Holiday (1938)
Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant are gorgeous in George Cukor’s class-bashing drama. Hepburn is at her brittle, glittering best as the poor little rich girl who needs a working-class hero to take her away from it all. Awesome, climactic New Year’s Eve party right out of a Eugene O’Neill play but with better clothes.
5 out of 5 Champagne Corks

The Apartment (1960)
Holiday blues play a starring role in this dark comedy by dark comedy genius Billy Wilder. Other woman Shirley MacLaine, dissed by her married lover, gets suicidal on Christmas Eve but by New Year’s Eve has discovered the joys of available men (like Jack Lemmon.)
5 out of 5 Champagne Corks

Poseidon Adventure (1972)
Everyone’s partying so hard ringing in the new year they don’t hear the tidal wave coming in this seminal disaster flick. Take off the silly hats and start climbing the Christmas tree to salvation, if you want to see the morning after.
5 out of 5 Champagne Corks

Trading Places (1983)
This intelligent, class-conscious comedy goes a bit screwball for the New Year’s Eve train party. But any party that ends with the bad guy stuck in a gorilla suit has done its job.
5 out of 5 Champagne Corks

Radio Days (1987)
This nostalgic, semi-biographical piece from Woody Allen sounds the perfect bittersweet note that characterizes real New Year’s Eves-we are marking the passage of time after all, and how all our memories will eventually fade. That’s the great thing about movies-you can press the button and start all over again. Worth doing for this funny, touching gem.
5 out of 5 Champagne Corks

When Harry Met Sally (1989)
A big part of the harsh reality of romance is explained in the film’s witty dialogue. Says Marie to Sally after Sally’s break-up:
“But you guys were a couple, you had someone to go places with, you had a date on national holidays.”
And other than Valentine’s Day, is there a holiday that’s such a cold-eyed indicator of your relationship status than New Year’s Eve?
5 out of 5 Champagne Corks

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
Bridget, fueled by her determination not to wind up an old maid and eaten by Alsatians, begins her diary after a disastrous Christmas party gaffe and ends it a year later on New Year’s Eve. Colin Firth kisses follow. What more needs to be said?
5 out of 5 Champagne Corks

The Holiday (2006)
Two women, one English and one kind of boring, switch houses to get away from boyfriend trouble. And end up finding better boyfriends in time for a lovely New Year’s Eve scene. A good flick if you’re in the mood for schmaltz and dialogue that goes on longer than even women really talk.
4 out of 5 Champagne Corks

Have a great New Year’s Eve, just like in the movies!