Can't Hardly Wait (1998)
The 'Become The Person You Want To Be' party
The climactic high-school graduation party has been a teen movie staple since the late 70s, but rarely has a film detailed the intricacies of this most drunken rite of passage with quite as much affection as this. Boys become men, nobodies become legends, and jocks become refreshingly self-aware as the student body of Huntington Hills High abandon their established cliques forever.
Beverage of choice
Beer, large quantities thereof. Funnels optional.
High point
The arrival of "Watermelon Guy" (a pre-fame Jason Segel) and his beloved vodka-marinated fruit.
Low point
The next morning, when reformed jock Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli) slips back into his old ways.
Caligula (1979)
The 'What's Your Preference'? party
Long before arthouse movies such as 9 Songs and Shortbus made unsimulated sex on film fashionable, Caligula blended the seemingly incompatible genres of hardcore pornography and historical epic to great effect. To this day, it's the only porn movie that features Helen Mirren (and with all due respect, let's hope it stays that way). Its centrepiece scene: an extended orgy on board Caligula's seafaring brothel, with guests engaging in all manner of sexual configurations much to the Emperor's delight.
Beverage of choice
Wine, imbibed from a goblet.
High point
The grandiose entrance of Caligula's soldiers, all standing to attention in more ways than one.
Low point
The revelation that most of the Emperor's prostitutes are his senators' wives, forced to work in service of the state. Talk about a mood killer.
Cherry Falls (2000)
The 'Fuck Or Be Damned' party
In a neat reversal of the perennial horror trope, the serial killer loose in the sleepy town of Cherry Falls (see if you can spot the wordplay in that title) exclusively targets virgins. For Brittany Murphy and her sexually inexperienced peers, that can mean only one thing: it's time to schedule a mass deflowering, preferably in a creepy candle-lit house in the middle of nowhere.
Beverage of choice
Whatever it is, keep an eye on it; there are going to be plenty of fluids knocking around.
High point
It's an unlikely environment for comedy given the impending death threat and all, but the level of wit on display is actually remarkably high – "We're talking hymen holocaust here!"
Low point
The killer's intrusion on, and subsequent knife-wielding rampage through, the horde of writhing teenage bodies. Everyone hates a gatecrasher.
Festen (1998)
The 'Bourgeois Complacency' party
You know how it is: you're having a nice friendly get-together with your overtly racist extended family and then one of the guests has to ruin it all by publicly accusing his father of abusing him as a child. Still, the partygoers of Festen decide to make the best of things and bravely soldier on with their meal, ignoring the selfish bastard.
Beverage of choice
A nice glass of conceited, self-congratulatory port.
High point
The main course goes down pretty well. all things considered, until one family member begins a racist chant and forces the guests into a conga line.
Low point
Putting aside all the sexual abuse, racism, violence and misogyny for a second, there's also a particularly upsetting scene in which a man wears brown shoes with black trousers.
Bachelor Party (1984)
The 'Last Night Of Hedonism' party
Twenty-five years before The Hangover broke box office records worldwide and inspired the wrath of every feminist blogger within 50 miles of a multiplex, Bachelor Party brought xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, male-orientated comedy to the masses. A creepily young Tom Hanks plays the groom whose idiot pals band together to throw a 12-year-old's vision of the ultimate party, complete with zany costumes, a gaggle of prostitutes and literally several cans of weak lager.
Beverage of choice
Anything manly enough to offset the overwhelming homoeroticism of the situation.
High point
The stampede that ensues when the crusty old hotel manager arrives to find his precious suite completely wrecked. Zoinks!
Low point
The botched donkey show that concludes the party. It's lucky the poor creature dies before it has a chance to "perform its services" because – let's be honest – it would have soured the atmosphere.
Trash Humpers (2009)
The 'Breakdown of Society' party
For the most part, the gang of elderly vandals at the heart of Harmony Korine's impenetrable art movie Trash Humpers are outdoorsy types. When they do venture indoors, however, they certainly know how to have a good time, whether by regaling one another with ditties such as You Girls Juss Suck Large Fat Penis [sic] or committing casual murders.
Beverage of choice
Dollar-store wine by the bottle.
High point
Highs and lows are very hard to differentiate, but the scene in which the gang entertains three extremely large ladies of the night has a certain John Waters-esque charm to it.
Low point
The humpers' culinary skills, which result in a stack of pancakes doused in washing-up liquid, leave a little to be desired.
Boogie Nights (1997)
The 'Golden Age of Porn' party
Tom Jones is on the stereo, cocaine is in the house, and Burt Reynolds is on the prowl for vulnerable young women in this pivotal scene from Paul Thomas Anderson's porn industry odyssey Boogie Nights. With most of the fun unfolding in long unbroken takes, it's a window into the carefree days of 1970s adult movie-making, just before VHS arrived and fucked things up for everyone.
Beverage of choice
John C Reilly's signature margaritas.
High point
Reynolds's after-hours Jacuzzi party.
Low point
Trigger-happy Bill (William H Macy) catching his wife in the throes of passion with another man. It all ends badly.
24 Hour Party People (2002)
The 'Excess of Civic Pride' party
Perpetually in debt and plagued by gang violence, the Haçienda was nonetheless the jewel of Manchester's late-80s, early-90s club scene, kept alive by the fierce dedication of Factory Records boss Tony Wilson. It closed in June 1997 and was demolished a few years later to make way for an apartment complex, but it came alive again for one night only in 2001, when a replica was built in a Manchester factory space for the climactic scene of Michael Winterbottom's biopic of Wilson. For one last time, the Haçienda opened its doors as that fateful night in the summer of 97 was brought back to life.
Beverage of choice
Ecstasy.
High point
Tony Wilson taking to the DJ booth to request that patrons "leave in a disorderly fashion", taking with them anything they can get their hands on.
Low point
Sitting at home knowing that this is one of the few movie parties that was probably even more fun to shoot than it is to watch.
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