Close Out 2016 With These New Year's Eve Movies
12/31/2016 02:06 pm EST
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
When the U.S.S. Poseidon makes its way through frigid waters before one of its final voyages, a massive wave capsizes the vessel, trapping all of the passengers who had gathered in their best outfits to celebrate New Year's Eve. One of the earliest disaster films, The Poseidon Adventure is highly entertaining and features an impeccable cast, featuring the likes of Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Roddy McDowall, Shelley Winters, and Leslie Nielsen. A New Year's Eve classic if there ever was one!
[H/T YouTube/RetroBiografen]
New Year's Evil (1980)
Punk rock icon "Blaze" holds a New Year's Eve celebration from a hotel in Hollywood featuring the best new wave and rock music of the year, when a killer calls in to say his name is "Evil" and that when the clock strikes midnight in different time zones, he'll murder someone. A fun and cheesy experience, the film is a lot of fun and turns the countdown to midnight far more nefarious and makes you wish time would stop.
[H/T YouTube/Shout! Factory]
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan star as the titular characters of this romantic comedy about two friends struggle with dating and friendship, trying to repress their feelings for one another while also understanding they work better as friends. This film takes place over a much longer time frame than just New Year's Eve, but the film culminates at a party on December 31 that answers the question of "Will they or won't they?" For some, the end of the year can be about closure, but this film also reminds us it can be a time to embrace new beginnings.
Four Rooms (1995)
Tim Roth plays a bellhop that connects four different vignettes set throughout a hotel on New Year's Eve based on short adult stories by Roald Dahl. Four Rooms features darkly comic vignettes starring incredible actors like Bruce Willis, Madonna, Antonio Banderas, Lili Taylor, and Quentin Tarantino. Making the film even more interesting is that it had four different directors helm each segment, including young talents like Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino.
[H/T YouTube/LionsgateVOD]
Fruitvale Station (2013)
Easily the least fun movie on the list, Fruitvale Station tells the true story of a young man (played by Michael B. Jordan) trying to manage a job, a child, and a girlfriend who gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. When a dispute breaks out on public transportation on New Year's Eve, cops arrive to diffuse the situation, but that's when things go terribly wrong. The film is compelling, tense, and heartbreaking, and marks the first partnership between director Ryan Coogler and Jordan, who went on to make Creed and will work together in Black Panther.
Honorable Mention - Boogie Nights (1997)
Boogie Nights spans far more than one evening, but rather chronicles the rise and fall of porn star Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) at the end of the '70s and early '80s. Despite the long span of the film, one of the most compelling scenes of the film is set on New Year's Eve, with the transition from one decade to the next being a symbolic shift for characters headed into the new year. Also, a steadicam shot following William H. Macy's character through the party after he sees his wife cheating on him is one of the best sequences in the film and one of the best of director Paul Thomas Anderson's career.
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