- submitted by . on 01/01/2012
Top 15 Movies Centered On Suburbia
There are so many suburban-themed movies. We had a hard time paring down our list to 15. Our only rule, apart from liking the pic: Suburbia has to play a meaningful role in the plot. It can't just be the setting.
Tell us what you think, where we went wrong. Send us your choices. We'll put together another list, reflecting your feedback.
The 15 Best (in no particular order):
American Beauty (1999)
Beautiful, understated, utterly depressing view of suburban life and marriage. Kevin Spacey as unhappy husband, in mid-life crisis, is sick of his tedious job, loveless marriage (to realtor, Annette Benning) tries to turn his life around. He does, along the way fantasizing (and more) about his daughter's hot sexually precocious under-aged friend; and, in the end, just after figuring things out, learns that redemption in the burbs is awfully hard to come by.
Neighbors (1981)
John Belushi as the conventional conservative 
next-door neighbor. Dan Ackroyd as the wacked freakazoid gun-toting (and shooting), never-leave-you-alone neighbor from hell. (How's that for role reversal?) Nihilistic, hilarious dark comedy based on Jerzey Kosinki's novel.
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Johnny Depp literally with 'scissor hands' cuts and carves bushes all over town into elaborate, beautiful, bizarre art. Most shockingly, and unlike most landscapers we know, he charges nothing!
Little Children (2006)
Based on the Tom Perrotta novel. Suburban ennui, close-mindedness, confusion. Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly and some relatively non-descript guy (the character & actor) who inexplicably gets both of the babes. Now that's a real suburban fantasy!
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Wes Craven's original and genuinely scary suburban horror film. Way better than the drek sequels. Suburban teens are dying off at the hands of Freddy Krueger, an evil, vengeful already dead guy. Tip to teens: falling asleep will probably not result in a good outcome.
The Money Pit (1986)
Tom Hanks, Shelley Long. Funny, underrated slapstick comedy. A cautionary tale, warning to all suburban home owners: Your dream house will turn into a pipe exploding, 
stairs collapsing, life and finances-ruining nightmare. Otherwise, living in the burbs is a blast.
American Graffiti (1973)
California burbs, 1962. High school teens coming of age before real life (college, work, etc.) intrudes. Music, sex, exciting stirrings of rock & roll. Go Wolfman Jack! Fantastic music sound track. George Lucas' first film -- when skilled acting, sensitive story-telling, and subtlety informed his work.
Blue Velvet (1986)
David Lynch's skewed view of suburbia and life. Not Technicolor day dreams. Brutal, strange, filled with frightening, depraved characters. (Not unlike some of the recent block parties in our neighborhood.)
Ordinary People (1980)
Rich, white Chicago suburbs. Donald Sutherland, Timothy Hutton. And Mary Tyler Moore as one of the scariest, most repressed, quietly child-abusing (through silence & rejection) stay-at-home moms in movie history.
Happiness (1998)
Todd Solondz's 2nd film, after Welcome to the Dollhouse. 'Happily' married dad is a shrink; he's also a pedophile, 
fantasizes about serial killing, and has a thing for his son's pre-teen friend. And Dad is one of the healthier characters. Depravity, dysfunction, unhappiness reign.
Clerks (1994)
Kevin Smith’s first feature (25K budget) detailing a day-in-the-life of 2 suburban New Jersey slackers working at a convenience store and video shop. Lots of talk, loaded with “off” nutty (yet authentically drawn and sometimes hilarious) characters filtering in and out of the guys’ lives. Confounding ex-girlfriends, a-hole bosses, friends from hell, consumer-customer jackasses, etc. Sometimes you want to scream in frustration at the film – it’s so raw, meandering. Other times you want to scream in laughter and pleasure because of the same rawness and authenticity. Better, more honest and personal than Smith’s next similarly themed (and Hollywood-studio muddled) pic, Mallrats, which isn’t ultimately too bad a suburban-themed pic either.
Donnie Darko (2001)
Fascinating, multi-layered take on conventional mainstream suburbia, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a high school prep student who sees and receives wisdom from a giant purple rabbit. He (Jake) tries to peel back life's layers (including multiple universes) in preparation for the end of the world -- to occur at the end of the month, according to the rabbit naturally. The movie is both funny and disturbing. Highly imaginative, sometimes surreal, it's a truly engaging, original and impressive work.
Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
1980s classic, still a riot. California suburban high school cool. Teens looking for love, sex, drugs, parties – and, once in a while, purpose. With young, hilarious Sean Penn playing the school druggie-surfer dude (Jeff Spicoli) who just grooves on life -- and, in one of the 80s’ pop-culturally defining movie images, casually orders pizza delivered to him in the middle of class…to 
the awe-inspired appreciation and laughter of his mates and to the disbelief and horror of his hapless teacher. Great cast includes, in addition to Penn, Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh and a stunningly gorgeous Phoebe Cates.
SubUrbia (1996)
Richard Linklater’s film adaptation of Eric Bogosian’s play. Suburban ennui reflected in a group of post high school slackers hanging out in front of a convenience store, literally “hanging,” with nothing better to do than vent, rant and wait…for their friend, the one person among them who escaped the strip mall and their collective stultifying malaise by inexplicably becoming a rock star. The pic is sometimes hard to take; its characters are often ugly and narrow minded. But the film’s rawness and its characters’ frustrations and limitations and anger come through often with beautiful honesty and simple emotion. It’s not everybody’s suburban experience – thank God – but at that time, in that place, and in many burbs like it across America, the pic captures moments and sharp-edged fragments of the experience of many.
The Burbs (1989)
Tom Hanks in the gleeming burbs, convinced his new next door neighbors are wack-jobs (cannibals?) burying bodies in their backyard. And that's their good traits! They're not cannibals, of course; but they are strange -- and noisy and very un-neat - and their dilapidated eye-sore-of-a-house isn't doing much for property values. Pic is an over-the-top slapstick comedy that is (if sometimes unremarkable) definitely an antic entertaining ride, with loads of suburban details and nutty characters (Bruce Dern as a gun freak is comical) that will make any suburb lover (or hater) simultaneously laugh and wince. ...read more rants
