Movies Where It's Shitty Out

This has been on my mind for a few years now, mostly because of my upbringing in Western New York, but I really dig movies where it's shitty out. I had trouble Googling this or finding good examples because most people tend to think of Se7en (1995) or Kamino or something. No, I really mean movies where it's like, November or March and it's soaked in brown and leafless trees and hopefully, goes completely unnoticed or unacknowledged by the film.

For some reason this was a big mid-90s comedy thing, maybe just because there was a slew set in the Midwest and Northeast and if the budget is low enough, who cares about nice filming locations. To me, the holy trinity is the first bit of Dumb and Dumber (1995) set in miserable Rhode Island, but mostly Tommy Boy (1995) and Canadian Bacon (1995). Maybe it's just that all these creators suddenly came from crappy areas like the Farrelly Brothers from Rhode Island, Chris Farley from Wisconsin, and Jim Carrey and John Candy from Canada?

Tommy Boy really does it for me, though. Hanging around Sandusky, Ohio and neighboring Great Lakes States is incredible, one of the more authentic movies for that region. You just never see how it looks like for seven months of the year shown so accurately.

There are other movies like Prisoners (2013) and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987) that are both Thanksgiving movies and use their setting to artfully advance the plot, but hardly any that are as matter-of-fact shitty like Tommy Boy. Winter's Bone (2009) is the same kind of deal. Honestly I struggled to find another movie that is set in the Midwest or Northeast that features the kind of desolate winter that we're so used to. And again, I don't mean the winter wonderland, I mean the barren, brown hellscape of fresh melted snow or a bitter November.

I don't know if modern films could even pull this off anymore. Knives Out (2019) comes close, but the whole thing is too glossy and pampered to really feel cold and bitter. That may of course be more due to the affluence of the subject material, but I want a movie where it really feels like the bleak wind is beating through your coat and your toes are numb.

The only other movie I'll add is The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) which largely takes place in Western Pennsylvania and up to Buffalo, NY. What can I say? 90s Road Trip movies all had this coldness to them. I don't know what that means but I miss it and I think it's cool. What's the whole point? No movie has the setting or look of Tommy Boy, and that is an amazing distinction.