New Year's Eve can be a blast—or a wretched holiday with the sole purpose of making people stay up past midnight, only to wake with a nasty hangover in the new year.
If you'd prefer to start 2017 after a good night's sleep, skip the ball drop and spend New Year's Eve on the couch curled up with a classic comedy, heartwarming romance, or enduring drama. But a movie night doesn't mean you have to give up on the festivities altogether. Here are the movies that ring in the new year best.
When Harry Met Sally
When Harry (Billy Crystal) met Sally (Meg Ryan), a lifelong friendship was sparked and a romantic classic was made. While Rob Reiner's funny, heartwarming film spans the course of many years, much of the action (not involving Meg Ryan faking an orgasm) culminates one fateful New Year's Eve. There's just something about the end of a year and the beginning of a new one that can make you realize the one you love is standing right in front of you.
The Godfather: Part II
Don't look to Francis Ford Coppola's Academy Award–winning mafia classic, The Godfather: Part II, for New Year's Eve party tips. In the film, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) heads to Cuba to invest some of his mob money in a Havana casino. At the hotel's New Year's party, Michael tells his brother he knows who was behind a hit on him. "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart," he says, before giving him a New Year's Eve kiss that went down in cinematic history—and then the Cuban Revolution breaks out. Since you can't top that, just watch it instead.
200 Cigarettes
Go totally '80s with this indie ensemble starring everyone from Dave Chappelle to Janeane Garofalo, Courtney Love, Christina Ricci, Kate Hudson, the eternally youthful Paul Rudd (please share your skin care routine immediately), and a double hit of Affleck (both Ben and Casey play roles). The film's action all takes place on New Year's Eve, and several storylines all overlap around a party thrown by a neurotic New Yorker (Martha Plimpton) that ends up being memorable for many reasons. The dialogue is fast paced, with characters making caustic asides and occasionally uttering brutal analyses of love, but Ricci's Long Island accent, a guest appearance by Elvis Costello, and Chappelle's incredible disco cab make it all worthwhile.
After the Thin Man
The dashing and bibulous Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) return in this sequel to Christmas classic The Thin Man. The debonair couple return to San Francisco for New Year's Eve. They think they're headed for a party at Nora's family home, but it turns out Nick is needed for another job. Our detectives wander the city looking for whodunit and the result is delightful, funny, and thoroughly booze soaked. A young Jimmy Stewart joins in the fun, helping solve the multiple murders that seem to have followed the Charleses from coast to coast.
Waiting to Exhale
New Year's Eve is a good time to reflect on your love life with your three best friends, at least according to Waiting to Exhale. Savannah (Whitney Houston) is in love with a married man, while her three friends have their own problems—Bernadine's (Angela Bassett) husband is dallying with his secretary, Gloria (Loretta Devine) has spent her life thinking only about her son, and Robin (Lela Rochon) is successful in business but not love. Bookended between two New Year's Eves, the film follows the four women through their turbulent love lives, filled with cads, jerks, ghosts, thieves, and married cheaters. But who needs men when you have each other? And champagne, of course.
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Ghostbusters II
Who ya gonna call when it's New Year's Eve, the ball is about to drop in New York's Times Square, and a river of slime in a very bad mood is taking over the city thanks to an ancient evil named Vigo the Carpathian? The Ghostbusters, of course. And who are they going to call to help save the day? Lady Liberty herself. As Winston (Ernie Hudson) says, "New York, what a town, huh?" While this sequel lacks some of the charm of the original, it still has Bill Murray's Peter Venkman predicting the end of the world will happen at the stroke of midnight; Annie Potts answering phones; and Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Hudson busting ghosts, getting the ladies, and dishing out the one-liners.
Sunset Boulevard
Silent movie queen Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) is throwing a New Year's Eve party, but no one in Hollywood wants to come, worried that her falling star is contagious. The only guest is a screenwriter (William Holden), whom she hopes will help with her comeback film—and a lot more. It doesn't quite work out that way in Billy Wilder's brilliant, dark classic. Part tawdry exposé of Hollywood, part gripping drama with a film noir bent, the film went on to be nominated for 11 Academy Awards. If you're putting together a holiday double feature, Wilder directed another New Year's Eve classic, The Apartment.
Ocean's 11
When this Rat Pack of World War II vets come together to rob a string of Vegas casinos, the gang decides the best time to strike is New Year's Eve. All they need to do is blow all the lights in Vegas, rob five casinos, and get out of town with the cash. If these cool cats can pull it off, it'll be the biggest heist ever. But if something goes wrong, the fellow soldiers may turn on each other to save their skin—and their massive payouts. Much like the remake, the original has an incredible cast of characters, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Cesar Romero, and Angie Dickinson.
Bridget Jones's Diary
The best way to mark a New Year is with an empty diary and a couple of men to fill it with, especially if those men are played by Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. Bridget Jones's Diary opens on New Year's Day with Bridget (Renee Zellweger) feeling bloated, single, and ready for a change that does not involve wearing an ugly sweater in front of a handsome stranger (Firth) at your mother's turkey curry buffet. By the end of the year, Bridget hasn't met any of her New Year's resolutions, but still gets a memorable make-out session that will forever change your mind about how so-called nice boys should kiss.
Boogie Nights
William H. Macy sends out the year with a bang when he brings a gun to a New Year's Eve party in Paul Thomas Anderson's dark and stormy Boogie Nights. Mark Wahlberg stars as Dirk Diggler in this gritty look at the late-'70s adult film world. It's all cocaine and very adult fun until the holiday party, when a tragedy tarnishes the industry's luster and shine. Burt Reynolds (and his mustache) excels as a sleazy porn director in the film, while Julianne Moore and John C. Reilly play adult film stars with hearts of gold—and Heather Graham will make you never, ever want to wear roller skates again.
The Poseidon Adventure
If you think your New Year's Eve party is dullsville, at least you're not stuck on a sinking ocean liner that is flipped upside down as the clock strikes midnight. Adapted from the Paul Gallico novel, the film follows an unlikely group of survivors who band together after their luxury liner is swamped by a massive tidal wave. Led by a determined minister (Gene Hackman), their only hope for surviving into the next year is to stick together. One of the best disaster movies of all time, this waterlogged drama will have you on the edge of your seat, and grateful to be on dry land.
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