Open Range (2003) Review
Open Range (2003) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Costner directed a slow, patient Western about two cattlemen who decide to kill a rancher, and then staged the best gunfight in the genre's last forty years. It…
Tag: Small Town
A small town is a closed system where everyone knows the history, which is why so much fiction is set in one. This tag collects reviews and posts built on small town settings and what the setting enforces.
1990sThe Straight Story (1999) Review
The Straight Story (1999) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. David Lynch made a G-rated film about a seventy-three-year-old man driving a lawnmower three hundred miles to see his dying brother, and it is the least ironic…
1980sRoad House (1989) Review
Road House (1989) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A philosophy graduate is hired to clean up a Missouri bar and ends up fighting a monster truck. It took five Razzie nominations, underperformed in cinemas, and became…
HistoryWhere to Write in Safety Harbor
Safety Harbor has more workable places to write than towns four times its size. The library for long stretches, the waterfront for the stuck paragraph, Philippe Park for the structural think.
1990sDante’s Peak (1997)
Roger Donaldson's 1997 volcano disaster. Pierce Brosnan as volcanologist.
1980sHoosiers (1986)
David Anspaugh's 1986 small-town basketball drama. Dennis Hopper as drunken assistant.
2000sCars (2006)
2006 Pixar animated film with Owen Wilson as race car Lightning McQueen stranded in Route 66 town Radiator Springs. Cars is John Lasseter's 2006 Pixar animated film.
1980sCinema Paradiso (1988)
Tornatore's 1988 Italian drama. A boy grows up in a small-town movie theater.
2010sFargo (FX Series, 2014-present) Review
Fargo is one of the best television series of the past fifteen years and one of the most creatively ambitious anthology productions in American television. Five seasons have aired across the past decade with additional seasons in development.
Crime FictionKiller Cuts and Dead Letters
A salon owner and a mail carrier between them know everything about a block, which turns out to matter after chapter two. A dark comedy crime novel.
Book ReviewsThe Rural Setting Thesaurus
If your last farmhouse came out as a vague building with a porch and some fields, this is for you. It turns rural and natural settings into sensory reference that reveals character and sets mood, with built-in conflict for each…