The 18 Best Films About American Suburbia

Eighteen films that treat the cul-de-sac as a crime scene, a punchline or a haunted house, depending on who is holding the camera. Rank them and see what your neighbours think.

1. 1
   Blue Velvet

   David Lynch's 1986 mystery that starts with a severed ear found in a quiet neighbourhood field.
   1000pts
2. 2
   American Beauty

   Sam Mendes's 1999 Best Picture winner about a father unravelling behind a tidy suburban front lawn.
   889pts
3. 3
   Pleasantville

   A 1998 fantasy in which two teenagers land inside a black-and-white 1950s sitcom town.
   751pts
4. 4
   E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

   Steven Spielberg's 1982 film about a stranded alien hidden in a California tract house.
   751pts

   BE
5. 5
   Donnie Darko

   A 2001 cult film about a sleepwalking teenager, a jet engine and a man in a rabbit suit.
   621pts
6. 6
   Safe

   Todd Haynes's 1995 film about a San Fernando Valley housewife who becomes allergic to her own environment.
   621pts
7. 7
   Halloween

   John Carpenter's 1978 horror film that put a masked killer on an ordinary Illinois sidewalk.
   621pts
8. 8
   The Graduate

   Mike Nichols's 1967 comedy about a graduate drifting between a pool, a party and Mrs Robinson.
   481pts
9. 9
   Far from Heaven

   Todd Haynes's 2002 melodrama about a 1957 Connecticut housewife whose marriage and friendships break along race and sexuality.
   481pts
10. 10
    Edward Scissorhands

    Tim Burton's 1990 fable dropping an unfinished creation into a street of pastel houses.
    481pts
11. 11
    Ordinary People

    Robert Redford's 1980 Best Picture winner about a wealthy family failing to speak after a son's death.
    397pts
12. 12
    Little Children

    Todd Field's 2006 drama about adultery, shame and a registered sex offender in a New England suburb.
    397pts
13. 13
    The Stepford Wives

    A 1975 thriller about a photographer who notices the local women are all impossibly content.
    397pts
14. 14
    The Virgin Suicides

    Sofia Coppola's 1999 debut about five sisters watched from across a Michigan street.
    397pts
15. 15
    A Serious Man

    The Coen brothers' 2009 film about a physics professor in a 1967 Minnesota subdivision losing everything at once.
    397pts
16. 16
    Revolutionary Road

    A 2008 adaptation of Richard Yates's novel about a 1950s couple suffocating on a Connecticut street.
    299pts
17. 17
    Poltergeist

    A 1982 horror film about a planned community built on ground the developers should have left alone.
    299pts
18. 18
    The Ice Storm

    Ang Lee's 1997 drama following two Connecticut families through a 1973 Thanksgiving weekend.
    185pts

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