No film here is good or bad. It is only like something.

2016 · Drama

A Boston handyman is made guardian of his teenage nephew after his brother dies, which means going back to the town he left. The reason he left comes out slowly.

• RealisticStrongly realistic
• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven
• IntimateStrongly intimate
• SlowStrongly slow
• HeavyClearly heavy

1993 · Comedy

A sour television weatherman covering a small-town festival wakes up to find it is the same day again, and again. He works through boredom, then mischief, then something else.

Sits near the middle on every axis.

1996 · Crime

A car salesman short of money hires two men to kidnap his own wife, and the plan goes wrong immediately. A very pregnant small-town police chief works it out at her own pace.

• RealisticClearly realistic

2005 · Thriller

A quiet diner owner in a small Indiana town stops a robbery and ends up on the news, which brings men from out of state who say they know him. Short, tense, and close to his family.

• HeavyClearly heavy
• RealisticClearly realistic

2018 · Mystery

A cheerful mom who runs a small parenting vlog befriends the glamorous mother of her son's classmate, and then that friend doesn't come back from a work trip. A mystery played with jokes and very good clothes.

Sits near the middle on every axis.

2013 · Thriller

A man living out of his car hears that the person who killed his parents is being let out of prison, and drives home to do something about it. Very little talking, and he is not good at any of it.

• RealisticStrongly realistic
• IntimateClearly intimate
• HeavyClearly heavy

2015 · Drama

A young woman leaves a small Irish town for New York in the 1950s, homesick and alone until she meets someone. Gentle and slow, and mostly about one person working out where she belongs.

• RealisticStrongly realistic
• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven

2016 · Science fiction

A woman loses her job and her boyfriend, moves back to her hometown, and works out that a giant creature stomping around Seoul copies whatever she does in one particular playground. A small-town drinking story with a monster movie bolted on.

• FantasticClearly fantastic

2008 · Drama

A cellist whose orchestra folds moves back to his home town and takes a job he did not expect: preparing the dead for their families before burial. Slow and gentle, with a lot of quiet ceremony.

• RealisticStrongly realistic
• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven
• IntimateClearly intimate
• SlowClearly slow

2007 · Comedy

London's best policeman is promoted sideways to a village where nothing happens and paired with a partner raised on action films. Jokes come thick and fast, and it gets very loud towards the end.

Sits near the middle on every axis.

2017 · Horror

In a small Maine town where children keep going missing, a group of misfit kids works out that something lives under the streets and wears a clown's face. As much a summer-holiday adventure as a horror film, with the scares on a schedule.

Sits near the middle on every axis.

2019 · Animation

A spoiled postman is posted to a frozen island where the two halves of town have feuded for generations, and finds a woodsman with a cabin full of toys. Hand-drawn, funny, and made for children.

• LightStrongly light
• SimpleClearly simple

2012 · Comedy

On a small New England island in 1965 a scout and a girl who has had enough of her family run off together, and the whole place goes looking for them. Neat, funny and told like a storybook.

Sits near the middle on every axis.

2009 · Mystery

When her son is arrested for a girl's murder and nobody will look any further, his mother starts working the town herself. It moves slowly, and the funny bits arrive at strange moments.

• HeavyClearly heavy
• RealisticClearly realistic

2004 · Comedy

A teenager in small-town Idaho draws mythical creatures, feeds his brother's llama and helps a friend run for class president. Deadpan, barely plotted, and full of long flat pauses.

• SimpleStrongly simple
• LightStrongly light
• IntimateStrongly intimate
• Character-drivenClearly character-driven

2024 · Action

A former Marine cycling into a small Southern town to post his cousin's bail is knocked off his bike by police who take his cash and dare him to argue. He tries the front counter and the paperwork first.

• RealisticStrongly realistic

2011 · Science fiction

A group of kids shooting a zombie movie on Super 8 film are filming at a railway station when a train comes off the tracks, and soldiers fill their town soon after. A summer-of-1979 adventure with the kids doing most of the work.

Sits near the middle on every axis.

2022 · Comedy

On a small Irish island in 1923, a man is told by his only friend, with no warning and no reason given, that they are not friends any more. Two men, a pub and a lot of talking, and it gets darker as it goes.

• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven
• IntimateStrongly intimate
• RealisticClearly realistic
• HeavyClearly heavy
• SlowClearly slow

2014 · Thriller

A polite young soldier turns up at the door of a family whose son died overseas, says he was a friend, and they let him stay. Small town, synth music, and tension that climbs scene by scene.

Sits near the middle on every axis.

2012 · Drama

A kindergarten teacher in a small Danish town is accused by one child of something he did not do, and the town makes up its mind fast. Plain, tense, and it keeps you a step ahead of everyone in it.

• RealisticStrongly realistic
• HeavyStrongly heavy
• IntimateClearly intimate
• Character-drivenClearly character-driven

2010 · Crime

A Boston bank robber starts seeing the woman his crew took hostage on their last job, while the FBI closes in. Straight ahead, with big robberies at either end and a part of town nobody leaves.

• RealisticClearly realistic

2016 · Horror

A clumsy village policeman in rural Korea looks into a run of killings that began after a Japanese stranger moved into the woods. Two and a half hours that start out funny and do not stay that way.

• HeavyStrongly heavy

2013 · Comedy

A man in his forties drags four old schoolfriends back to their hometown to finish the twelve-pub crawl they failed as teenagers, and the town is not quite as they left it. Fast, very English, jokes stacked on jokes, and it turns into a fight.

• FastClearly fast
• FantasticClearly fantastic

2017 · Drama

Months after her daughter's murder goes unsolved, a woman rents three billboards outside her town to ask the police chief why. Angry, funny in a mean way, and full of shouting.

• Character-drivenStrongly character-driven
• HeavyClearly heavy
• RealisticClearly realistic

2005 · Animation

A cheese-loving inventor and his silent dog run a humane pest control business in an English village getting ready for its giant vegetable show, and something is eating the crops at night. Clay animation, stuffed with puns and jokes hidden in the background.

• LightStrongly light
• FantasticClearly fantastic

2025 · Horror

At 2:17 one morning, seventeen children from the same class get out of bed and run off into the dark, and the town starts looking for someone to blame. Told in chapters, each following a different person.

• HeavyClearly heavy

2016 · Animation

A girl in a mountain town and a boy in Tokyo start waking up in each other's bodies a few days a week with no idea why, and begin leaving each other notes. Bright, fast and hand-drawn, funny one minute and serious the next.

• FantasticStrongly fantastic