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For Sale Mar 28, 2026 at 10:05 PM

Recommendations of movies where the location(s) of the movie really feed the whole feel of the movie.

Posted by satyricom

I recently watched “Rental Family” and really enjoyed how much of “mundane” Japan I was able to witness throughout the film. I’ve long wanted to visit Japan, and this felt “true to life” in that it wasn’t the typical tropes of an American on another culture. What are other films that the setting or location are almost another star?
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Dolores_Phillips Mar 28, 2026 +12
Lost in Translation does this with Tokyo. The whole movie just feels like being jet-lagged and wandering around a city you don't understand. Also Fargo, that Minnesota winter is practically a character.
12
CakeMadeOfHam Mar 28, 2026 +5
One of my favorite dialog from Fargo is when the guy shoveling snow on his driveway is being interviewed and they say: "Looks like she'll turn cold tomorrow." "- Oh, yah. Got a front comin' in." It really nails it. It's already cold obviously, shoveling snow in the middle of winter and all, but there's cold and there's cold you know. End of story.
5
satyricom Mar 28, 2026 +1
Loved “Lost in Translation” when it was released, but it didn’t hold up as well (story wise) looking at it as an older adult. But, it probably was the movie that made me want to visit Japan. Fargo might be up there with the episode of the Sopranos where Christopher and Pauly are chasing the Russian through the Pine Barrens - just a cold you can feel through the screen.
1
Shaengar Mar 28, 2026 +5
7 years in Tibet
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t47airspeeder Mar 28, 2026 +4
Heat and Collateral
4
kisly1993 Mar 28, 2026 +4
30 Days of Night and The Thing, for similar reasons.
4
satyricom Mar 28, 2026 +1
The Thing is amazing.
1
Venus_ivy4 Mar 28, 2026 +4
Sentimental Value
4
FormABruteSquad Mar 29, 2026 +1
*The Worst Person In The World* is even stronger in this respect.
1
Vast-Bluejay8948 Mar 29, 2026 +4
Lawrence of Arabia by David Lean Hey I know it's old and 4 hours long, but the experience is still one of a kind. The cinematography is, (to coin an overused phrase) simply breathtaking. The battle scenes are on an enormous scale, and truly thrilling. It was Peter O'toole's first film (if you kids know who he was), and it's one of the great performances in film history. A perfect movie in every way. Again it's old, 1962, but at least it's not in black and white, or subtitled.
4
satyricom Mar 29, 2026 +2
One of my favorites
2
Vast-Bluejay8948 Mar 29, 2026 +1
By the way, besides your good taste in movies, I like your alias (or whatever the f*** they call it). Well, I guess that goes with the refined film taste.
1
satyricom Mar 29, 2026 +1
Thanks!
1
garublador Mar 28, 2026 +3
Fargo
3
joey-jo_jo-jr Mar 28, 2026 +3
Basically every Miyazaki movie. No one is better at creating living worlds for his characters to inhibit. David Lean was also great at getting everything out of the locations he used; not just in his epics, even the railway station in Brief Encounter feels alive and real and feeds the vibe of the movie. Scorcese almost turns New York and it's seediness into another character in After Hours and especially in Taxi Driver. Days of Heaven and Paris, Texas both make excellent use of different places and eras of Texas. Fargo does the same with the American Midwest. Chungking express is great at capturing Hong Kong and how small and cramped it is. The first two films in the Before Trilogy make excellent use of the European capitals they're set in. In Bruges similarly captures both the fairytale aspects and the seediness of it's titular city. The Third Man is perhaps the most iconic use of a particular location with post-war Vienna and it's vibe playing a big roll in the movie. The all time best use of location is Twin Peaks, but that's not a movie.
3
MovieMike007 Mar 28, 2026 +3
John Ford's *The Quiet Man* really captures Ireland.
3
satyricom Mar 28, 2026 +4
I have not seen this. But you made me think of The Banshee Inisherin has a great sense of place and the characters of a small town in Ireland
4
Nice-Translator-1538 Mar 28, 2026 +2
Zorba the Greek
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satyricom Mar 28, 2026 +1
I’ve long seen the cover/title, never seen it. Thank!
1
Bento_Fox Mar 28, 2026 +2
Memoirs of a Geisha
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satyricom Mar 28, 2026 +3
I read the book, and probably saw the movie when it came out. Great thing about getting older is you can rewatch movies all over again!
3
ammoransf Mar 28, 2026 +2
The 7 Samurai (the cherry blossoms!); Wall Street; Bullit; Vertigo; 25th Hour; the Fugitive; do the right thing
2
adaminc Mar 28, 2026 +2
Leave No Trace
2
Bruntti Mar 28, 2026 +2
LA: Heat, Collateral, Under the Silver Lake, Drive LA 70s: The Nice Guys, Inherent Vice, Boogie Nights, Licorice Pizza Fargo (can't remember the state where it takes place—and no—most of the film doesn't take place in a town called Fargo). No Country for Old Men + Paris, Texas for midwest/southwest feeling.
2
Woodrow8181 Mar 29, 2026 +2
The Warriors and Deliverance come to mind. Both really captured a feeling of a completely different world while also being set in the same country. 
2
satyricom Mar 29, 2026 +2
70’s dirty NYC could be its own film genre.
2
Woodrow8181 Mar 29, 2026 +1
It absolutely is its own genre. Dog Day Afternoon, Taxi Driver, so many. You can literally smell the city. 
1
Xrin8 Mar 29, 2026 +2
A new one but Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, captures Toronto, and how it has changed over the past 20 years well. CN Tower sequences are amazing.
2
Listening_Stranger82 Mar 29, 2026 +2
Talented Mr Ripley - yummy yummy Italy
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teddybrewsky Mar 29, 2026 +2
Secret Life of Walter Mitty- Iceland
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makanimike Mar 29, 2026 +1
Dogville Das Boot Passengers
1
satyricom Mar 29, 2026 +1
Das Boot is classic. Some critic (Ebert, maybe?) said something along the lines of it was great film making because you find yourself sympathetic to the enemy and their fate.
1
Expensive-Sentence66 Mar 28, 2026 +1
Attack the Block
1
Oathkeeper89 Mar 28, 2026 +1
Sore: A Wife from the Future. Sci-fi romance drama, Indonesian film. Dude wakes up after a night of partying, discovers a woman in his bed claiming to be his future wife. Sent in Croatia, based off a web series of the same name. Incredible cinematography.
1
ezagreb Mar 28, 2026 +1
The equalizer movies really feel a lot like their locations - all three
1
ccp666 Mar 28, 2026 +1
Wake in Fright
1
Tomato_Summer Mar 28, 2026 +1
Where the Crawdads Sing
1
digginahole Mar 29, 2026 +1
The Fall
1
thegmoc Mar 29, 2026 +1
To Live by Zhang Yimou. Or anything by him really, he's really good at using location.
1
SerWrong Mar 29, 2026 +1
In the mood for love. Not only the location but the time era as well.
1
satyricom Mar 29, 2026 +1
I love Wong Kar Wai!
1
Chaosmusic Mar 29, 2026 +1
Quick Change is a 1990 comedy with Bill Murray as a bank robber trying to get out of NYC.
1
chadlikestorock Mar 29, 2026 +1
Can it be a fictional place? Derry, Maine It (chapter one)  Helps if you've read the book but the town is definitely a character 
1
blackberry_12 Mar 29, 2026 +1
Beach Bum captures the Florida keys so well
1
LSDemon Mar 29, 2026 +1
Drive
1
ZorroMeansFox Mar 29, 2026 +1
I could answer with many Altman films. But here's one I'll mention that has a location that's fantastically evocative and crucial to the narrative: **McCabe & Mrs. Miller**.
1
Rich-Scholar-8697 Mar 29, 2026 +1
Nonnas does this
1
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