New Year's Day

The film opens with buddies Jake and Steven enjoying a little joie de vivre on French ski slopes during a school holiday until a freak avalanche kills everyone in their high school class except, of course, Jake, Steve, and an adult chaperone who remains in a coma throughout the movie. The two cogent survivors return to their coastal community with much tabloid attention. Jake's divorced mother Shelley is barely able to keep it together with anti-depressants and welfare checks. She leans on Jake, her eldest son, for emotional stability. Steven, on the other hand, loathes his ice queen socialite mother and his anal-retentive politico father. Traumatized in two different ways - Steven slides into steely cynicism while Jake delves into weepy despondency - the two agree to a blood pact: they will spend the following year living it up in nihilist glee, after which time they will duly off themselves... (Jonathan Crow)