The New Year holidays are the perfect excuse to dive into great movies: finally you can watch what you’ve been meaning to see all year or revisit a few favorites. It’s even better when a film’s atmosphere matches your holiday spirit. You’ve probably already seen the “Home Alone” films, “Die Hard,” and those perennial Santa movies—or they’ll be on TV again. Here are some less obvious but high-quality picks that capture the Christmas and New Year spirit and will elevate your celebrations.
“The Apartment” (USA, 1960, directed by Billy Wilder)
In early 1960s New York, a quick way to climb the corporate ladder is to have an apartment in the city center near Central Park—even if it’s rented. Why? Because someday your higher-ups might want to use it for entertaining. So conscientious insurance clerk Baxter (Jack Lemmon) lets them, hoping it will help his career—even if it means spending a night in the rain and catching a bad cold. As he climbs the corporate ladder, Baxter’s life collides with his boss (Fred MacMurray) when he falls for a woman he admires (Shirley MacLaine).
Anyone who, like me, saw this classic during a recent Oscars retrospective can vouch for the joy of being carried away from current worries for two hours by the projector’s glow and Wilder’s expertly crafted story. It’s no accident the film won five Academy Awards. Wilder himself said the story could take place in any city on earth—one reason it’s easy to imagine the setting as Istanbul, Paris, or even Kyiv. There was even an Indian remake in 1972. The pre-New Year atmosphere and everything around it add a special charm to this Oscar-winning movie.
“Happy New Year!” (France, Italy, 1973, directed by Claude Lelouch)
Miracles can happen at New Year, and for professional thief Simon (Lino Ventura), the miracle is an unexpected early release from prison—not for good behavior, but so authorities can use him to help solve a daring jewelry-store heist in Cannes. Simon calls it “the world’s first psychological robbery.” While he’s at the winter resort with his partner, he unexpectedly falls for Françoise, an attractive, sharp-witted antique-shop owner, and things begin to go off-script. It’s worth waiting for the finale before drawing conclusions.
Claude Lelouch—the director of the hit “A Man and a Woman”—even references his earlier film here: the movie opens with a screening of “A Man and a Woman” for the inmates. But this film is less a detective story or a straight comedy and more an adventurous crime melodrama about relationships between a man and a woman. The characters sum it up in two lines: “What is a woman in your understanding?” “A woman is a man who sometimes cries.” “And what is a man?” “A man is someone who always goes all the way.”
The upcoming holiday is a perfect time to see those definitions play out.
“Love Actually” (UK, France, USA, 2003, directed by Richard Curtis)
“Love is all around”—and in Richard Curtis’s film, love really is everywhere. Jaded, self-deprecating pop star Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) records a Christmas-themed cover of that song and promises to strip live on air if it reaches number one. He ends up competing for the top spot with the real British boy band Blue.
That Christmas song threads through nine interwoven stories set in pre-holiday London: a music producer and a washed-up star, two best friends in love with the same woman but unable to say it, a writer who falls for a Portuguese housekeeper after discovering his wife cheated on him with his brother, a widower trying to connect with his stepson and eventually finding love himself, and a charming British prime minister (Hugh Grant) who falls for his secretary, Natalie. The prime minister’s solo dance down Downing Street to a Pointer Sisters song is a delight, and there’s a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo from Claudia Schiffer, who reportedly earned £200,000 for about a minute onscreen.
“When the world around me brings me down, I think of the arrivals hall at Heathrow Airport. Parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers and friends…” That’s how the film opens, and it delivers both laughs and tears, plus a few Christmas and New Year miracles. If you haven’t seen it, or it’s been a while, it’s easy to envy you.
By the way, check out how prime ministers sometimes dance:
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (USA, 2005, directed by Tim Burton)
Meadows of mint candy, a pink sugar boat floating on a chocolate river, a high-speed glass elevator that takes you to a TV room, trained squirrels, and the mysterious Oompa-Loompas—this is Willy Wonka’s world. Only five lucky children who find golden tickets hidden in chocolate bars get to enter the factory. Finally, poor little Charlie Bucket finds a ticket and, along with the others, gets a backstage tour of this confectionery wonder.
It may have seemed impossible to top the lavish 1971 musical with Gene Wilder—whose performance spawned one of the first modern memes (“Come on, tell me how witty you are”)—but Tim Burton took on the task and Johnny Depp shines as the eccentric chocolate mogul. Modern visual effects help create genuine fairy-tale magic, and it’s the kind of movie you want to revisit every year.
“The Holdovers” (USA, 2023, directed by Alexander Payne)
Every year as Christmas approaches, students, faculty, and staff at Barton Academy leave campus for two weeks of winter break. But a group of misfits—dubbed “the holdovers”—ends up staying, people who for various reasons aren’t going anywhere. One of them is Angus, whose mother can’t take him on vacation for personal reasons. He is forced to spend the holidays with the others, led by the cantankerous ancient history teacher Mr. Hanem (Paul Giamatti) and assisted by Mary, the school’s chef, who is mourning her son lost in Vietnam (the film is set in the 1970s and even opens with a tongue-in-cheek title card that reads 1971).
Angus gets an unforgettable Christmas break: amid small adventures there are personal dramas, disappointments, and new passions. Over those two weeks with this odd group, he grows up a lot. Paul Giamatti delivers a standout performance, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays the chef, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
