29 Best Party Movies That Will Help You Relax Like Hell
When you need to de-stress, there’s nothing better than putting on a movie that has characters you just want to hang out with, either because they’re cute or just interesting. These films don’t have to be particularly plot-driven or have much of a “plot” at all. Very often it’s better when they don’t. It’s not that nothing happens in them (although in some cases that’s almost the case), but that it’s the characters that move them forward rather than the story elements pulling them forward – as if the director had cast some interesting characters in exciting film. place and left them to their fate. Sometimes the results are philosophical, sometimes poignant, and sometimes deeply wacky, but they always involve characters who we enjoy hanging out with and who we enjoy spending time with.
Lost in Translation (2003)
A fading American movie star experiencing a midlife crisis and a young graduate student facing an equally uncertain future meet while staying at an upscale hotel in Tokyo. Things happen, but the plot doesn’t involve much more than the two of them exploring Tokyo, which acts as a kind of liminal space between their past and future. After The Virgin Suicides, this film cemented Sofia Coppola’s place in the pantheon of directors.
Where to stream: Max
Food for the Soul (1997)
Sure, it’s drama, but at the heart of Soul Food is the Black family who gets together every Sunday, no matter what, to eat dinner. One of the keys to the success of a good rave movie is that we enjoy the time we spend with its characters. And who would turn down an invitation to a dinner attended by Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long and Mekhi Phifer?
Where to watch: Hulu
Before Sunrise (1995)
Most of Richard Linklater’s filmography could (and does) fit here, but the Rising trilogy films are probably the purest example of his style – with no other main characters to mention, it’s all just scenes with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. communication and development of your relationships. It’s not easy to pull off, and many films with similar ambitions seem pretentious and boring. Here, the sharp writing, strong acting and collaborative nature of the production result in something deeply engrossing.
Where to watch: Criterion Channel.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Some of the most iconic faces of the ’80s (aka “The Boy Pack”) are held together on Saturdays with little to no supervision. Each of them is there for different reasons, and each represents a different clique—it’s all a little on the nose, but the film does lean toward a kind of emotional honesty, and it’s hard not to get drawn into their insular world.
Where to stream: Max
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
The TV series spin-off is phenomenal, but Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s earlier film has its own fun. Different house and different characters, but the essence of the joke is the same: in modern times a group of very old vampires lives together; although they lead a traditionally horrific blood-sucking lifestyle, they are unwilling and unable to adapt. For all their dark powers, they’re mostly just a bunch of assholes who think they’re way cooler than they actually are.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Withnail and I (1987)
Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann play Withale and Marwood (the “I” of the title) respectively in this British period film that defies most of our expectations of the genre (it’s very much a cult classic). A rather dark comedy set in the late 1960s, it features a pair of misfit friends, one always angsty, the other drunk and sarcastic. Bored with wandering aimlessly around London, they plan to visit the village’s Uncle Withnail, but quickly discover that the English countryside is not as interesting or as tranquil as they imagined.
Where to watch: Max, The Criterion Channel
Clerks (1994)
Kevin Smith never topped his first feature film, which he made after maxing out his credit cards and filming at the store where he worked at the time. The film’s combination of cinéma vérité style with blowjob jokes and Star Wars references was a thunderclap for independent cinema, creating a brief and blissful period of time during which character-driven, dialogue-heavy films could sell outside of arthouse audiences.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Paramount+, MGM+, Pluto TV.
Barbershop (2002)
While there are a couple of optional subplots, the meat of “Barbershop” is the conversations that take place inside the establishment about what could be one of its last days (it’s been sold to a loan shark who plans to turn it into a strip club). Everything from sex to relationships to OJ to civil rights is on the agenda, and the cast of colorful and interesting characters makes this a fun place to hang out.
Where to stream: Max
Stay with Me (1986)
Director Rob Reiner’s top-notch Stephen King adaptation, Stand By Me , eschews the paranormal horrors of King’s other works in favor of a dark coming-of-age drama about a group of young boys who go on a quest to find the rumored dead. body in 1959. The film explores both the joys and trials of growing up, without taking an overly rosy or overly cynical view. The film’s best moments are also its quietest, with the talented ensemble just hanging out and enjoying a taste of freedom.
Where to watch: Hulu
Liquorice Pizza (2021)
When I think of Paul Thomas Anderson, the casual, party atmosphere doesn’t usually come to mind. More like the tragic-comic thrill with a hint of cocaine in the porn drama Boogie Nights or the surreal opera from the play of the period of capitalism as an apocalypse , There Will Be Blood . But back in 2021, the director gave us what we (perhaps) needed most: a laid-back period comedy-drama without a single superhero and not a single explosion.
Where to watch: Prime Video, MGM+.
Girls’ Trip (2017)
The atmosphere here isn’t exactly chill, as the film’s Flossy Posse gets up to some pretty wild shenanigans during a trip to the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans. After breaking up, middle-aged friends manage to reconnect with their wild sides. The film’s greatest pleasure comes from the camaraderie between the four main friends, played by Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah. A huge critical and box office success (and just a lot of fun), it was one of those films that should have served as a reminder that focusing on black women could be a path to success, but executives went right back to making “Ant-Man”. movie.
Where to stream: Peacock, TNT, TBS.
Slacker (1991)
Back to Richard Linklater, who hit it big with this indie hit that follows a large ensemble of twentysomethings one day in an Austin hipster hangout (before it was Austin). Linklater lets the conversations flow, following one group of people until they run into another and then continuing to observe what they’re doing for a while. It’s a simple and clever way to bring in plenty of history and a bit of local flavor without worrying about such minor details as “plot”. The atmosphere here isn’t just a cast of characters you want to spend the day with; it’s more like you’re talking to a cameraman and talking to a bunch of interesting people.
Where to watch: Max, The Criterion Channel
American Graffiti (1973)
It’s fun to imagine an alternate timeline in which George Lucas’s career wasn’t consumed by the Star Wars sequels—one in which the template was American Graffiti rather than the more lucrative space operas. Here he brings a restrained energy to a story about a group of car-loving high school graduates on the cusp of adulthood enjoying a night of freedom in 1962. Paul Thomas Anderson has cited the story as a major inspiration for Licorice Pizza , and it’s quite a track, as the film served as a template for many coming-of-age memories.
Where to watch: Netflix
Harold and Maude (1971)
Harold and Maude is a completely different kind of novel, spanning different generations. Depressed, apathetic teenager Harold meets and befriends a free-spirited and carefree seventy-year-old woman named Maude. The two go on low-key adventures (if you can call them that – they meet while separately hosting a funeral for someone they don’t know, and most of what they do together is on this level: uprooting a tree in the park. transplant it in the woods; steal a car just to drive it) and end up getting physically romantic. The message of the film is to appreciate each day for the strangeness it has to offer; if Maud is some kind of granny manic pixie dream, you can easily excuse it.
Where to watch: Showtime, Kanopy.
Friday (1995)
After getting fired on Friday, Craig Jones (Ice Cube) and his best friend Smokey (Chris Tucker) get drunk on the weed they were supposed to sell, sending them on a series of usually funny, usually low-stakes adventures in the movie that gave us Bye Bye. Felice”.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Richard Linklater’s last film, I promise. Although I could certainly include Waking Life and Everybody Wants Some .
Where to stream: Peacock
Drinking Buddies (2013)
Mumblecore writer Joe Swanberg took a step into something more akin to the mainstream with Drinking Buddies, starring Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson as co-workers at a low-stress craft brewery. There’s some relationship drama, but it’s also a movie about how, for the two main characters and their friends (including Anna Kendrick, Ron Livingston and Jason Sudeikis), being drinking buddies is a perfectly reasonable place to form a relationship.
Where to watch: Showtime.
Mandarin (2015)
There’s a little more plot here than some of the other party movies discussed, but Alexandra (Maya Taylor) and her best friend Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) are very much forces of nature: it doesn’t require a particularly elaborate set-up to bring them into an exciting movement. Here it is revealed that trans sex worker Sin-Dee’s boyfriend and pimp has been cheating on her by taking them on a series of little adventures during the holiday season in Los Angeles.
Where to watch: Paramount+, Tubi
Weekend (2011)
A Friday night meeting suddenly turns into a weekend party that gets more interesting as the conversation deepens. The atmosphere is a bit reminiscent of Before Sunrise , although it’s all about what happens after sex.
Where to watch: The Criterion Channel, AMC+, Mubi.
Rushmore (1998)
Wes Anderson’s Rushmore is the film that gave us the late-career Bill Murray we still enjoy today: funny and cold, but also a little sad, which gives the rest of the qualities emotional resonance. Here he plays Herman Blum, a frustrated parent who hates his children but becomes friends with Jason Schwartzman’s Max Fischer.
Where to watch: digital rental.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
The coming-of-age film, directed by Amy Heckerling and written by Cameron Crowe, is sometimes lumped in with other 1908s teen comedies, but there’s a unique skill to the film’s staunch rejection of traditional plotting. Telling the story of teenage life through a series of vignettes, it has a timeless quality, even as its mall-centric setting increasingly feels dated.
Where to watch: AMC+.
Empire Records (1995)
There are moments that fall short, but time has been relatively kind to Empire Records , with its lineup featuring virtual members of the up-and-coming stars of the mid-’90s (some of whom went on to great success, others not). much) startup of a failed records store within one day. The soundtrack, which includes “Gin Blossom,” “Cranberry,” “Wet Starlet Toad,” “Better Than Ezra” and other hits from the era, helps make the film a fun time capsule.
Where to watch: Paramount+
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Sofia Coppola deftly transplanted the tropes of the party film into 18th-century France, eschewing the genre’s typical high-stakes melodrama of the period in favor of a story about a teenager trying to find a place for herself in the only life she has. ever known, without realizing (until it’s too late) that the big world is coming.
Where to watch: Pluto TV.
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011)
Look, middle-aged and older people can hang too (looking at you, Golden Girls ). It features a superb cast, including Judi Dench, Celia Imrie, Bill Nighy, Ronald Pickup, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Penelope Wilton, as British retirees who go to live in sunny Jaipur, India, to maximize their retirement savings. They discover that the stay at the hotel (run by Dev Patel) they were sold on isn’t quite what was promised, but the gang has enough adventure with relatively low stakes to tide them over until the end of this film and its equally charming sequel.
Where to watch: Hulu
Innkeepers (2011)
Writer/director Ti West ( X , Pearl , MaXXXine ) may not be your first stop when you want to relax with a movie, but horror fans are a different breed, and his 2011 film The Innkeepers bleeds in favor ghost stories. The action takes place in an old hotel during the last weekend. Sara Paxton and Pat Healy play the hotel’s only employees on duty, lazily serving just a couple of guests while drinking beer, telling stories and doing ghost hunting. Naturally, things get more dramatic (and creepier) in the final act, but the goofy rapport between the two is a huge part of the film’s charm.
Where to stream: Peacock
And Your Mom Too (2001)
In Alfonso Cuarón’s original coming-of-age film, a teenage couple (Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal) go on a road trip with an older woman (Maribel Verdú) after facing major upheavals in their lives. Jealousy and anticipation threaten the three’s relationship as they head to a paradise and isolated beach, but the stakes are emotional rather than melodramatic.
Where to stream: AMC+
Wayne’s World (1992)
A relatively rare success among SNL spinoffs. In the film, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey reprise their roles as insanely stupid rock fans Wayne and Garth, who host a late-night cable talk show. Given the chance to make it big, these two realize that all they ever really wanted was to relax and socialize.
Where to watch: Prime Video, Paramount+, MGM+.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Coen Brothers gave us the greatest slacker of all time in Jeff Bridges’ The Dude. A case of mistaken identity complicates his life, but nothing will truly change who he is.
Where to watch: Peacock, Hulu.
My Dinner with Andre (1981)
What better hangout movie could end than one that is literally nothing more than a chat with two friends as they eat dinner and talk – about theater, life, philosophy? This 1981 film sounds like an arthouse effort, but it’s endlessly entertaining: Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory and director Louis Malle leave you wanting another course.
Where to watch: Max, The Criterion Channel