13 Chicago Movies on Netflix

Let’s face it, we’ve already experienced record snow fall in November, so we might as well assume it’s winter. Luckily, you can still experience the great city of Chicago from the comfort of our couch!

Whether you’re enjoying the Evanston suburbs via Mean Girls, the surprising romantic CTA stop  via While You Were Sleeping, or The Art Institute via Ferris Bueller’s Day off, there are plenty of Chicago based movies on Netflix for you to watch right now. Enjoy!

The Blues Brothers

What began as a Saturday Night Live sketch by Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi could not be contained. After only three appearances on the show, the duo released an album and two years later starred in this iconic film of car chases and the blues, featuring performances by Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker.

Drinking Buddies

Those who’ve been on the brewery tour at the Revolution Brewing Taproom will recognize the workplace of the two main characters Kate (Olivia Wilde) and Luke (Jake Johnson). Realistically, the plot is everyone’s worst nightmare: falling in love with your co-worker and best friend when you’re both already dating someone. Throw in a trip to a cabin in the woods and things get positively complicated.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Do we really need to explain one of the city’s best fictional Chicagoans? Well, it stars a young, strapping Matthew Broderick as one Ferris Bueller, a rowdy teenager who plays hooky with his friends to romp around Chicago. This is definitely one must-see film for all in the city.

Happy Christmas

Anna Kendrick stars in this dramatic comedy as a young woman named Jenny, fresh off a breakup, who moves in with Kelly, a writer, her pianist husband and their 2-year-old son. Jenny and her friend Carson (Lena Dunham), shake up the family’s domestic life and force Kelly to redefine what it means to be happy in her life and profession.

H.H. Holmes: America’s First Serial Killer

As the title informs us, Chicago’s very own H.H. Holmes is infamous for being the first known serial killer in the U.S. Holmes was so dedicated to the act of killing that he built a three-story, one-block hotel for the purpose, which was open during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Holmes confessed to 27 murders, but there may be as many as 200. This chilling documentary tells the story of Holmes, his killings and the “murder castle” he built.

Hoop Dreams

This documentary follows two African-American boys and their quest to become professional basketball players while growing up in Chicago’s inner city. It was one of the relatively few films beloved Chicago film critic Roger Ebert gave four stars, and it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival when it premiered in 1994, as well as a slew of other prestigious film honors.

Mean Girls

There’s some debate over whether Tina Fey based the cliquish North Shore High School, where new girl Cady meets the Plastics and learns to wear pink on Wednesdays, on Evanston Township High School or Winnetka’s New Trier High. Getting a definitive answer, much like “fetch,” isn’t going to happen. Watch to remember there was a time when Lindsay Lohan could play a naïve innocent.

My Best Friend’s Wedding

This 1997 romantic comedy was the beginning of Julia Roberts’s dynastic takeover of the romantic comedy genre. In college, Julianne (Roberts) and her friend Michael promise one another they’d marry if they weren’t hitched by age 28. Then Michael calls Julianne two weeks before her 28th birthday to tell her he’s getting married to Kimmy Wallace (Cameron Diaz). Julianne heads to Chicago to sabotage the marriage.

Only the Lonely

It seems almost every extremely famous comedian has done a romantic comedy at some time in their career, and John Candy is no different. This one has him playing a 38-year-old Chicago cop who still lives with his very strict, very Irish mother and falls in love with introverted funeral home worker.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Another Chicago film starring John Candy, this time he’s paired with the slapstick hijinks of Steve Martin. Martin plays Neal Page, a stressed out marketing executive just trying to get back to Chicago, while Candy plays Del Griffith, who’s an almost irritatingly extroverted shower curtain ring salesman. After meeting, the two embark on a three-day journey trying to get Neal home from New York City so he can have Thanksgiving Dinner with his family.

Risky Business

Before Tom Cruise truly fell down the Scientology wormhole, there was a boyish series of films thatRisky Business belongs to. Cruise stars as Joel, a rowdy teen who has been waiting for his parents to get out of town and gets into loads of trouble when they do. The film features one of the most iconic scenes in 1980s cinema, with Cruise dancing in a snug pair of tighty-whities and a button-down as he glides across the hardwood floor in a pair of brand new socks.

The Weather Man

Nicolas Cage does some great wallowing in this surprisingly dark film about a Chicago weather man named Dave and his midlife crisis, filmed in part in locations in and around Chicago. Watch for Dave’sWest Loop apartment and scenes in and around Belmont Harbor, Evanston and Skokie. Oh, and Michael Caine is in it too.

While You Were Sleeping

Sandra Bullock, another queen of romantic comedies, plays Lucy, a CTA fare collector (in the era before Ventra) who’s secretly fallen hard for Peter, a daily commuter she’s barely spoken to. One day, she rescues him from an oncoming train after muggers push him on the tracks. Despite this, Peter falls into a coma. When she visits him in the hospital, a nurse introduces her to Peter’s family as his fiancée, and she doesn’t deny it.

Movie write-ups by: Time Out Chicago