Small town/rural movies
by arosfors | created - 10 Jul 2015 | updated - 26 Apr 2023 | PublicI like to watch movies set in small towns. Doesen't matter much what it's about. Just a question of surroundings. Could even be a horror flick or a comedy, wich generally are genres i avoid. It's a big plus if it has some quirky characters with hearts of gold in it. You will find a lot of films typically known as "feelgood movies" in this list. Sometimes i even get my son to watch them with me. For more titles tha could fit this description, please look among my other lists.
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1. Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama
Evelyn, an ordinary housewife, visits a nursing home and befriends the old lady Ninny. Together, they bond over stories from the past about two intrepid women of Whistle Stop Cafe.
Director: Jon Avnet | Stars: Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker
Votes: 83,613 | Gross: $82.42M
2. Empire Falls (2005)
TV-14 | 99 min | Drama, Romance
A decaying New England town is the backdrop for its unique citizens, led by unassuming restaurant manager Miles Roby.
Stars: Ed Harris, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Hunt, Paul Newman
Votes: 6,332
This one is a real gem. Paul Newman in one of the best roles i've seen him in.
3. The Spitfire Grill (1996)
PG-13 | 117 min | Drama
Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn (The Exorcist) headlines this critically praised drama about a young woman, just out of prison, who finds spiritual redemption working at a cafe in Maine.
Director: Lee David Zlotoff | Stars: Alison Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Will Patton
Votes: 7,209 | Gross: $12.64M
4. Beautiful Girls (1996)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A piano player at a crossroads in his life returns home to his friends and their own problems with life and love.
Director: Ted Demme | Stars: Matt Dillon, Timothy Hutton, Noah Emmerich, Annabeth Gish
Votes: 34,723 | Gross: $10.60M
5. The Judge (2014)
R | 141 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Big-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth; along the way he reconnects with his estranged family.
Director: David Dobkin | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton
Votes: 201,453 | Gross: $47.12M
6. Nobody's Fool (1994)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
A stubborn man past his prime reflects on his life of strict independence and seeks more from himself.
Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, Jessica Tandy, Melanie Griffith
Votes: 22,526 | Gross: $39.49M
7. Mystic Pizza (1988)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Three teenage girls come of age while working at a pizza parlor in the Connecticut town of Mystic.
Director: Donald Petrie | Stars: Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor, Vincent D'Onofrio
Votes: 32,477 | Gross: $12.79M
8. The Love Letter (1999)
PG-13 | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The life of a provincial town becomes stormy after the appearance of an anonymous love letter.
Director: Peter Ho-Sun Chan | Stars: Kate Capshaw, Tom Everett Scott, Tom Selleck, Blythe Danner
Votes: 4,691 | Gross: $8.28M
9. Limbo (I) (1999)
R | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
In an economically devastated Alaskan town, a fisherman with a troublesome past dates a woman whose young daughter does not approve of him. When he witnesses the murder of his shady brother, he, the woman and the kid run to the wilderness.
Director: John Sayles | Stars: David Strathairn, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Vanessa Martinez, Michael Laskin
Votes: 6,389 | Gross: $2.00M
10. Goodnight Mr Tom (1998 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Family, War
A shy and quiet World War II evacuee is housed by a disgruntled old man, and they soon develop a close bond.
Director: Jack Gold | Stars: John Thaw, Nick Robinson, Annabelle Apsion, Thomas Orange
Votes: 4,918
11. Steel Magnolias (1989)
PG | 117 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young beautician, newly arrived in a small Louisiana town, finds work at the local salon, where a small group of women share a close bond of friendship, and welcome her into the fold.
Director: Herbert Ross | Stars: Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Julia Roberts
Votes: 63,074 | Gross: $83.76M
12. Stand by Me (1986)
R | 89 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A writer recounts a childhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell
Votes: 441,630 | Gross: $52.29M
13. American Graffiti (1973)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of teenagers in California's central valley spend one final night after their 1962 high school graduation cruising the strip with their buddies before they pursue their varying goals.
Director: George Lucas | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith
Votes: 98,153 | Gross: $115.00M
14. Sometimes a Great Notion (1971)
PG | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A family of fiercely independent Oregon loggers struggle to keep the family business alive amidst changing times.
Director: Paul Newman | Stars: Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Lee Remick, Michael Sarrazin
Votes: 4,494 | Gross: $9.20M
15. Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
PG-13 | 101 min | Drama, Mystery
Widowed Liz Garfield and her son Bobby change when mysterious stranger Ted Brautigan enters their lives.
Director: Scott Hicks | Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin, Hope Davis, Mika Boorem
Votes: 41,049 | Gross: $24.19M
16. Field of Dreams (1989)
PG | 107 min | Drama, Family, Fantasy
Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella is inspired by a voice he can't ignore to pursue a dream he can hardly believe. Supported by his wife, Ray begins the quest by turning his ordinary cornfield into a place where dreams can come true.
Director: Phil Alden Robinson | Stars: Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Amy Madigan
Votes: 128,105 | Gross: $64.43M
A movie for everyone who lost a parent when they where little...
17. Mississippi Burning (1988)
R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two F.B.I. Agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif
Votes: 111,020 | Gross: $34.60M
18. Doc Hollywood (1991)
PG-13 | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A young doctor on his way across the country to a job interview crashes his car in a small town and is sentenced to work for several days at the town hospital.
Director: Michael Caton-Jones | Stars: Michael J. Fox, Julie Warner, Barnard Hughes, Woody Harrelson
Votes: 40,297 | Gross: $54.83M
19. Safe Haven (I) (2013)
PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
A young woman with a mysterious past lands in Southport, North Carolina where her bond with a widower forces her to confront the dark secret that haunts her.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel, Cobie Smulders, David Lyons
Votes: 116,178 | Gross: $71.35M
20. Local Hero (1983)
PG | 111 min | Comedy, Drama
An American oil company has plans for a new refinery and sends someone to Scotland to buy up an entire village, but things don't go as expected.
Director: Bill Forsyth | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Peter Riegert, Fulton Mackay, Denis Lawson
Votes: 26,698 | Gross: $5.90M
21. Super 8 (2011)
PG-13 | 112 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi
During the summer of 1979, a group of friends witness a train crash and investigate subsequent unexplained events in their small town.
Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Elle Fanning, AJ Michalka, Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney
Votes: 367,543 | Gross: $127.00M
22. It (1990)
TV-14 | 96 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
In 1960, seven pre-teen outcasts fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns to their hometown.
Stars: Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Annette O'Toole, Harry Anderson
Votes: 140,876
23. Stranger Things (2016–2025)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl.
Stars: Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, David Harbour
Votes: 1,336,016
24. The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995)
PG | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When an English cartographer must tell a Welsh village that their mountain is only a hill, the offended community sets out to change that.
Director: Christopher Monger | Stars: Hugh Grant, Tara Fitzgerald, Colm Meaney, Ian McNeice
Votes: 18,705 | Gross: $10.90M
25. A Walk on the Moon (1999)
R | 107 min | Drama, Romance
The world of a young housewife is turned upside down when she has an affair with a free-spirited blouse salesman.
Director: Tony Goldwyn | Stars: Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Bobby Boriello, Anna Paquin
Votes: 9,212 | Gross: $4.74M
26. An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
R | 124 min | Drama, Romance
A young man must complete his work at a Navy Officer Candidate School to become an aviator, with the help of a tough Gunnery Sergeant and his new girlfriend.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Richard Gere, Debra Winger, David Keith, Robert Loggia
Votes: 62,608 | Gross: $129.80M
27. The Ice Storm (1997)
R | 112 min | Drama
In suburban New Canaan, Connecticut, 1973, middle-class families experimenting with casual sex and substance abuse find their lives beyond their control.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Henry Czerny
Votes: 59,965 | Gross: $7.84M
28. Insomnia (2002)
R | 118 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan
Votes: 319,157 | Gross: $67.36M
29. Groundhog Day (1993)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A narcissistic, self-centered weatherman finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day.
Director: Harold Ramis | Stars: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky
Votes: 685,085 | Gross: $70.91M
30. The Majestic (2001)
PG | 152 min | Drama, Romance
In 1951, a blacklisted Hollywood writer gets into a car accident, loses his memory and settles down in a small town where he is mistaken for a long-lost son.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey DeMunn
Votes: 57,660 | Gross: $27.81M
31. The Shipping News (2001)
R | 111 min | Drama
An emotionally beaten man with his young daughter moves to his ancestral home in Newfoundland to reclaim his life.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett
Votes: 33,924 | Gross: $11.43M
32. Message in a Bottle (1999)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Romance
A woman discovers a tragic love letter in a bottle on a beach, and is determined to track down its author.
Director: Luis Mandoki | Stars: Kevin Costner, Robin Wright, Paul Newman, John Savage
Votes: 40,358 | Gross: $52.88M
33. Half Light (2006)
R | 110 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Rachel Carlson, a successful novelist moves to a small Scottish village to move on with her life after the death of her son. Strange things start to happen when she is haunted by ghosts and real life terror.
Director: Craig Rosenberg | Stars: Demi Moore, Henry Ian Cusick, Nicholas Gleaves, James Cosmo
Votes: 14,529
34. The Grand Seduction (2013)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy
To survive, a dying Newfoundland fishing village must convince a young doctor to take up residence by any means necessary.
Director: Don McKellar | Stars: Taylor Kitsch, Brendan Gleeson, Liane Balaban, Gordon Pinsent
Votes: 19,254 | Gross: $3.41M
35. Dolores Claiborne (1995)
R | 132 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A big city reporter travels to a small town where her mother has been arrested for the murder of an elderly woman for whom she worked as a housekeeper.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Plummer, Judy Parfitt
Votes: 48,387 | Gross: $24.36M
36. The Sandlot (1993)
PG | 101 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
In the summer of 1962, a new kid in town is taken under the wing of a young baseball prodigy and his rowdy team, resulting in many adventures.
Director: David Mickey Evans | Stars: Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Art LaFleur, Patrick Renna
Votes: 102,386 | Gross: $32.42M
37. Garden State (2004)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A quietly troubled young man returns home for his mother's funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade.
Director: Zach Braff | Stars: Zach Braff, Peter Sarsgaard, Natalie Portman, Ian Holm
Votes: 223,195 | Gross: $26.78M
38. Olive Kitteridge (2014)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama
A middle-school math teacher Olive and her marriage with Henry which spans 25 years.
Stars: Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, Ann Dowd, Ken Cheeseman
Votes: 26,107
39. Cold Mountain (2003)
R | 154 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Eileen Atkins
Votes: 156,080 | Gross: $95.64M
40. The Gift (2000)
R | 111 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A fortune teller with extrasensory perception is asked to help find a young woman who has mysteriously disappeared.
Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Cate Blanchett, Katie Holmes, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi
Votes: 74,778 | Gross: $12.01M
41. An Unfinished Life (2005)
PG-13 | 108 min | Drama, Family, Romance
Desperate to provide care for her daughter, down-on-her-luck Jean moves in with her father in-law from whom she is estranged. Through time, they learn to forgive each other and heal old wounds.
Director: Lasse Hallström | Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, Josh Lucas
Votes: 33,959 | Gross: $8.59M
42. The Horse Whisperer (1998)
PG-13 | 169 min | Drama, Romance, Western
The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse.
Director: Robert Redford | Stars: Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Neill, Dianne Wiest
Votes: 43,534 | Gross: $75.38M
43. October Sky (1999)
PG | 108 min | Biography, Drama, Family
The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.
Director: Joe Johnston | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern, Chris Owen
Votes: 98,044 | Gross: $32.48M
44. Forrest Gump (1994)
PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, Romance