Petrarchive – The Erasure of Middle America From Modern Media

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No.11207 Anonymous 2026-07-29 16:23:15
The Erasure of Middle America From Modern Media
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For some context I'm 27 and have been collecting VHS tapes as a small hobby since I was 20, it began while I was a broke college student and found VHS tapes were only 50¢ at the Salvation Army. I would go and load up on old movies I remembered from my childhood and have since built a fairly large collection. It's really cool to see the box art and aesthetic changes over the decades but I digress.

I recently started watching tons of movies from my collection and the biggest thing that stood out to me is how many are set in the midwest. Not merely shot in the midwest, but the location of the midwest being important context for the movie. Fargo, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, Best In Show, and others heavily use this region for their story lines. Not only are there tons of films from the midwest, but also from across random areas of the United States. For example in the Jim Carrey movies I own, Dumb & Dumber follows a journey from Rhode Island to Aspen CO and the plot of the first Ace Ventura entirely hinges on the Miami Dolphins. In Sylvester Stallone's movies you obviously have Philadelphia in Rocky and then Washington in Rambo. There are even more subtle examples, like how the high school from 10 Things I Hate About You overlooks the Seattle bay. I remember watching that as a kid and being awestruck by how beautiful the setting was. On a larger scale the Overlook Hotel in The Shining is now a tourist attraction in Colorado and most people likely wouldn't even know about it otherwise.

I'll admit that I don't go to the movies much anymore, but I watch a lot of trailers and I rarely ever see one for a movie that is noticeably set anywhere apart from three locations: California (sometimes Texas), Northeast (mostly just NYC), and effectively nowhere. Literally every show I see people posting about online is set in LA or NYC. Even with some variation of location, characters generally don't seem to behave any different no matter where the setting allegedly is. In shows where the setting is somewhere like NYC, it barely even feels like NYC, it could legitimately be any city in the world because the setting doesn't even appear to matter. The "nowhere" category just seems to be becoming more and more common. If something is set somewhere obscure, the only way you know this is because they outright tell you (Tulsa King).

This ties into another thing where recently location seems to be frequently used as an economic indicator. You almost never see movies where a wealthy person/family lives in the midwest anymore, if a show is set there (e.g. Stranger Things) it's almost always a depiction of some level of poverty or dysfunction. In the movies I mentioned earlier, the setting is always a positive intriguing aspect to the movie. Even in the case of The Shining, the setting of the film is a this really cool place that draws people to it in real life despite it being a horror movie.

I think this is sad. These areas are really unique and distinctly American, one of my favorite cities in the country is Milwaukee and I live in a rural part of PA to stay close to my family. Initially I thought these areas might be getting ignored because of economic decline, but honestly most of middle America is completely fine. They aren't economically "thriving" like SF of NYC, but they're not the hell holes people on social media act like they are. Even in West Virginia, the poster child for rural poverty, Harper's Ferry is gorgeous beautiful town with rich history. My point is that there are still gems, and I'd like to see that focused on more. Beyond my personal biases, I think watching movies set in different areas really makes you feel more connected to the rest of the country. Seeing something like Best In Show or Fargo gave me a window into regions of America I've never even been to. It's jarring to think my cultural understanding of these areas comes from movies that are 26+ years old. I really just miss this feeling, John Hughes's movies were a cornerstone of my childhood and it's lame to see that region/vibe vanish out of the public consciousness.

Sorry for the long post, not sure if anyone feels the same. I guess I'm just also sick of the constant negativity in media and it would be a nice change of pace to see other areas of the U.S. painted in a positive light.
No.11222 Anonymous>>11230 2026-07-30 09:44:34
This would have popped off on redscarepod
No.11226 Anonymous>>11230 >>11336 2026-07-30 09:52:22
Is it down to politics? Is there an unwillingness from a liberal coastal media to tell stories about red states?
No.11230 Anonymous>>11384 >>11424 >>11452 2026-07-30 10:54:50
>>11222
I can't tell if this is a compliment or a dig, I like this website a lot more than reddit so if this post feels reddit then it can be deleted. I like how you can write pages of text here and people aren't too brainrotted to read it.

>>11226
I don't really know, that's kinda why I posted this because I just wanted to see if anyone else has noticed or had any ideas.

In my opinion I think political biases are certainly a part of it, but probably not the biggest factor. I think one problem is that access to Hollywood has become a pretty big issue. When directors like Hughes and Columbus were starting the economic inequality in the country was less extreme. You could support yourself chasing dreams in Hollywood while waiting tables or working some random entry level job. You could fail and still fallback on a degree or something and achieve a normal life fairly quickly, so the risk was less serious. On Hughes's wikipedia page it says he started by selling jokes to performers and mostly just worked his way up from there. I think there's a lot to say about this, but this definitely impacts what movies are getting made and what directors get a real shot. Obviously people born in major coastal cities with strong connections to the arts like LA and NYC have a far greater advantage in meeting the right people and getting in the right places, while those born in places like Louisville KY do not. I also think this breeds a highly competitive culture and results in the filmmakers who do "make it" becoming jaded or having an inflated ego and demanding to be taken seriously even if they're hacks (ex: Jordan Peele).

However, I personally think the biggest contributor is just movie studios constantly trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator and Hollywood focusing on an international audience too much.

Netflix isn't gonna take a chance on anything that's distinctly anything because they don't want to alienate an audience. I don't think there was any intention that something like Best In Show would reach an international audience, but Netflix wants their shit to be playing on every continent. Theaters seem to only want blockbusters for the same reason, so we get the Minecraft Movie, Nolan films, and 4000 Marvel Movies every year so they can keep the Chinese market.

It feels like shouting into the void, but I just feel like we're losing American culture over this. It's a similar thing in music too right now, like allegedly most of Gen Z is unemployed and unable to get started in life and I haven't heard a single song reflecting that feeling. I'm not talking about some bullshit like that redneck guy who sings in the woods or whatever. I mean actual hits, like in the 90s you had Beck with Loser, in the 2000s you had Weezer and Arcade Fire. Like what do you have now? Songs don't even feel like they're about anything anymore.

Idk maybe I'm just getting old.
No.11336 Anonymous>>11416 2026-08-03 12:15:09
>>11226
The change is that income in the culture/media has crashed, and the shrinking sector has been taken over by elite strivers who have fought to be in first class on a sinking ship.

Back when people were selling zines for a buck through the mail, a creative could master a decentralized mass-medium (print, design, recording arts, some performing arts) and then make money directly or near-directly from it. Lots of middle class weirdos could succeed on these terms, and some low class people could too. Now people don't buy CDs, and they consume media through services, and those services merge etc. Although you can spend a lot of time doing the digital equivalent of busking, people don't feel like paying creators for media anymore and so a relatively small number of tastemakers instead the big studios / houses / corporations are the only ones who can pay a living to a creator. And for whatever reason, the upper-class strivers have proven better at capturing those few remaining opportunities. They interview better. They're more professional. They give you what you think you want. And they tend to come from upper middle class families closer to the coasts and closer to the families of established insiders. So it looks safer, nicer, less weird, and more like wealthy coastal exurbs.

Along the way we switched from bazaar dynamics (offering what you never thought to ask for) to cathedral dynamics (offering what the priestly class says you're supposed to want).
No.11384 Anonymous>>11385 >>11416 2026-08-04 15:45:32
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>>11230
>Netflix isn't gonna take a chance on anything that's distinctly anything because they don't want to alienate an audience
This really hits the nail on the head. I recently read this study from the late 70's about preschool-children and screens, and they touch on this exact phenomenon: Shows/movies made for an international audience lack geographic/cultural quirks, making them bland and boring. Whereas TV with good writing (example used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Seacrow_Island) has this cultural anchorage with allows for more engaging (recognizable) stories than, say, a flying dog visiting imaginary planets ever can.

You're mostly talking about blockbusters(?), where this blandness definitely is a trend that I've also noticed but not put into words (compare the aesthetics of the first Fast&Furious movies to the latter ones, for example). It's probably just the US, losing its cultural hegemony, feeling forced to cater to an international audience (like you're saying). Smaller titles might still have some merit, but I don't really follow contemporary American cinema, so I wouldn't know.

Maybe look more into European/international films? I really like La Chimera (2024), Alcarràs (2022), Megane (2007).
No.11385 Anonymous 2026-08-04 15:51:50
>>11384
wow very prescient picrel... wonder how those guys feel about the rise of ipad kids
(the title means 'children in front of the screen')
No.11416 Anonymous 2026-08-06 15:40:30
>>11336
This is a really insightful comment, I've noticed the same things but the bazaar vs cathedral dynamics is a really great way of putting it.

>shrinking sector has been taken over by elite strivers
I've noticed this in pretty much all of our industries. I think tech is the biggest offender as it used to be one of the last bastions of true upward mobility. They went from ping pong tables and hiring kids from random schools as long as they could pass interviews to 996 schedules within a decade and the demographics of who is getting hired at these corporations is very enlightening to say the least (it's entirely people from top colleges).

>>11384
Yes I think this might be a uniquely American phenomenon. Mads Mikkelsen and Stellan Skarsgard are two of my favorite actors and when I think of their recent movies (Druk & Sentimental Value) they're so closely coupled with the area they were filmed that they almost seem like advertisements for Oslo and Copenhagen. Specifically with nordic films there seems to be a stronger attachment to location. I remember seeing an interview with Mikkelsen where he was talking about making the Pusher movies. He said he was very serious about portraying the underbelly of Cophenhagen and it was important to him because it was where he grew up.

>Maybe look more into European/international films?
I used to watch a lot of international movies but stopped. I really miss the shared cultural connection I got from watching American movies though. I grew up here, my family has been here for generations. It's really weird, even outside of movies it feels like a lot of places are losing their identity and just becoming nothing.
No.11419 Anonymous 2026-08-07 00:39:51
Gays don't like them ergo no representation.
No.11424 Anonymous 2026-08-07 04:42:30
>>11230
>It feels like shouting into the void, but I just feel like we're losing American culture over this.

And at the same time, international Netflix (and other studios) manage to erode all local culture out of their shows that are not produced in the US. Their quality notwithstanding, but Sex Education is essentially a US High School dramedy. The same with Ted Lasso.

I can only think of the show "Dark" which does feel particularly German.
No.11444 Anonymous 2026-08-08 11:30:59
Why is it so important to you to see yourself and your locale reflected in blockbuster movies? Does it cease to exist if it's not filmed and commercially released in a banal two hour format?
No.11452 Anonymous>>11454 2026-08-08 13:21:02
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>>11230
>I'm not talking about some bullshit like that redneck guy who sings in the woods or whatever. I mean actual hits, like in the 90s you had Beck with Loser, in the 2000s you had Weezer and Arcade Fire. Like what do you have now?
Holy shit thank you. No one voices the generational experience, it's either laundered through past media, boomer delusions, or skinwalked by industry baby retards who are out of their depth.

Absolutely no one has managed to voice the despair of living in a downwardly mobile America. The actual culture of the era is silent and we only see the artificial.
No.11454 Anonymous 2026-08-08 13:36:10
>>11452
>Absolutely no one has managed to voice the despair of living in a downwardly mobile America.

We know, everyone knows, you all never shut up about it