After another long year of contending with the pandemic and the new introduction of the Omicron variant, never has there been a better year to spend New Year’s Eve in the safety of your own home. Whether you are being cautious or would just prefer to keep it simple this year, it doesn’t mean you can’t have any fun. Throw up some decorations and grab some noisemakers, put pen to paper to make note of your resolutions for 2022, put on your favorite New Year’s special, and cue up the fireworks on YouTube. Most importantly, grab a bottle of your favorite champagne (or sparkling cider) and cozy up on the couch with your loved ones for a befitting New Year’s Eve movie marathon.
Whether you favor romantic comedies, horror movies, or action, there is something to suit all tastes. Complete with New Year’s Eve countdowns, ball drops, New Year’s Eve kisses, resolutions, and unrequited love, these movies are sure to get you in the mood for 2022. Here are the 13 best movies to help ring in the new year.
13 New Year’s Evil
Image Via: Cannon Group
In this New Year’s Eve Horror movie, a misogynistic murderer calls into a New Year’s Eve countdown event hosted by Diane “Blaze” Sullivan (Roz Kelly). The caller calls himself “Evil” and claims that when the clock strikes midnight in each time zone, a “naughty girl” will be punished. As the night progresses, women across LA are butchered. Until the killer emerges in real life at the party to punish Diane as well.
12 Strange Days
Lightstorm Entertainment
This sci-fi thriller is not only set at the end of the year but also at the end of the millennium and thus capitalizes on Y2K hysteria. Strange Days recounts the story of ex-police officer Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) who now makes his living selling virtual experiences through real-life videotapes he acquires through a source named Tick (Richard Edson). When Lenny comes across what appears to be a snuff film, his cop intuition kicks in, and he begins investigating.
11 New Year’s Eve
New Line Cinema
While it may not be one of Garry Marshall’s best films, New Year’s Eve certainly captures the spirit of the holiday. The film is part of a trilogy of sorts with two other Garry Marshall-directed holiday-themed movies Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. The story may be your typical rom-com fare, but the movie hails an all-star cast with the likes of Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Ludacris, Ashton Kutcher, Robert DeNiro, Sarah Jessica Parker, and many more.
10 Boogie Nights
Image Via: Lawrence Gordon Pictures
Make sure you put the kids to bed before you indulge in this film. Boogie Nights gives Mark Wahlberg a chance to shed his Marky Mark persona indefinitely. Initially reluctant to read the script due to its subject matter, Wahlberg almost turned down the role. Wahlberg plays Eddie Adams a.k.a Dirk Diggler a well endowed fledgling porn star recruited by porn filmmaker Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds). Little Bill Thompson (William H Macy) starts 1980 off with a bang (literally) when he takes revenge on his cheating wife at a New Years’ party at Jack Horner’s house.
9 Four Rooms
Image Via: A Band Apart
Set in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve, Four Rooms is co-written and co-directed by Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Allison Anders, and Allison Rockwell, and stars Tim Roth as a bellhop who is unwittingly involved in the happenings of 4 separate rooms in the fictional Mon Signor hotel. Each tale is more bizarre than the last, however, it does make for an interesting New Year’s Eve.
8 Diner
Image Via: Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Diner tells the tale of a group of close friends reuniting around the holidays to prepare for their friend Eddie’s (Steve Guttenberg) New Year’s Eve wedding. The friends revisit their old hangout Fells Point Diner and come to terms with adulthood, while mostly behaving like children.
7 Money Train
Columbia Pictures
Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson star as foster brothers John and Charlie Robinson respectively, who team up to rob a New York City Subway money train to pay off Charlie’s gambling debts. The pair decide to rob the train on New Year’s Eve when the take will be its largest, and security will be loose. Jennifer Lopez co-stars as Grace Santiago, a new transit officer that captures the heart of both brothers.
6 Bridget Jones’s Diary
Universal Pictures
Bridget Jones’s Diary starts and ends with the New Year and follows protagonist Bridget Jones as she diarizes her resolutions for the year ahead. The movie is technically a romantic comedy, but it certainly favours the comedy part of the equation. Colin Firth and Hugh Grant co-star as potential mates pitted against one another. The movie ultimately spawned 2 sequels Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Bridget Jones’s Baby.
5 While You Were Sleeping
Image Credit: Caravan Pictures
The Sandra Bullock hit While You Were Sleeping tells the story of a lonely, love-lorn transit token-operator who saves the life of the man she is currently crushing on when he falls onto transit tracks. At the hospital, while Peter (Peter Gallagher) is in a coma, Lucy (Bullock) accidentally announces herself as his fiancée. His family quickly welcomes her as their own and she falls in love with them as well. The plot thickens during a New Year’s Eve party when Lucy realizes that she may have feelings for Peter’s brother Jack (Bill Pullman).
4 Snowpiercer
Image Via: Moho Film
The dystopian drama Snowpiercer is set on New Year’s Eve 2031, after a failed global-warming experiment that leaves the entire world frozen. The only survivors are those who happened to be aboard the Snowpiercer (a train that circumnavigates the globe). Stuck on the train for the past 17 years the passengers have created their own class and economic structures. Each train car houses a different class. A revolution ensues when Curtis (Chris Evans) encourages the lower-class passengers to fight their way to the front of the train and improve their situation.
3 When Harry Met Sally
Image Via: Castle Rock Entertainment
Rob Reiner directs When Harry Met Sally, one of the best romantic comedies of all time. In the film, Reiner attempts to address the age-old adage: “Can men and women ever really be friends?” Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) meet in their college years when they rideshare back home for holidays. The two go their separate ways, however, their paths continue to cross throughout their lives, and their relationship deepens until one night they sleep together, and everything changes.
2 An Affair to Remember
Image Via: 20th Century Studios
An Affair to Remember is a classic love story that begins with a New Year’s kiss. Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant) and Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) meet on an ocean liner bound for New York, the pair are each in committed relationships, but throughout their encounters realize they are in love with each other. As the ship is set to dock, and the pair begin to part ways, they vow to end their relationships and meet again atop the Empire State Building in six months. An Affair to Remember is a remake of 1939’s Love Affair starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. There is also a 1994 version starring Annette Benning and Warren Beatty. Any iteration of this film is one worth watching.
1 200 Cigarettes
Image Via: Lakeshore Entertainment
200 Cigarettes is the quintessential New Year’s Eve movie. Monica (Martha Plimpton) is throwing a New Year’s Eve party at her New York City apartment and is neurotically terrified that no one will show up. Meanwhile, the film follows several groups of people who are on their way to the party and the events leading them there. It boasts an all-star cast including, Paul Rudd, Courtney Love, Christina Ricci, Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, Janeane Garofalo, Ben Affleck, Dave Chappelle, and more.
