Films and TV shows that feel like Chicago by Sufjan Stevens

A road-trip elegy of leaving home and starting over, where youthful hope, regret and forgiveness swell into a soaring, tearful release.

1. Call Me by Your Name (2017): Features Sufjan's music and shares the aching, bittersweet swell of a transformative moment and its tender aftermath.
2. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986): A joyful love letter to Chicago, its streets and skyline, full of youthful freedom.
3. Lady Bird (2017): A restless young person leaves home, with tender regret toward family and the place she came from.
4. Little Miss Sunshine (2006): An indie road trip through America with a mismatched family, funny, sad and cathartic.
5. Almost Famous (2000): A young person hits the road and finds a bigger world, with an ache of nostalgia and hope.
6. Nebraska (2013): A quiet Midwest road journey with forgiveness and family at its heart.
7. Boyhood (2014): Midwest-ish American growing up through the 2000s, tracing change, loss and open-ended hope.
8. The Bear (2022): Chicago-set and emotionally raw, about starting over and making peace with the past.