5 College Movies for the Holidays

Here at whichcollege.ie, we’d like to congratulate all students and staff across the country for getting through the last few months and coping with the most challenging opening academic term. You should all feel proud of your accomplishments, taking on your studies through COVID-19. We’d like to wish you a very happy holiday and some well-deserved rest. Now of course you should use your holiday time wisely and it’s important to dedicate some time to learning – you can read our ’12 Days Of Christmas – 12 Study Tips’ article here. But also it’s important to take time off and enjoy yourself. And there’s no better way to take a break than with a movie. So we thought we’d come up with a few of our own favourite films and take a look at 5 College Movies for the Holidays.

5 College Movies for the Holidays

Pitch Perfect (2012)

Catchy songs and great laughs make this one of our favourite college movies. Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson are the heart and soul of this post-Glee feelgood musical. College student Beca (Kendrick) doesn’t want to be part of a clique, but that’s exactly where she finds herself after arriving at her new school. Thrust in among mean gals, nice gals and just plain weird gals, Beca finds that the only thing they have in common is how well they sing together. She takes the women of the group out of their comfort zone of traditional arrangements and into a world of amazing harmonic combinations in a fight to the top of college music competitions. And if that’s enough for you, yes indeed there’s Pitch Perfect 2 and Pitch Perfect 3.

St. Elmo’s Fire (1985)

Being from the ‘80s is a big plus here – with a cheese-laden soundtrack, a moussed-up selection of haircuts and a brilliant cast of burgeoning stars, including Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy. A group of recent college graduates embark on a series of misadventures in the real world. Together they grapple with adulthood. We love to watch this alongside The Breakfast Club, the ‘80s high school-based, coming-of-age film, which brings together teenagers from different cliques who have to spend a Saturday in detention together. Both films are from John Hughes who was responsible for making some of the best comedies of the 1980s.

22 Jump Street (2014)

Smart and funny, this film bristles with bromance as the 2 undercover cops return in a sequel that is better than the original. Although they made their way through high school successfully, an investigation at a local college brings big changes for undercover officers Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill). When Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team and Schmidt infiltrates the bohemian art-major scene, both men begin to question their partnership. Not only do they have to crack the case, but now the two overgrown adolescents must learn how to behave like adults.

Legally Blonde (2001)

We couldn’t not include this classic with Reese Witherspoon as the invincible Elle Woods. Elle has it all. She wants nothing more than to be Mrs. Warner Huntington III but he dumps her for being too blond. Elle rallies all of her resources and gets into Harvard, determined to win him back. We love Elle. She’s confident, determined, positive and loyal and of course who can forget the bend-and snap!

The Social Network (2010)

From a lovable character to a horrible one! David Fincher’s film looks at what it takes to build an empire with a brilliant central performance from Jesse Eisenberg as the annoyingly irritating Mark Zuckerberg, who becomes one of the youngest billionaires ever with his global social network (you may have heard of it – Facebook). Of course, along the way, we are presented with a tale of sex, lies, money, resentment and betrayal as the misguided Zuckerberg clears a path in front of him in order to pursue his ambitions. The brilliance of Eisenberg is he avoids caricature and plays Zuckerberg in such a believably callous way. As one person says to him. “You’re not an asshole, Mark. You’re just trying so hard to be.”