Rudolph’s Shiny New Year
Nobody I talk to ever knows about this one, though I’d say it’s arguably one of the best Rankin & Bass movies. Way better than the first Rudolph. It’s got that fantastic old-school stop-motion thing going on, and Red Skelton plays Father Time, and there’s a big vulture named Eon the Terrible and a cave man and a knight and a dude with a clock for a chest and all sorts of good stuff.
Futurama Season One, Episode One: “Space Pilot 3000”
The whole series begins on New Year’s Day. If Fry made a resolution to change his life (which was probably a good idea, given the first couple minutes of the show), he couldn’t have done a better job following through with it.
Friends Season 5 Episode 11: “The One with All the Resolutions”
Ross in leather pants. Classic.
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Bridget’s journal begins with a New Year’s resolution, and the rest of the movie is sheer fun. One of my all-time favorites.
When Harry Met Sally
Not a thoroughly “New Year’s” movie, but it does end on New Year’s with Harry’s wonderful speech, and it features Carrie Fisher in my second favorite of her roles (#1 being that episode of 30 Rock, “Rosemary’s Baby,” #3 being “Mystery Woman” in The Blues Brothers). I don’t know about you, but the only way I know to mourn the passing of a beloved celebrity is to celebrate her work, because tabloids aside, the work is all we ever really know. My husband actually suggested we watch this movie on New Year’s Eve before Carrie’s passing, because he’s a romantic and he knows it’s one of my favorites. So if you want to call me and watch a movie together over the phone, you know what I’ll be watching.
The Sensitive, Bookish Type 