Starting another year feels like standing on the precipice between the old and the new. It's a great time to relax and reminisce with old friends—or classic films that just feel like old friends. It's also a good time to look ahead with optimism, believing the year to come will be the best one yet. Hopefully, these ten movies—the first five of which debuted on Netflix on New Year's Day—will capture the spirit of this special time.
The Apartment
★★★★★
Billy Wilder brings his double-edged combination of acidity and humor to this Oscar winner for Best Picture. Even coming a year after his beloved Some Like It Hot, many consider The Apartment (1960) to be his crowning achievement. It's remarkable for how the film deals with dark material, like adultery and suicide, in such an effortless way. Jack Lemmon stars as C.C. Baxter, a single milquetoast who winds up lending his apartment to his bosses for their adulterous affairs. He falls in love with the cute, quirky elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), but competes with his domineering boss (Fred MacMurray) for her affections. Wilder makes brilliant use of black-and-white, widescreen cinematography, emphasizing the endless, orderly rows of desks and the soulless emptiness of Baxter's life. And yet The Apartment somehow leaves you smiling.
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