City Mouse, Country Mouse: Expansive Visions in Small-Town and Small-City Cinema

Among the many virtues of Mouse, the extraordinary new feature by Evanston-based filmmakers Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, is the eclectic communal tapestry it presents of O’Sullivan’s hometown, North Little Rock, Arkansas (pop. 65,000). The movie helps to fill a gap between the poles of “rural small town” and “bustling metropolis” that continue to dominate U.S. cultural storytelling, whether cinematic or journalistic. This lecture highlights how Mouse and some similar indie gems open up their settings for national and worldwide audiences, precisely by leaning into local particularities. Rejecting the cliché of intimate communities where everybody already knows everyone, these movies also stage unexpected encounters between dissimilar protagonists, further evoking revelatory possibilities in places and in people we have misjudged or overlooked.

Recommended Moviegoing: Mouse (opening November 6 in Chicago)

Recommended Home Viewing: Junebug (2005), Princess Cyd (2017), and/or Saint Frances (2020)