A better way to look for a Miami movie is how the city actually reflects a film's theme or mood. It's not about noticing landmarks as much as capturing a spirit. The following are the movies, from flicks and films to shorts and even documentaries, that are memorable because they were shot in Miami.
1. Suddenly We Jumped (2014)
Why not show Miami as oblivion? Antonia Wright’s short silent film was last shown at Borscht Diez earlier this year, adding another layer of astonishment to an already disorienting film festival celebrating its own self-destruction. It’s a transcendental short of mesmerizing quality that takes one’s breath away. The artist’s nude body slowly emerges from pitch blackness toward the camera to shatter a pane of real glass. No, that's not stunt sugar glass. The film was shot in a Miami art studio tall enough to launch the artist upward to the glass from a trampoline.
“I’m using my body as a weapon,” the artist once told this writer. Like Wright, local visual artists and filmmakers often need to weaponize their craft to break down the obstacles they confront, from no or little governmental support to the ignorant biases of outsiders in the industry.
2. Moonlight (2016)
You know Moonlight. It's the infamous Oscar winner whose glory was brought down by a mixup of hubris by an idiot accountant of PricewaterhouseCoopers distracted by tweeting a picture of Emma Stone. The awards ceremony is a sad piece of the film's history, but Moonlight itself is a beautifully shot movie. Liberty-City-kid-turned-Los-Angeles-based filmmaker Barry Jenkins returned to the Magic City to shoot a film whose essence is the banality of Miami, from the beach to Jimmy’s Eastside Diner. On a low budget and with no tax credits from the state, Jenkins created an accessible version of a Hou Hsiao-hsien movie with an all-black cast, harnessing a contemplative aesthetic to tell a real-world story by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, who grew up as a gay black man in the macho world of Liberty City.
3. #Postmodem (2013)
Shot by local filmmakers/artists Lucas Leyva and Jillian Mayer, this film might not be what most people think of when they think of Miami movies, but it’s a work that could've been made only by Miami-born artists. The short is a play on the concept of the "Singularity," popularized by the technological philosopher Ray Kurzweil. It’s a place where geography no longer matters, yet there’s no denying the inspiration for the short film’s freestyle soundtrack and neon color palette. The film tackles a heavy existential concept, opening with little kids talking about their eventual deaths. But there's levity too, which comes from a joy of the moment and hope that joy lasts forever. It’s abandon with a sprinkling of wish fulfillment and a twinkle of cynicism that continuously one-ups itself and speaks to the complexity of the humor and intellect that resides in Miami-bred talent.
4. Cocaine Cowboys (2006)
Cocaine Cowboys is one of the best documentaries ever filmed in Miami. It captures a period with incredible verve, famously containing something like 5,000 edits in its kinetically paced narratives. That’s more than three times the number of cuts you would normally see in an average movie of this length. When the film was released, it practically dethroned Scarface as a cult favorite about Miami’s cocaine scene. After all, isn’t truth crazier than fiction? Director Billy Corben and producer Alfred Spellman, who grew up here, are planning a third installment as the story continues to evolve. It was just a few weeks ago that the so-called last of the cocaine cowboys was arrested after 26 years in hiding.
5. Miami Vice (2006)
Aren’t we all just waiting for the wink-wink comedic ChiPs version of this TV show? Well, when Michael Mann, who directed one of Miami Vice's early TV episodes, decided to make a cinematic adaptation almost 20 years after the show’s premiere, he went dark. Never has Miami's junction of U.S. 1 and I-95 seemed so perilous. The TV show always had a dark edge, but there was something even starker and nihilistic about this movie, which many critics didn't get. (Guess they had to be from Miami.)
6. Scarface (1983)
Shouldn’t this be number one? Frankly, few people thought Scarface was that great when it was first released. The cult following came later, based on either an ironic appreciation or a primal fascination for its grotesque depiction of Cuban-American masculinity and all the misogyny, violence, and gaudiness that comes with it. Still, they're fitting reasons to love this film, considering the city where it was shot. Director Brian De Palma captures the malaise of the effects of the Mariel Boatlift and amps up a cautionary tale of the cocaine-pedaling Marielitos who came to Miami to strike paranoia, hatred, and fear into tourists and locals alike.
Sony Pictures
It’s a sad fact for those who have grown up in Miami: Corruption abounds. The city is largely built on shady deals and questionable ethics. If you aren’t cheating in some way, you’re doing it wrong. Shot by a hot Hollywood director of the time (the late Sydney Pollack), Absence of Malice made investigative reporting look really bad, as Sally Field’s character snatches up facts of a “secret investigation” that are leaked to her, prints a story about it with no attribution, and ultimately sleeps with the subject of said investigation (Paul Newman). But it’s also a story about love, so damn the ethics. With scenes shot at Vizcaya, the old Miami Herald building, Coral Gables, and Coconut Grove, the film slides right into Miami's environment.
8. River of Grass (1994)
Famed indie director Kelly Reichardt grew up on the border between Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. Though she has moved on from making movies locally, her debut feature certainly proved she could capture the ennui of the ordinary places of the area, hardly any of which remain. She even shot several scenes at the Royal Court Motel on Biscayne Boulevard while it was being demolished. The film followed a couple of slackers (Lisa Bowman and Larry Fessenden) who want to flee their boring lives but can’t seem to get out of Broward before boredom turns to one of the most uneventful and morose murders ever.
9. There's Something About Mary (1998)
The twisted, politically incorrect humor of the Farrelly brothers perfectly culminates in Miami Beach with scenes of semen in hair, a testicle-chomping terrier, and a leathery old lady who has no shame flashing her sagging knockers. Mary, the object of desire for characters played by Matt Dillon, Ben Stiller, Lee Evans, Chris Elliot, and even Brett Favre as himself, is played by Cuban-American actress Cameron Diaz. Besides filming in Miami Beach and Miami, the movie was also shot in Plantation, and the filmmakers even used Greenwich Studios in North Miami for interiors.
Sony Pictures
Wild Things is one of the hottest movies shot in Miami, even if inadvertently comically so. It opens with an aerial view of South Florida, from the Everglades to Brickell to the Ransom Everglades School, where shenanigans about false accusations of rape and insurance fraud unfold. From a cheap Opa-locka strip mall to the regal Mediterranean-style Coral Gables City Hall, an array of landmarks are used. But it’s the over-the-top ménage à trois tension among two beautiful high-school students played by Neve Campbell and Denise Richards and an unethical high-school adviser played by Matt Dillon that are the film’s seedy heart and soul. The slow-motion ogling of the camera against self-aware sexy music is as shameless as the city that inspires it.
