The high school reunion — a needless exercise for all involved. Full of people you’d hoped you’d never have to see again, teachers that are yet to pop their clogs, and love interests that you were never brave enough to approach. School is the prime example of nostalgic rose-tinted spectacles; you hate it when you’re there, but have a sentimental soft spot for the time spent in what you essentially believed was an educational penitentiary.
It’s like the theory of a pregnant woman forgetting the pain of childbirth. We’re suckers for self-inflicted pain and revisiting pastures old, where people brag about their professional lives, their trophy spouses, and how rosy everything is, all while you’re still living with your mom. "Let’s not leave it so long next time, we should grab a beer," says the guy whose name you’ve conveniently forgotten. "Yeah man, how about never? Is never good for you," your internal monologue retorts. Reunions can also be great, just ask the cast of Friends!
There have been many a film that concerns the exact topic of reuniting with long, lost relatives, old friends, and even old flames. Let’s take a look at some of the best movies about reunions.
6 American Reunion
American Pie is a franchise that projectile vomits the escapades of a group of American adolescents as they attempt to lose their virginities, navigate their confusing late teens years, and the life decisions of their early twenties in our faces, to uproarious effect. Following a 10-year hiatus, American Reunion, the fourth installment of the series, returns to East Great Falls as Stifler, Jim, Michelle, and the gang reconvene, each at different stages of their lives.
5 Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Televised news is quickly becoming obsolete due to the prevalence of social media and streaming, as well as the rise of citizen journalism. If more news anchors comprised the attributes of Ron Burgundy and his team and reported on things that actually mattered (squirrels water skiing, panda watching), and drank scotch live on air, viewing figures would be like that of San Diego’s Channel 4 during Burgundy’s pomp.
After 2004’s rib-tickling comedy, Will Ferrell was back to reprise the role of the legendary news presenter in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. He and the gang of Brick (Steve Carrell), Brian (Paul Rudd), and Type (David Koechner) re-emerge from the news-reporting wilderness to front New York’s first 24-hour news channel.
4 The Farewell
As one of the best American movies with an Asian ensemble cast, Lulu Wang’s 2019 heart-warming comedy-drama The Farewell is a refreshing take on the family reunion. Billy Wang (Awkwafina) is a Chinese-born, American-bred writer living in New York. Upon receiving the devastating news that her Nai Nai (grandmother) is dying of a terminal illness, she travels back to her homeland and is reunited with her family and her dying grandmother.
3 The Deer Hunter
Admittedly, this is a slightly left-field inclusion and not one that automatically springs to mind as a film that is strictly about reunions. Nevertheless, it includes one! The Deer Hunter, the multi-Academy Award-winning epic, is a three-hour-saga about three friends who are conscripted into the US Army during the Vietnam War.
Michael Cemino’s anti-war flick follows their journey as prisoners of war, their time being held captive, and their eventual return home. Their idealization of joining the war effort bringing honor, courage, and pride to them and their families is quickly thwarted. Mickey (Robert de Niro), Steven (John Savage), and Nick (Christopher Walken) soon appreciate the gravity of their situation and the romanticization of dying on the battlefield. A war film not quite like any other, it does draw some parallels to William Wyler’s 1946 classic, The Best Years of Our Lives in how it offers an exploration into the psychological torment, and physical impact the war in South East Asia had on the returning soldiers.
2 T2 Trainspotting
Reunions are for reminiscing about the good ol’ days. Nostalgia-evoking recollections of times gone by, or in Trainspotting’s case the time Renton (Ewan McGregor) literally swam into the depths of depravity in order to retrieve two opium-laced suppositories and the Edinburgh-based heroin crew’s experiences as junkies.
The cult-classic Trainspotting was a watershed moment for Danny Boyle, so his return with 2017’s T2 Trainspotting was well-received. The dramatic picture revisits the four pals, 21 years after Mark Renton ran off with their drug money. Each facing their own, personal battles with addiction, recovery, love, loss, revenge, and incarceration, the friends meet again in entirely different sets of circumstances to how they left things in their 20-somethings, two decades prior.
1 The Royal Tenenbaums
That old adage of being able to pick one’s friends, but not one’s family speaks to Wes Anderson’s dramatic comedy about an estranged family’s inharmonious reunion. The Royal Tenenbaums is a hallmark of the Life Aquatic director’s unique filmography, and it explores the inner workings of the dysfunctional Tenenbaums.
After the patriarch is evicted from a 22-year hotel residency, Royal (Gene Hackman) falsely declares that he has terminal stomach cancer to save him from the shame, with his resentful children, and ex-wife gathering around him. With recriminations, revelations, and laughter aplenty, the auteur provides a typically idiosyncratic and quirky character study into Royal, as well as his three children Chas (Ben Stiller), Richie (Luke Wilson), and Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), all failed child prodigies.