Ring in the New Year with a cinematic twist! Here's a list of films to watch on New Year's Eve, each offering a unique perspective on the start of a new year. From romantic comedies to epic adventures, these movies will keep you entertained and provide a perfect backdrop for reflecting on the past year and setting intentions for the future.
The Apartment
Billy Wilder's 'The Apartment' is a brilliant, bleak comedy of office politics and festive bad cheer. It memorably ends on the stroke of midnight as heartsick Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine) abandons a drunken New Year's party to be with hapless, jobless CC Baxter (Jack Lemmon). Is this the start of a new, happy chapter for them? Probably not, but the ending gives us a sudden sense of hope and freedom, with everything packed in boxes except for a bottle, two glasses, and a deck of cards. 'Shut up and deal.'
Strange Days
Kathryn Bigelow's 'Strange Days' is a pre-millennial tech-noir that has seen its reputation swell over the decades. James Cameron and Jay Cocks' screenplay straddles the 20th and 21st centuries: kick-ass chauffeur Angela Bassett strives to shake lovelorn VR addict Ralph Fiennes from his funk so as to unravel a conspiracy involving the LAPD. It's a cautionary tale about real-world structural flaws and the bedazzlements of the virtual realm, and a propulsive, jolting, finally exhilarating thriller.
The Irony of Fate
Based on the 1976 New Year's Eve classic, this 2022 romcom struggles to live up to its predecessor. The holiday misrule premise, beloved of many NYE flicks, works even more fruitfully in the far more rigid Soviet context. Soon-to-be-married Moscow doctor Zhenya (Andrey Myagkov) mistakenly gets on a flight to Leningrad after his stag party, and drunkenly falls asleep in an apartment with the same address, where willowy Nadya (Barbara Brylska) is welcoming her cranky fiance, Ippolit (Yury Yakovlev, the Soviet John Cleese).
The Lord of the Rings
Peter Jackson's epic three-part adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' is a New Year's Eve tradition for some. It's a chance to reflect and look back over the year while enjoying a glorious trio of films whose comforting familiarity never breeds contempt. Instead, like a good marriage, the flaws are part of what you adore.
Sunset Boulevard
William Holden's screenwriter rocks up at faded starlet Gloria Swanson's mansion in white tie, to discover he's the only other guest. Eventually, he storms out in search of genuine revelry, only to be reeled back in before midnight after Swanson melodramatically slashes her wrists. The new year is not going to be happy for either of them. This is a piercingly grim but also gloriously camp, Billy Wilder's diamond-cut Hollywood hate letter.
The Shining
A horror staple that never wears thin, 'The Shining' is a perfect movie for New Year's Eve. Most people have seen it at least three times already, so you won't need to hit pause to get the sausage rolls out of the oven. The Shining is also a classic winter movie, ending with a snowstorm at the Overlook hotel where aspiring novelist and alcoholic Jack Torrance has been growing ever more homicidal over the winter.
The Poseidon Adventure
Remember that worse things happen at sea? And rarely do they get worse than the big wet hell in which the passengers of the SS Poseidon flounder in this most glorious and absorbing of disaster movies. No sooner have the corks popped to mark the start of 1972 than the warnings of captain Leslie Nielsen against going full speed ahead are realized and the boat is bottom-up in the middle of the Atlantic, with thousands meeting grisly and often quite creative ends.
Radio Days
Woody Allen's 'Radio Days' is a still-wonderful memoir of his boyhood years in 1940s New York. There are so many jewels within, from 'You think the Atlantic is a greater ocean than the Pacific?' to the burglars who win a radio phone-in competition, that are worth it for themselves alone. But at its heart, there's an out-with-the-old in-with-the-new wistfulness to the whole thing.
Holiday
'Holiday' is the best New Year's Eve-set romcom, released in 1938. Much of it unfolds at a party, during which Johnny (Cary Grant), who has resolved to take some time off to recharge and rediscover himself after years of labor, is drawn toward Linda (Katharine Hepburn), the free-spirited sister of his fiancée. The lead characters' willingness to rebuke expectations of capitalistic productivity and instead make meaningful promises about how to better live their lives makes it a particularly inspired and heartening watch.
La bonne année
For a happy New Year with a French accent, try 'La bonne année' (1973) directed by Claude Lelouch. In this non-linear narrative, he channels his inner Jean-Pierre Melville by casting Lino Ventura, one of Melville's favorite actors, as a convict out on Christmas parole and remembering a heist that went wrong. The robbery flashbacks alternate with his wooing of Françoise Fabian as the proprietor of an antiques shop next door to the targeted jewelry store.
Phantom Thread
'Phantom Thread' is pretty much the perfect movie for most occasions, but one of its most effectively date-specific sequences takes place during New Year's. She wants to go dancing, he wants to do nothing, and in one of the movie's most ravishingly orchestrated moments, he goes after her, forced to play prince and save her from the extravagant party chaos. It's too little too late, but in the hopeful, post-dodgy omelette flash forward at the end, they're dancing instead of arguing their way into a new year.
When Harry Met Sally ...
Appropriate for any New Year's Eve, but even more so after this bummer of a month, 'When Harry Met Sally' is a classic. Made 36 years ago, it still seems remarkably fresh. The uncertainties, the awkwardness, the miscommunications, these things are just as universal as they were in 1989. Nora Ephron's script still sparkles. Rob Reiner's direction is still note-perfect. Watching it will make you miss them both, but that's the point. Press play at 10:30 pm, and 2026 will ring in right as Billy Crystal declares his love for Meg Ryan on New Year's Eve.
