The 20 greatest movies that take place in small towns

Once upon a time, Christopher Nolan didn’t make movies epic in scope. In fact, he even set a film in a small town. “Insomnia” is a crime thriller built around the cat-and-mouse game between Al Pacino’s cop and Robin Williams’ killer. That’s not the only hook, though. Pacino plays an LAPD cop helping out on a murder investigation in Nightmute, Alaska. Not only is it a town with a population around 200, but it’s summer, which means the sun doesn’t really set, and Pacino finds himself dealing with the titular insomnia.

In addition to being one of the best legal comedies, “My Cousin Vinny” is often cited as one of the most-accurate legal movies, full stop. Not too bad for a film in which Joe Pesci plays a loudmouth Brooklyn lawyer in a small town in Alabama. Vinny’s cousin and his cousin’s friend, also New Yorkers, are arrested and charged with first-degree murder for a crime they didn’t commit. Can Vinny win the case? And can he handle the folksy, small-town Southern tableau?

Fargo, North Dakota could arguably qualify as a small town, as it had a population around 80,000 in 1996. However, only the original meeting between Jerry Lundegaard and the two goons he hires happens in Fargo. Marge Gunderson, played indelibly by Oscar winner Frances McDormand, is the chief of police in Brainerd, Minnesota. The population of Brainerd, a population absolutely buried in snow, sat a little under 13,000.

Before he started making movies about wars in space, George Lucas made a slice-of-life period piece about teenagers having a night on the town. You know, going to diners, cruising the main street, all that stuff. The characters in the film live in Modesto, a town in California's Central Valley. “American Graffiti” takes place in 1962, and in the 1960 Census the population of Modesto exploded and doubled. That got the population all the way up to 36,385.

“Halloween” is the slasher movie that defined the genre in the United States. Though the slasher has been riffed on and has evolved, it all stems from John Carpenter’s movie. Part of what made it so significant, and so unnerving, was that it was set in a small, suburban town. People could wrap their minds around Haddonfield, Illinois. It seemed safe, but then he came home. Making things even more unnerving, and effective, is how many times we see Michael Myers in Haddonfield in broad daylight.

The heart of “Groundhog Day” is in the small-town nature of Punxsutawney, and specifically Phil Connors' relationship with Punxsutawney. The weatherman, played with gusto by Bill Murray, loathes being in this small town, not finding it quaint, and not enjoying the Groundhog Day festivities. He feels stuck, but then he’s really stuck. As in, Phil lives the same day in the same small town over and over for an unknown amount of time.

Even calling the (fictional) town of Perfection, Nevada “small” oversells it. Perfection’s population is meager, and the town is truly isolated in the desert. That causes an issue when graboids — giant, carnivorous worms — start to attack the town. It’s up to Kevin Bacon and company to survive without the help of anybody outside Perfection.

Ray has a farm large enough and with enough corn to carve out an entire baseball diamond. You can’t do that in a city, to be sure. In the magical-realism sports movie, Ray builds it so he will come to Dyersville, Iowa (which is, definitively, not heaven). It’s a small farming community both in the film and in real life. Also, in real life there is actually a baseball diamond, as the movie was filmed there. They have even played MLB games on the “Field of Dreams” field.

“Mystic Pizza” is remembered for being the first real film role for a young actress by the name of Julia Roberts. It’s also an addition to this list of the best small-town movies. The film is largely set at the titular pizza parlor, and focuses on three young waitresses there, two sisters and their best friend. The pizza place is named for the town of Mystic, Connecticut, a real coastal fishing hamlet. Also, all the main characters are Portuguese-American. Yes, even Roberts.

It’s one of the most-iconic “small towns” in pop culture. You can make that happen when you come out in 1946 and then become an annual Christmas season staple. Bedford Falls is a quintessential small town, at least with George Bailey around. When Clarence shows George what would have happened to Bedford Falls if he had never been born, it’s decidedly less pleasant. Unless you’re Mr. Potter, of course.

Kevin Bacon is back! It’s one of those fish-out-of-water stories about a kid that moves to a new town. In this instance, Bacon’s Ren moves from Chicago to Bomont, Utah. As you likely know, dancing is outlawed in Bomont, but Ren is going to do something about that. He’s going to cut loose, one might say.

This cult classic isn’t just set in the small town of Preston, Idaho. Jared Hess shot the movie in the real Preston. The town was close to home, literally, as Hess spent part of his childhood in Preston and graduated from high school there. Looking to make an idiosyncratic movie about a bunch of quirky characters, Hess opted for his former hometown to make “Napoleon Dynamite” happen.

Here’s a Best Picture winner that takes place in a small town. It also spawned a successful TV show. It’s a drama about a murder in a small town and the racial tensions stemming from Virgil Tibbs, a detective from Philadelphia, coming into town to help the police solve the crime. The movie is set in Sparta, Mississippi, which is a real place, but not like the town in the movie. It’s smaller, actually. In fact, Sparta barely exists in real life.

Lee Isaac Chung mined his own childhood for “Minari,” a movie that was a critical darling and got six Oscar nominations. Set in the 1980s, the film is about a family of South Korean immigrants who were living in California, but then moved to rural Arkansas to farm. And then Chung directed “Twisters.”

Christopher Guest is the king of the mockumentary, and “Waiting for Guffman” is one of those films. His films thrive by focusing on odd characters in esoteric circumstances. This time around, the focus is on a community theater production with delusions of grandeur. “Waiting for Guffman” is set in Blaine, Missouri, which is far too small for Corky St. Clair to really make an impact with his musical.

“Breaking Away” is one of the best coming-of-age films, and it’s also the best film at investigating a social circumstance. Namely, being a townie in a small town with a major college in it. “Breaking Away” is set in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. The population around the time of the movie was 50,000, but of course the college plays a role in that. Aside from Indiana University, we assure you Bloomington is a small town.

Horror movies are often set in small towns with eerie vibes. “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” is flipping that on its head, though. This horror-comedy is set in a West Virginia lake town with a lot of cabins and one spooky gas station. Tucker and Dale are hillbillies, but they are nice guys just looking to refurbish a broken-down cabin. Some hard-partying college kids come to town to vacation, though, and through a series of misunderstandings come to assume Tucker and Dale are killer hillbillies.

It’s one of the less-remembered Michael J. Fox movies, but “Doc Hollywood” is not without its charms. The film is not dissimilar from the TV show “Northern Exposure.” Ben Stone has finished his residency in Washington D.C. and is all set to interview for a job as a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills. Before that happens, though, he gets in some legal trouble in the town of Grady, South Carolina. Ben is sentenced to do 32 hours of medical community service, and naturally he comes to appreciate small-town life.

That’s right, back-to-back Fox! You don’t really think about it, but Hill Valley is a small town. It’s just that you are so busy with the DeLorean and the time travel and trying to figure out why Doc Brown and Marty are friends. Hill Valley, California may have a big mall in 1985, but it’s quite suburban. Then, of course, when we go back to 1955, it’s an even smaller town.

We end with “Pleasantville” because it’s oh-so meta. It’s about two teenagers who are magically transported into the TV show “Pleasantville,” a 1950s sitcom set in a stereotypical small town. It’s all so wonderful and quaint on the surface…or is it? The presence of Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon starts to erode the perfect nature of Pleasantville, but perhaps it is for the best.