Give me your best LA movie recs. LA STORY is already my favorite, but I’m on a hunt for more LA centric movies where the city is almost like a main character.

Question

Liz Corkery · Answer

Los Angeles Plays Itself: Made up largely of footage from other LA movies, it’s a great interrogation of the tension between LA as it’s depicted and LA as it’s actually experienced.

Ksteg · Answer

Kiss Me Deadly (1955): Film noir is THE LA genre because this city runs on seduction, corruption, spooky dream logic and  night drives to nowhere (we love it!). This one is a B side but it bangs so hard. Seedy, lipstick teeth, Cold War sci fi noir full of characters that are very cunning but in way over their heads. A maajjor pulp fiction reference comes from this movie, and it’s also got amazing footage of the lost bunker hill neighborhood of DTLA and the original Angel’s Flight funicular. Slap first, ask questions later!

Maddie Weinstein · Answer

Smiley Face (2007): Anna Faris unknowingly eats an entire batch of her weird roommate's pot cupcakes and tries to get the money to buy weed to make a replacement batch, all while going about her normal day (which includes auditioning for a casting director played by Jane Lynch). Anna Faris should have won an Oscar for her commitment to being incredibly stoned. Her performance is 100% charming and 100% gross. Slack-jawed munchies gremlin. Something something female gaze. Watch stoned. Or don't watch stoned. Idk.

Laurie Cambra Seplow · Answer

Some Kind of Wonderful (1987): A lesser-known, but very fun, John Hughes flick filmed at San Pedro High School, built 1936. Was it because of all the shots with the Port of LA in the background (which is kind of important for one of the movie's themes), our school's super cool aesthetic (designed by Gordon Kaufmann), or because only three letters on the front entrance needed to be changed?

Hitomi · Answer

City of Gold (2015): A documentary about Jonathan Gold, the legendary LA food critic. To me the beating heart of the city of Los Angeles is the food culture. Seeing small immigrant restaurants in strip malls and food trucks just is quintessential LA.

alie k. · Answer

Nowhere (1997)

Analisa Burns · Answer

The Party (1968) - Blake Edwards: "if you've ever been to a wilder party- you're under arrest"

Gail · Answer

Heat (1995): tbh most underrated film of all time. an absolute banger from beginning to end. "Find someone who looks at you the way Michael Mann's camera looks at the city of LA or the way Pacino looks at De Niro in this movie." - @Hungcat's review on letterboxd

Brianne · Answer

Die Hard: Hear me out: nothing is more special than seeing Die Hard in theaters in LA at Christmas.

Treasure · Answer

Tangerine (2015): Tangerine is basically an odyssey. Following sex worker Sin-dee Rella who's fresh out of jail, and on the streets of LA tracking down her pimp boyfriend after finding out he's cheating on her. This film could also double as a Pride Month feature since the two main leads are played by trans women.

Jackie Clarke · Answer

Killer of Sheep (1978): Gorgeous tone poem of a movie. David Gordon Green totally copped this style.

kaliginger · Answer

Falling Down: It's over the top in every possible way, but it's also a pretty thorough tour of LA.

kaliginger · Answer

Get Shorty: Extremely 90s and extremely LA.

Cecilia B. · Answer

swingers: This movie made me want to move to Los Feliz in college, meet someone like Mikey or Trey, and learn to swing. I started visiting the dresden because of this movie. Marty and Elaine forever. It captured the late 90s in LA so perfectly and made the town look like it was filled with beautiful babies.

JDJ · Answer

Beginners (2010): A quietly moving kind of movie

Evan McAvenia · Answer

la plays itself: a bit of a meta rec, but this is one of my favorite docs and a superlative movie about la about movies about la.

Louise Buckley · Answer

Short Cuts (1993): One of my favorite movies AND favorite LA movies! Based on Raymond Carver short stories. Funny and poignant and so LA.

rory · Answer

Nightcrawler : so unnerving

rory · Answer

singing in the rain: how did they make this, how are they all that talented

Francesca McConchie · Answer

True Romance: I recently rewatched this (one of the perks of having teens) and it's even better than I remembered, a star turn for Arquette AND LA, perfectly kitsch and horribly violent, impeccable casting. The exploding coke on Mulholland scene is to die for.

Francesca McConchie · Answer

Drive (2011): Hot

Annie Pontarelli · Answer

Valley Girl (1983): She’s from the Valley. He’s from Hollywood. A love story for the ages and an incredible soundtrack on top of a look at LA and the Valley.

Emily Teague · Answer

Chinatown- classic LA-centric film: Chinatown uses LA not just as a backdrop, but as an engine for the story, where water rights, real estate ambition, and institutional power shape what the city is and how it works. The screenplay is remarkable in its construction, even if the ending remains difficult to reconcile.

Zoe Det · Answer

The Exiles (1961): Extraordinary look at pre-urban renewal Bunker Hill, something you won’t find in any of these other movies. Available on Kanopy or Hoopla or Criterion!

Zoe Det · Answer

Collateral (2004): The city is definitely a main character. Plus it makes digital cinematography look good.

Spines, Flicks, and Wax · Answer

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls: A batty satire of the late LA counterculture scene with a screenplay written by THE Roger Ebert (Siskel gave this 0 out of 4 stars).

A cult classic John Waters has dubbed one of the greatest movies of all time, so, you know you're in for some fun ;)

Abby Phoenix · Answer

Go: The director’s earlier movie Swingers is maybe better known for its use of LA/Hollywood locations, but this one hits for me more: a nighttime LA that’s all about being young and dumb, working dead-end jobs during the day and spending your nights at sketchy raves, someone’s random apartment on Sunset, parking lots full of shenanigans, and diners by dawn. And the whole time wondering if that guy across the party was in a soap opera you used to watch when you were home sick from school?

The cast is also bonkers! By the time Melissa McCarthy randomly shows up (her first film role), it just feels like par for the course.

Abby Phoenix · Answer

Quinceañera: I saw this at a film festival in Seattle, a month or so before moving back to LA, and I took it as a sign that it was going to be the right move — I’m not Mexican, not a teenager, and wasn’t moving to Echo Park.

But I identified so strongly with the sense of place and the community in this movie — it made me so excited to return to a city full of stories, many of which don’t necessarily intersect, but all of which are being lived out vibrantly every day.

Jules · Answer

to live and die in LA: back when movie posters used to WHIP ASS

Cecilia B. · Answer

500 days of summer: So many scenes in Downtown. And that bench, it’s still there.

Analisa Burns · Answer

Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg): might be the most fucked up Cronenberg movie out there

Emily · Answer

Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003): Literally the definition of your request. And SO GOOD!

jmd · Answer

Fast Times at Ridgemont High: OK I think that's all I've got!

jmd · Answer

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: I think I watched this around the same time as The Nice Guys (also Shane Black) and also remember really liking it (this is more noir-comedy, The Nice Guys is more buddy-comedy)

jmd · Answer

Clueless: I might be going overboard here but more keep coming to me, I think this might qualify too

jmd · Answer

Repo Man: 1980s punk cult classic