Farmers, fields, families...

Tully
What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

...

Tender Mercies
All the Real Girls
The Last Picture Show

The most true, at least someone who grew up in an Iowa town of 6000: The Straight Story.

Dale

Alternative takes: Boys Don't Cry, Brokeback Mountain, Texas Chainsaw Massacre?!

Sorry - couldn't help myself!

Add to that Blue Velvet.

Doc Hollywood
Cars

Aye, I did ponder on Lynch for a minute but was thinking about Twin Peaks as I haven't seen Blue Velvet *hides head in shame*

For a film that gets it dead wrong, try Waiting for Guffman.

Can you elaborate? I can think of a couple bits that are indecorous, small-town-wise, but given that it's a broad comedy, nothing comes to mind that would make it a "dead wrong" depiction of a certain sub-subculture (i.e. Midwest village theater types).

Dale

Our Town (1940)

Dogville (2003)

I'm married to a Midwest theater type, and there is nothing about the film's portrayal of them that is the least bit accurate, from what I can see.

In a previous discussion on WfG, someone opined that the film can't make up its mind whether to be a sweet little comedy or a scorched-earth satire, and it ends up doing a lousy job of both.

Funny Farm

October Sky

Mumford
Lonesome Jim

I'll need to remember that when I defend my lacklustre impression of the film from those who think it's the funniest thing ever.

Back to the topic at hand, what about Junebug?

Friday Night Lights (both the movie and the TV series)
The Miracle at Morgan's Creek (kinda)
It's a Wonderful Life (of COURSE!)

Good call.

Is Bedford Falls too large?

Elizabethtown

Can't believe I didn't add one of my favorites to this list...

Breaking Away

Lars & The Real Girl

Farmers, fields, families...

Places in the Heart
To Kill a Mockingbird
Housekeeping
The Shipping News

A number of "underdog sports team" movies are also set in small towns and touch on those themes (Friday Night Lights has been mentioned):
The Rookie
Remember the Titans
Glory Road
Hoosiers

Housekeeping was made into a movie?! I had no idea! ... I'm going to have to look into that.

Back to the topic. A number of alien movies are small-town themed. They seem to be idea for para-normal experiences...or perhaps small towns were a nice divergence to the classic War of the Worlds theme "big scary aliens completely destroy the densely-populated city".

*Signs
*ET
*Close Encounters of the Third Kind (I think that Muncie, IN counts as small-town. It might be a college town, but it certainly has a small-town mentality, and it's completely surrounded by fields...and to think I used to live 31 miles outside Muncie...)

The Station Agent

Signs fits the bill, but ET and CEOT3K do not. Just because someone lives in a development, sheesh. Living in a development is not a small town.

From the just-saw-it-/-can't-believe-nobody-mentioned-it-yet files...

SHADOW OF A DOUBT