The Best Movies for New Year's Scratch That Aspirational Itch
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Over the years, I’ve formed a makeshift New Year’s Day tradition. In the morning, I wake up, tend to my inevitable hangover, and crawl over to the couch. Then I pop a squat, grab some blankets, and queue up a movie to ring in the new year. This all started in 2018 when a post-New Year’s Eve headache ruined my plans for the day. Instead of embarking on an afternoon of self-care, I was trapped in my house, and in desperate need of something symbolic—but low-key—to do instead.
As it turns out, watching a bunch of fictional people celebrate the new year is a great way to prime yourself for another lap around the sun. Have you heard the New Year’s song in Rent? It’s downright inspiring. Since then, I’ve spent every New Year’s Day with a cup of coffee and a comforting movie. If you’d like to partake in the tradition, then stick with me. Below, you’ll find 20 of the best New Year’s films to stream on the big day. From The Gold Rush to Trading Places, each movie comes with a valuable lesson that will shape your year.
New Year’s Day
In New Year’s Day, a man from Los Angeles arrives at his sublet, only to see the previous tenants: three women who believe their lease ends on New Year's Day. Somehow, it’s less creepy than it sounds! After the women let him in, the group celebrates the New Year—and creates some much-needed resolutions.
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Diner
In Diner, a man named Billy travels to his hometown for his best friend’s wedding on New Year’s Day. Ahead of the event, Billy and the groom meet up with their childhood friends at a local diner and catch up on each other's lives. While eating roast beef sandwiches, they reflect on boyhood and the responsibilities that come with being a man.
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Rent
Rent is a classic for a reason. The story is uplifting, the casting is iconic, and the music is unfathomably catchy. Still, even fans of Rent sometimes forget it’s a film about new beginnings. While the characters struggle to make rent, they learn the true meaning of life, chosen families, and fresh starts.
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Phantom Thread
Daniel Day-Lewis stars as an acclaimed London dressmaker who must tailor his lifestyle to fit in his newfound muse. One of the most gorgeous sequences of the film occurs amidst the aftermath of a wild New Year’s Eve party.
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The Godfather II (1974)
It's at a New Year's Eve party in Cuba that Al Pacino's Michael Corleone plants the kiss of death on Fredo and tells him: “I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart.”
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Trading Places (1983)
Two brothers who run a commodities brokerage in Philadelphia try some light social engineering when they switch the identities of their employee, Louis Winthorpe III, played by Dan Aykroyd, and a hustler, Billy Ray Valentine, played by Eddie Murphy. Jamie Lee Curtis is there to help them sort it out and get even. Undeniably a classic comedy, this is also a holiday movie, because one of the film's most crucial scenes takes place at a New Year’s Eve party aboard a train.
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Sleepless in Seattle
Few arcs capture the holiday's spirit of hope quite like Sam Baldwin transitioning from a heartbreaking scene about talking to his deceased wife on New Year’s Eve to seeking new love on Valentine’s Day. This classic rom-com starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan will have you running to the Empire State Building to profess your feelings for the one you love.
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About Time
When 21-year-old Tim Lake, played by Domhnall Gleeson, learns that he has inherited the ability to time travel and can do anything so long as it doesn’t alter history, his plan is simple: Get the girl. Of course, winning the heart of the love of his life, played by Rachel McAdams, proves to be the last of his worries as time unfolds.
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The Gold Rush
Sure, watching Charlie Chaplin get stood up on New Year’s Eve is one aspect of The Gold Rush, but the slapstick charm of this classic silent film is perfect for reflecting on how times have changed. Not to mention, its silent nature makes for perfect background for a New Year’s Eve gathering.
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When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
Arguably the greatest romantic comedy of all time, When Harry Met Sally... defined the genre for a generation to come. The dialogue is whip-smart; New York shines; Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal charm and delight. The New Year's connection comes at the end during a New Year's Eve party.
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The Apartment (1960)
Jack Lemmon is a young man on the make who lets his company’s executives use his apartment for extra-marital affairs. After an office Christmas party, he finds his boss’s mistress, a young woman played by Shirley MacLaine, whom he knows from the office, at his apartment, where she’s tried to overdose on pills. They strike up a complicated relationship with multiple entanglements, both professional and personal. It’s a remarkable movie (and a Best Picture winner) that ends on New Year’s Eve.
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Snowpiercer (2013)
This isn't just one of the great New Year's movies—it's one of the best dystopian thrillers in years. Forced to live on a train that circles the world in an endless loop, the back half of the carts, who live in squalor, decide to rise up under Chris Evans's leadership and take down the wealthy upper class who're toasting to another year of splendor.
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The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
The '70s were a golden age for disaster films, and not just for the high stakes either. This Gene Hackman-led drama about a luxury cruise liner that capsizes during a New Year's Eve party is pure adrenaline.
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An Affair to Remember (1957)
A weepy romance classic featuring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr begins on New Year’s Eve, where the two main characters, engaged to others, promise to meet up in six months atop the Empire State Building. (If you decide to watch this one, considering following it up with Sleepless in Seattle, which references the movie.)
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Ghostbusters II (1989)
It’s a far cry from Ghostbusters, but when the movie came out in 1989—five years after the first one—audiences delighted in seeing Peter, Ray, Egon, and Winston back in action. The movie reaches its conclusion on New Year’s Eve, with a chorus of New Yorkers singing “Auld Lang Syne” in an attempt to defeat an evil spirit terrorizing the city.
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Highball (1997)
The writer and director of this film—in which a group of friends meet at three different parties: on Halloween, a birthday, and New Year’s Eve—is Noah Baumbach, who made Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding, and others. It’s one of his earliest films and, as such, it’s rough and feels as low budget as it is. But the movie captures the rhythms and dialogue of young adults simply hanging out.
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Ocean's 11 (1960)
For a time in the 1960s, the Rat Pack could have released a two-hour film of themselves sleeping and it would’ve made money. Ocean’s 11, which inspired the 2000 remake, is better than that (the team’s 1964 effort, Robin and the 7 Hoods, is not) but it’s not a great film. This is a fun movie, however, with some of the 20th century’s greatest performers clearly having a great time—especially, you can tell, when the cameras aren’t rolling.
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Four Rooms (1995)
A bellhop goes into four different rooms on New Year’s Eve, and each room becomes its own short film, with Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez directing. The stories themselves are based loosely on Roald Dahl’s adult fiction.
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200 Cigarettes (1999)
In this 1999 comedy, a group of people make their way to a New Year’s Eve party in New York in 1981. The best part of the movie—which features an ensemble cast, including Ben Affleck, Paul Rudd, Kate Hudson, Gaby Hoffmann, and Christina Ricci—is the setting: New York in the early ‘80s. That’s worth the price of admission.
This movie is not available to stream.
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Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! (1986)
Charlie Brown frets over a book report, a New Year’s Eve party, and a red-headed girl. And unlike A Charlie Brown Christmas, in the end, nothing turns out well for Charlie Brown in this 30-minute special.
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