Nine Movie Parties We’d Like to Crash

In honor of the New Year's festivities, some in-film soirees we'd love to be able to attend.

“National Lampoon’s Animal House” (1978)
Directed by John Landis

You could make the argument that the famous Delta House party in “Animal House” is amongst the most culturally influential scenes in any movie of the 20th century. The scene that launched a thousand toga parties inspired generations of teenagers to don bedsheets and olive wreaths and twist the night away to the sounds of Otis Day & The Knights’ rendition of the Isley Brothers’ classic “Shout.” “Animal House” is one of those rare movies that has crossed over from mere film to shared cultural memory: high school kids watch it to fantasize about what college will be like, and middle-aged parents watch it to reminisce about what college was once like. Most of the behavior depicted is now college movie cliché — underage boozing, sleeping with the dean’s unfulfilled wife, popular musical acts playing random house parties — but there’s a reason this formula’s been copied, on and off screen, over and over again. Everyone looks like they’re having one hell of a time. The “Shout!” sequence in particular is an especially jubilant affair, with Bluto (John Belushi) Pinto (Tom Hulce), Boon (Peter Riegert) and the rest of the gang bopping, strutting, and at one point, collapsing to the floor and convulsing to a nearly complete rendition of the song that runs over three uninterrupted minutes. All these reasons make it an obvious choice for the list, but a good one. And let’s face it: if we didn’t include it, you’d have shouted us off the internet. Or at least left a dead horse in our office.

“Rachel Getting Married” (2008)
Directed by Jonathan Demme

Whatever drama swirled around the Buchman family in the days leading up to their daughter Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) tying the knot with Sidney Williams (Tunde Adebimpe) vanishes when it’s time for the actual wedding, one of the most warm and loving nuptials ever put to film (or digital video, in this case). In the family’s Connecticut home, surrounded by friends, loved ones, and assorted filmmaking and musician chums of director Jonathan Demme, Rachel and Sidney exchange heartfelt vows and even a few verses of Neil Young’s Unknown Legend” before tying the knot. At the reception, guests chow on delicious looking barbecue and groove to live performances from Robyn Hitchcock and Sister Carol. The vibe is enviably harmonious: in a particularly moving moment, Rachel asks the entire assembled party to help her and Sidney cut their wedding cake. The cinematography by Declan Quinn and a fleet of videographers (including indie-exploitation guru and Demme mentor Roger Corman) is so good it could almost disqualify the film from inclusion on our list; there’s little need to wish we could attend Rachel’s wedding because the film’s photography so intimate we feel like we’ve already have. The wedding officiant sums it all up nicely. “The weather’s been pretty miserable all weekend, he says. “But now it’s a beautiful day.”

“24 Hour Party People” (2002)
Directed by Michael Winterbottom

Throughout Michael Winterbottom’s clever, meta and ever-so-stylish history of the rise and fall of Manchester’s Factory Records and accompanying music scene, Steve Coogan’s Tony Wilson attempts to make his tale into a tragedy, of success brought down by hubris. “That is my heroic flaw: my excess of civic pride,” he insists at one point. But he’s constantly being undermined by the story itself, which insists on being messier, stranger, funnier and less flattering than he’d like, with the real life players sometimes stepping in to contradict his version of events. Despite eventually admitting that “I’m a minor character in my own story,” Wilson does get a few moments of greatness — he, for instance, sees God, who looks suspiciously like him — and his best grand gesture comes at the end, when The Haçienda is closing with one last fantastic blow-out bash. Everyone is there, dancing, even people who couldn’t have been, as Wilson and the camera weave through the crowd. It’s a joyous “and everyone you know is there” sequence, and it ends with Wilson extolling everyone to “leave in a disorderly fashion,” after stopping to “invade the offices, and loot them.” It’s a act worthy of a hero. Hell, of a legend.

“High Fidelity” (2000)
Directed by Stephen Frears

After a lifetime spent criticizing music, hipster record store owner Rob Gordon (John Cusack) decides to start his own indie label and release an album. Against his wishes, his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle) throws him a record release party. This is the scariest moment of Rob’s life. He believes that “what really matters is what you like, not what you are like,” and here he is, putting his reputation on the line for a band called I Sold My Mom’s Wheelchair fronted by two delinquents who like to shoplift at Rob’s store. Even worse, Laura invited Barry (Jack Black), Rob’s store’s foremost purveyor of snarky music advice and customer cruelty, to perform at the party with his new band, Sonic Death Monkey. Rob’s anxiety builds the audience’s anticipation for the big night. Things kick off with Rob’s legendary DJ stylings (throughout the film, people boast about having seen him spin at Chicago club The Double Door back in the day) and some tracks from ISMM’sW’s debut. Then Sonic Death Monkey takes the stage, only they’re no longer called Sonic Death Monkey, they’re now Barry Jive and the Uptown Five, and they shock the crowd (and movie audiences back in 2000 who didn’t yet realize how musically inclined Jack Black was) with a sultry, irony-free rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.” This party has a lot going for it; Attendees would get to see the rest of Barry’s performance, hear more from DJ Rob Gordon, and hit on Natasha Gregson Wagner. It’s got to be in the top ten most desirable movie parties; Rob’s obsession with Top 5 pop culture lists just makes it even more fitting.

“Can’t Hardly Wait” (1998)
Directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan

Real-life high school graduation parties tend to be pretty boring. My own, just weeks after the 1998 release of “Can’t Hardly Wait,” involved a bunch of uncoordinated dorks chasing each other around a friend’s backyard with Super Soakers. Which is why I remember being so jealous when I first saw the one in “Can’t Hardly Wait.” It’s so good it’s downright transformative. Set in a dream world of teenagers completely free of responsibilities and parents, this party for the record books has drastic consequences for all the participants. A poetic dreamer (Ethan Embry) finally gets the girl of his dreams (Jennifer Love Hewitt). A nerd (Charlie Korsmo) becomes the most popular kid in school. Basically, it all works out for everyone but the evil jock Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli), and really who doesn’t enjoy seeing the school jerkjock get his comeuppance? An invite to this party is a ticket to the night of your young life and a guaranteed spot at the aftershow where you have the chance to hang out with folks like Lauren Ambrose, Jason Segel, Donald Faison, Freddy Rodriguez, and Selma Blair. Plus, you can get the guy who doesn’t speak English to repeat fun phrases like “Would you like to touch my penis?” an instant plus for any good kegger. Magical, life-altering parties like this one don’t happen in real life, but it would be nice if they did.

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