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What film is a good representation of your city/state/region?


Swift

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It's kind of a two part question.

1. What film would you consider the quintessential portrayal of your city or state? It doesn't have to be a perfect representation. For instance,  a serial killer film may be set in your city. That's not to indicate that your city has plenty of serial killers but maybe there's great coverage of the downtown streets or local scenery.

2. Have any films actually been filmed in your neighbourhood and/or were set there too?

DUBLIN

I've always found moments in Roddy Doyle's books that perfectly captured moments in my childhood, so it's no surprise that the filmed versions of his Barrytown trilogy (The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van) are practically documentaries of northside Dublin in the late 80s, early 90s. He also wrote a TV mini series based on his books (The Family) which had scenes filmed in my school and used kids I knew as extras.

Sadly, for an almost exact portrayal of my neighbourhood (it was filmed in the neighbourhood over), see Cardboard Gangsters, a local drug dealer crime drama.

CALGARY

Calgary is a different story. Lots of big productions are filmed here or in the region (Unforgiven, The Revenant, the Fargo TV show) but rarely is Calgary/Alberta ever the place being portrayed. They're always stand ins for somewhere else.

The two most common set in Calgary films mentioned around here are Waydowntown, a group of office workers make a bet to spend a month in downtown office buildings without ever leaving (Most of the skyscrapers downtown have bridges connecting them so you theoretically could do this) and Fubar a comedy following the lives of two mullet haired headbanger stoner types. I've seen neither film so can't comment much.

If I was being uncharitable, the film which best represents Calgary for me would be Radiant City, a mockumentary focusing on suburban sprawl and the sterile neighbourhoods that get built there.

Edited by Swiftian
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1985 Robert Preston/ Mary Tyler Moore vehicle Finnegan Begin Again.  MTM came in and ate at the vegetarian restaurant I washing dishes at.  Supposedly, she was a bitch!  But there were lots of mid-80s Richmond scenery in that.

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The only film I know of that's set in my nearest City is set in the 70s (but was filmed in 2009; To make the city look like it had 35 years earlier they did... almost nothing, actually). So, Soulboy. Parts of The Girl With All the Gifts were filmed here, but Stoke was playing London in that.

This is the old Bus Station:

3885861435065310.jpg?height=1280&width=1

They added the plants to make it look post-apocalyptic.

As far as the small town I actually live in, nothing I know about.

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Some very small budget religious post-apocalyptical movie was shot in the town next to the one I grew up in. I saw it's "world premiere" for free, but as far as I know that's the only screening it ever had. 

Anyway, I can't really think of a movie that represents mid/northern Michigan.

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"Meet Joe Black" was filmed partially around my hometown, but in the type of area that altogether would just make me seem much more high-class than the area actually is.

Even with other stuff, it's... nope, "Providence" had a lot of good scenery, but ultimately wasn't really a great representation- a lot of it looked different on camera than perfect...aww fuck, is "Family Guy" really the best example of living in Rhode Island that we can get?

Edited by SorceressKnight
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Leaving Las Vegas certainly captures the darker side of Vegas pretty well. I can't think of any films that actually represent it as a community. I don't know of any Vegas movies where people are barbecuing in their backyard. Oddly enough, The Nightstalker (1972) may be the first film to show Vegas was more than casinos.  

Edited by Execproducer
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First off, waydowntown is amazing. Probably still one of my top films. Maybe the only Canadian movie I like more is Leolo.

As for Winnipeg, lots of stuff has been shot here. Not a lot of big budget things, but lots of genre movies (2 Wishmasters! The Cult of Chucky! And many many Hallmark movies). Probably the most famous movie to be completely shot here was Capote. K-19: The Widowmaker with Harrison Ford shot partly here and partly up in Gimli, I believe. Shall We Dance with Richard Gere and JLo was shot here. Parts of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford as well, tho I think the majority of filming was done in Alberta. Goon was shot here, but I don't think its sequel was. John Cho just finished up filming the remake of The Grudge here.

My favourite movies that have been shot here are The Lookout, with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Jeff Daniels and You Kill Me, with Ben Motherfucking Kingsley as a neurotic, alcoholic hitman.

As for what represents Winnipeg? Well, it would have to be the work of Guy Maddin. His films, especially his Winnipeg-centric ones, My Winnipeg and The Saddest Music in the World, are about the anxiety of living here while also capturing, not necessarily literally but definitely in feeling, why we all stay.

I also quite love Heater, a movie about 2 homeless men who, in the middle of winter, come across a space heater in a box and attempt to take it to a suburban mall to return it for cash. It's sweet and heartbreaking and not an uncommon story.

Finally a special shoutout to Death By Popcorn: The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets, a found footage art film about the original Jets, especially their playoff failures and leaving for Phoenix. The name of the film derives from a box of popcorn thrown on the ice during the 1990 playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers. A series the Jets were leading 3-1 before losing 3 straight, which the film blames on the popcorn. It's a fantastically edited, funny, deep dive into local Winnipeg TV of the 80s and 90s. A must watch, even if you're a fan of the hated Oilers.... @Death From Above

 

Edited by elizium
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5 hours ago, driver said:

Probably the only thing to represent South Bend, Indiana(and quite possibly the only thing every shot there) is Rudy, although it's set at Notre Dame, it's all the same shit.

I was going to say, Rudy has to be one of them even if Corby's looks different now than it did then. Hell, the last time I was in there almost 10 years ago or more it looked a whole hell of a lot different than the first time I went there since a big chunk of it has pizza ovens in it.

And while it's not a movie, Parks and Rec feels a lot like the South Bend area and many areas of Indiana really. There's so much in it that feels like South Bend or West Lafayette (Purdue) or Bloomington (IU) or Indy (and surrounding areas like Carmel and Fishers).

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A couple of friends of mine cameo'd in The University of Illinois vs. A Mummy, shot back in '06. I wouldn't recommend looking it up.

Mission: Impossible was shot in Champaign too but I'm sure it isn't based there, and the city has been so goddamned gentrified in the years since you wouldn't recognize anything.

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The answer to part 2 of the question.  While filming Hannibal in Richmond, Ridley Scott stood in my front yard.  I was napping and my wife didn't wake me up because she hates me.  He directed fucking Blade Runner.

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54 minutes ago, supremebve said:

This is going to sound crazy, but I don't think there is a single television show or movie that feels like Washington DC.  

Except that's the most reasonable thing probably anyone has said about D.C. in...uh, pick a time frame, I bet it applies.

I don't think there's anything I've seen that represented where I considered home.  I don't know if the things relevant to Baltimore capture what it is, either (The Wire and Homicide certainly capture what it was).

Edited by Contentious C
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9 minutes ago, Contentious C said:

Except that's the most reasonable thing probably anyone has said about D.C. in...uh, pick a time frame, I bet it applies.

I don't think there's anything I've seen that represented where I considered home.  I don't know if the things relevant to Baltimore capture what it is, either (The Wire and Homicide certainly capture what it was).

Given the murder statistics for Baltimore I'm not sure about the was part for The Wire and Homicide.  But I'm drawing a blank on current stuff that's relevant to the city.

As for stuff filmed here recently they filmed a bit for "House of Cards" in Fells Point that closed things off for a bit (I'm about at most 2 miles from there).  But I believe after shooting a lot of the cast/crew went to Admiral Fell Inn's downstairs bar to chill out.  The bartender vividly remembers talking to Spacey and whoever else.

And for film if I were to point to any movie that best represents Baltimore I might be inclined to go with the original Hairspray.  It's not one of my favorites but it did a pretty good job capturing how it was like back in the day.  It was filmed in spots I can easily pass through and the VFW Hall is right near a bar I go to.  As for validation on accuracy not only can my mom vouch for it but when they did an event for it at Jailbreak Brewery we heard a few stories from those that lived there.  So if we were to count all-time movies then that'd be my pick.

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Yeah, chalk that up to my lack of watching Waters movies.  I routinely forget him despite having spent my share of time hanging out in Hampden. 

I went to the Bloody Bucket one time a few years ago with some friends, because one of them was a huge fan of his and thought of it as a field trip.  We basically knew the instant we walked in the door it was not a great idea.  It wasn't dangerous per se, but here are 4 kinda hipster-y folks with letters after their names walking into a bar where the woman slinging drinks looks like she probably buys meth from her own children.  If awkwardness were water, we would have drowned ourselves.  Never mind that my girlfriend at the time was the only one who had successful "elite" parents - the rest of us were first-generation overachievers and had our share of hillbilly relatives - but it was like we all knew this was exactly the sort of fate we'd spent our lives getting away from.  We bought our one drink, drank it, moved on.

And now, of course, the most fucking pretentious coffee place you could possibly imagine is roughly across the street.  It makes Ceremony downtown look like a McDonald's.

 

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Dazed and Confused is probably the best representation of Austin the way it was when I was a kid.  Nowadays just pick anything set in a generic sea of urban sprawl.

The farmhouse in Texas Chainsaw Massacre was within walking distance of where my wife and I lived when we got married.  That area's been a sea of office buildings and strip malls for at least a decade.

ABC filmed a reality show called Welcome to the Neighborhood 5 houses down from where we live now about a decade ago.  My only involvement was yelling at their crew to move their damn trucks so I could get in/out of my driveway.  It never got broadcast.  Apparently my neighbors who did take part were such a bunch of racist, homophobic assholes they were too repulsive even for reality TV.

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Guest The Magnificent 7

Breaking Away

It’s changed quite a bit, but I could walk a mile down the road and be at the limestone place scenes were shot and any number of places around campus.  

As for South Bend I think Prancer was shot around there in addition to Rudy.  Public Enemies had the bank robbery from South Bend in it, but I don’t think it was shot there. Could be wrong, though. 

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I will say American Pie got at least one thing right about Michigan: everybody had at least one friend in high school whose parents had a lake house. 

Edited by Brian Fowler
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19 hours ago, Craig H said:

I was going to say, Rudy has to be one of them even if Corby's looks different now than it did then. Hell, the last time I was in there almost 10 years ago or more it looked a whole hell of a lot different than the first time I went there since a big chunk of it has pizza ovens in it.

And while it's not a movie, Parks and Rec feels a lot like the South Bend area and many areas of Indiana really. There's so much in it that feels like South Bend or West Lafayette (Purdue) or Bloomington (IU) or Indy (and surrounding areas like Carmel and Fishers).

I used to go there when it was Cap'N Cork. The original Corby's was at the intersection of SBA, Eddy and Corby on the SW corner. On the SE corner was The Commons and the NW corner was Bridget McGuire's Filling Station(owned by State Rep. B. Patrick Bauer and his sister). Then the owner of Corby's was murdered by a hitman from Chicago in '84 and the bar closed. And it was reborn at Cap N Cork for Rudy and it's been there ever since.

I'll go along with you on Parks & Rec being somewhere in northern Indiana. I'd love to know what part of the state Stranger Things is set in. Since there aren't any accents I don't see it being near Kentucky. Not even one character sounds like Donnie Baker.

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