja3r1kf wrote

Lived and worked in LA for a couple years and Falling Down seemed pretty close

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theyusedthelamppost t1_ja3r3wa wrote

Fargo felt pretty grounded in the scenes outside the wacky murder plot

I remember one scene where the cop was chatting about the weather with some guy who was out shoveling his driveway. Nothing really happened in the scene, but it made me want more movies like that.

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j1mmyB3000 t1_ja3rc4o wrote

As a Chicagoan I would recommend The Blues Brothers and About Last Night as well. Both preceded Child’s Play.

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SmoreOfBabylon t1_ja3uvcf wrote

Taxi Driver captures the essence of grimy, depressed late ‘70s New York City pretty well, I think.

Also, NYC’s reputation was still not great by the early ‘80s and productions generally declined to actually film there instead of places such as LA, but for Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman was adamant about actually filming exterior shots in the city itself. And it was Dan Aykroyd’s suggestion to use a particular NYC firehouse (the still-active Hook & Ladder Company 8) for exterior shots of the Ghostbusters HQ.

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MovieMike007 t1_ja3v5fe wrote

William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A. does a great job of capturing the look and feel of Los Angeles.

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cocoapuff1721 t1_ja3vjhj wrote

Moonlight did a great job capturing the real Miami

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microtodd t1_ja3wxmm wrote

My wife, who grew up in a large city, says that Eight Mile is incredibly accurate for people from larger cities and the “wrong side of the tracks”.

I’ve never really lived in a big city so I wouldn’t know.

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ToxicAdamm t1_ja3x5n3 wrote

A city is so multi-faceted it would be impossible to show it all and feel authentic. There are movies that show you slices of it and do a good job.

‘Kids’ was one that came to mind, as it effectively shows what it is like to grow up white, poor and in an urban center.

‘Lady bird’ I thought was effective, because while it was centered around Sacramento, it could’ve been 100 other small cities in America. The architecture, how class was often divided by neighborhoods you lived in, the private schools that were declining, the adults that felt stuck there and their kids that wanted to get out.

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NewtRipley_1986 t1_ja3yfe1 wrote

Three Days of the Condor captures NYC pretty well. As does Serpico and a lot of films shot there in the 70s and 80s.

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SmoreOfBabylon t1_ja3zbz1 wrote

Replying to j1mmyB3000 (#2,028,144)

The whole history of how The Blues Brothers came to be is fascinating to me. Apparently, prior to that movie, there had been an informal ban on movie productions filming in (downtown) Chicago for decades under the Richard J. Daley administration, due to Daley hating a film produced there in the ‘50s that portrayed Chicago as a hive of mob activity. But by 1979, Daley was gone (“No, sir, Mayor Daley no longer dines here…he’s dead, sir.”) and The Blues Brothers was able to actually film on location with the cooperation of then-Mayor Jane Byrne, along with a few favors called in to Cook County Board of Commissioners President George Dunne, who was the father of Murphy Dunne (aka Murph of Murph & the Magic Tones).

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AChocolateHouse OP t1_ja40ee9 wrote

Replying to ToxicAdamm (#2,029,202)

> A city is so multi-faceted it would be impossible to show it all and feel authentic. There are movies that show you slices of it and do a good job.

You can say this about anything.

Detective movies can't possibly capture what a real investigation is like, so they can show you only slices of it. Movies about families can't possibly show you all the dynamics that go on, only slices of it. Movies about wars can't possibly show you what war is like, only slices of it. Etc.

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BeardMilk t1_ja447tb wrote

American Movie - Captures Milwaukee WI in the early 90s

Vernon, Florida - Crazy Florida people in the early 80s

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AChocolateHouse OP t1_ja47uw4 wrote

Replying to microtodd (#2,029,166)

That's a good one. Just watching Eight Mile, I felt parts of it resonating with the things I saw in lower-class urban towns. I wasn't necessarily a street hood growing up, but even in my limited experiences I could feel 8 Mile resonating.

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Sad0ctopus t1_ja4hvmb wrote

Not a film, but The Wire examines multiple facets of Baltimore. It's the most in-depth and realistic depiction of a city I've ever seen, and the best thing that's ever been on TV.

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drunkpandabear t1_ja55o8z wrote

Always Be My Maybe does a good job of capturing Richmond/Sunset neighborhood vibe in San Francisco

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NGNSteveTheSamurai t1_ja56fhc wrote

The Break Up does a pretty good job of not insanely jumping around Chicago. It makes sense geographically. For instance when they’re at the Cubs game they mention going to Wieners Circle afterward which is actually close to Wrigley as opposed to the next scene being them eating at a hot dog stand in the Loop or something.

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Silent1900 t1_ja57630 wrote

The Florida Project (2017) - gives a very realistic depiction of a part of Orlando.

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Chief7064 t1_ja5c2zf wrote

For my home state: Rocky.

Rocky looked and smelled like Philly.

Groundhog Day kind of feels like middle PA.

Pittsburgh, eh, Flashdance for those guys.

Witness captures Amish country well.

The Molly Maguires captures my coal town region, historically.

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Tough_Engineering_77 t1_ja5f7xt wrote

Some my favorite "setting is practically a character" movies

Taxi driver - mid 70ies new york

The 25th hour - Early 2000's new york

Repo man- 80ies LA

Harsh times - mid 2000's LA

Boyhood - Central Texas in the late 90ies

Primer - weirdly accurate depiction of north texas early 2000's suburban engineer bros (many of my homies)

This is England - working class 80ies northern england

American movie- documentary. working class late 80ies/early 90ies wisconsin

True detective - 1st season, the scenes set in the 90ies were really period accurate (characers, sets, costumes)

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WhereIsThatElephant t1_ja5u0ik wrote

  • 200 Cigarettes - Manhattan
  • The 13th Floor - 1920s LA
  • Clerks 1 - New Jersey collection of smalltowns
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digitalaudiotape t1_ja650m8 wrote

Other than the caricatures of cultural stereotypes, High Maintenance is the most accurate of the TV shows I've watched that take place in NYC. The main character bikes around and enjoy all parts of the city and has random interactions with all kinds of people.

The part that is most accurate in the show is showing how people use public space eg parks and plazas etc. That aspect is missing so much from TV and movies because enjoying public space all the time is impossible if you live a car dependent life ie what most people know as living.

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cupofteaonme t1_ja6bqcq wrote

Thom Andersen's Los Angeles Plays Itself is L.A. cannon.

Chantal Akerman's News From Home is maybe the best look at New York in the '70s that you can find.

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