\n\tIn honor of that movie\u2019s \u201cSign of the Times\u201d showstopper, here\u2019s a selection of our favorite karaoke movie scenes. A word about our methodology: We did not count scenes where people are just drunk at a bar holding a microphone (sorry, 27 Dresses, Marriage Story, and Top Gun). We did not count scenes where someone is testing an early-prototype karaoke machine at a Brookstone by singing \u201cSurrey With the Fringe on Top\u201d IN FRONT OF IRA! (sorry, Harry Burns). We did not include this scene<\/a> in Aftersun because it is just too damn sad. We did include the \u201cIn Dreams\u201d scene in Blue Velvet because we love David Lynch and we make the rules.<\/p>\n \n\tWarm up your vocal cords, folks \u2014 here goes.<\/p>\n \t\u2018Like Father\u2019 (2018)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tFrom teen-detective shows to canned mom-coms to your opinion of Dax Shephard, Kristen Bell can improve almost anything. Unfortunately, that superpower didn\u2019t extend to this Netflix dramedy, in which she stars as a girlboss workaholic who\u2019s dumped at the altar and ends up on her honeymoon cruise with her estranged father, Harry (Kelsey Grammer). The movie leaves many unanswered questions \u2014\u00a0Why aren\u2019t they more grossed out by people thinking they\u2019re married? Did anyone do a chemistry read between Bell and Grammer before greenlighting this movie? Is this just an extended ad for Royal Caribbean? \u2014\u00a0but its saving grace is the duo\u2019s dedication to karaoke. On their first day on the ship, they find out there\u2019s a karaoke contest<\/a> on the final night, and after winning access to a private lounge in a newlyweds game (it\u2019s icky, don\u2019t ask) they practice their seaworthy song, Styx\u2019s \u201cCome Sail Away.\u201d From choreographed moves to harmonized duetting to calling their friends onstage during a particularly long instrumental, it\u2019s a master class in karaoke showmanship. Just maybe skip the rest of the movie. \u2014Elisabeth Garber-Paul<\/p>\n \t\u2018Up in the Air\u2019 (2009)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tNatalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) may be a steely, ambitious rising star at a company that fires \u2014 sorry, \u201cdownsizes\u201d \u2014 hundreds of people a day, but even she isn\u2019t impervious to the mercurial whims of love. After her boyfriend breaks up with her via text, she sneaks into a corporate party, dances to Young MC and, later, sings out her feelings on a boat to Cyndi Lauper\u2019s \u201cTime After Time.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Pitch Perfect\u00a0wouldn\u2019t come for two more years, and the Kendrick Vocal Universe had started six years before with\u00a0Camp.\u00a0But for the actress in pure melancholy mode, nothing beats this one. \u2014Jason Newman<\/p>\n \t\u2018The Night Before\u2019 (2015)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tA decade before Seth Rogen\u2019s biblical, drug-fueled party in\u00a0The Studio, he was shrooming and doing coke with Anthony Mackie and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in this stoner-comedy play on It\u2019s a Wonderful Life. As part of an annual Christmas reunion, the trio of childhood friends takes on Run-D.M.C\u2019s \u201cChristmas in Hollis\u201d<\/a> at a karaoke bar, complete with ugly sweaters, b-boy stances, the robot, and the Kid \u2019n Play Kickstep. It\u2019s kinda corny, and it\u2019s meant to be. We\u2019re pretty sure.\u00a0\u2014J.N.<\/p>\n \t\u2018Duets\u2019 (2000)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tThe following is a description of a real movie that was commercially released in theaters: Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis (sans News) are a father and daughter who meet for the first time at the funeral of Gwyn\u2019s mom. Dad makes a living traveling the country and hustling singers at karaoke bars and competitions. Daughter decides to join him. B and C plots have great actors like Paul Giamatti, Andre Braugher, and Maria Bello, as fellow karaoke obsessives, delivering truly awful dialogue in insane storylines. Someone dies. Incredibly, that someone is not the careers of all of the people who were in this movie. Even more improbable: Paltrow and Lewis\u2019 rendition<\/a> of Smokey Robinson\u2019s \u201cCruisin\u2019\u201d \u2014 the scene that serves as the movie\u2019s feel-good climax \u2014 was good enough that it sat at Number One on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart for a week! This may not be the best karaoke movie, but it is definitely the most karaoke movie. \u2014Maria Fontoura<\/p>\n \t\u2018Blue Velvet\u2019 (1968)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tThe scene in Blue Velvet where Dean Stockwell performs Roy Orbison\u2019s \u201cIn Dreams\u201d<\/a> isn\u2019t just one of the film\u2019s spookiest, uncannily weird moments \u2014 it\u2019s also one of the most harrowing karaoke setups in movie history. Jeffrey Beaumont, played by Kyle Buchanan, and Isabella Rosellini\u2019s Dorothy Vallens have been taken into a secret lair by the psychopathic Frank Booth, played by Dennis Hopper. There, his partner Ben (Stockwell) begins his endlessly eerie rendition of the 1963 Orbison classic, his face lit up by a haunting glow emanating from the microphone. Everyone \u2014 including the viewer \u2014 watches along in a trance before Frank shuts off the music and startles the room back to attention by screaming, \u201cLet\u2019s hit the fucking road!\u201d The whole thing adds to the terror and tension of the film, capturing David Lynch\u2019s taste for atmospheric \u201cwhat the fuck\u201d surprises and remembered as the \u201ckaraoke from hell.\u201d \u2014Julyssa Lopez<\/p>\n \t\u2018Crossroads\u2019 (2002)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tTwo decades before winning an Oscar, Zoe Salda\u00f1a was sidekick to Britney Spears in the pop singer\u2019s film debut. Along with Taryn Manning, they played a trio of friends on a cross-country trip to find themselves. Of course there\u2019s nothing quite like karaoke to break introverts \u2014 and good girls \u2014 out of their shell, and Spears\u2019 reserved valedictorian Lucy Wagner puts the theory to the test, embracing her inner Joan Jett and belting out the anthemic \u201cI Love Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll.\u201d<\/a> Lucy emerges from that moment not a girl, not yet a woman, but more independent than when the threesome began their ride. \u2014Shirley Halperin<\/p>\n \t\u2018Ted\u2019 (2012)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tYou could say Seth MacFarlane\u2019s movie about a fratty talking teddy bear and his Peter Pan-ish human bestie, John (Mark Wahlberg), is sophomoric and laden with jokes that haven\u2019t aged well. You could also say it has moments that are truly, unequivocally funny. (It did, after all, spawn a sequel movie and a prequel TV series.) Ted doing karaoke at a house party he and John throw is one of those moments. Set to the 1995 Hootie and the Blowfish banger \u201cOnly Wanna Be With You,\u201d it features Ted (voiced by MacFarlane, who also wrote and directed) mocking Nineties-style singers \u2014 that ubiquitous gutteral, baritone growl \u2014 with increasing exaggeration until his performance devolves<\/a> into a caterwauling delivery of only vowels. It is unfortunately spliced with some head-scratchingly offensive MacFarlane lines, but the karaoke silliness? Chef\u2019s kiss. \u2014M.F.<\/p>\n \t\u2018Saltburn\u2019 (2023)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tSaltburn\u00a0follows the strange psychodrama between two British students at Oxford: posh rich kid Felix (Jacob Elordi) and social-climber schlub Oliver (Barry Keoghan). Their sicko emotional power dynamic gets summed up \u2014 where else? \u2014 at a karaoke party, at Felix\u2019s family mansion. One of his upper-crust mates selects a song for Oliver to sing<\/a>: the Pet Shop Boys\u2019 1987 synth-pop sex-and-money classic \u201cRent<\/a>.\u201d But Keoghan\u2019s face falls when he gets to the immortal hook, \u201cI love you, you pay my rent.\u201d \u201cNormally, our songs are used in a film to indicate that you are in a gay club in the late Eighties,\u201d the Pet Shop Boys\u2019 Neil Tennant told Rolling Stone<\/a> in 2024. \u201cI\u2019m so sick of that.\u201d But this was different. \u201cIn\u00a0Saltburn, they sing \u2018Rent\u2019 and it\u2019s a karaoke scene, but it\u2019s actually part of the plot. That\u2019s very rare. The song makes such a sardonic point about his relationship with the guy in the house.\u201d \u2014Rob Sheffield<\/p>\n \t\u2018Booksmart\u2019 (2019)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tOlivia Wilde\u2019s directorial debut is littered with moments of comedy gold as besties Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaityln Dever) pack four years of teenage debauchery into one night. But it\u2019s the karaoke scene<\/a> to Alanis Morrisette\u2019s \u201cYou Oughta Know\u201d during the final bash that takes the film to the next level. Rather than use a karaoke track, Wilde decided to shoot her shot at licensing the Nineties breakup anthem, even going as far to write a personal letter to Morrisette. \u201cI just said how much she had meant to me in my youth and when I was in high school \u2015 Jagged Little Pill in particular,\u201d Wilde told HuffPost<\/a> in 2019. It worked and, as luck would have it, the song was also Dever\u2019s go-to karaoke jam. The scene kicks off with the brazen leader of the drama department, George (Noah Gelvin), deep-throating the mic, before Amy brings it home, breaking out of her timid character and embodying the kind of courage that only comes from singing in front of a room full of people. \u2014Maya Georgi<\/p>\n \t\u2018I Still Know What You Did Last Summer\u2019 (1988)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tOne of the decade\u2019s\u00a0cinema du karaoke\u00a0peaks was the classic mega-cheese thriller\u00a0I Still Know What You Did Last Summer,\u00a0the sequel to the blockbuster\u00a0I Know What You Did Last Summer.\u00a0Jennifer Love Hewitt\u2019s Julie and her collegiate friends go on vacation in the Bahamas, trying to forget all about that time they ran over a pedestrian, fled the scene of the crime, then got chased by a vengeful serial killer. (As Hewitt told\u00a0Rolling Stone\u00a0at the time, \u201cWe joked on the set that we were going to have to rename the movie\u00a0I Know What Your Breasts Did Last Summer.\u201d) The kids relax at the karaoke lounge, where Julie belts<\/a> the 1970s disco classic \u201cI Will Survive.\u201d Until she looks up at the lyrics on the video screen and sees a message: \u201cI still know what you did last summer!\u201d So\u2026 surviving? Maybe not! \u2014R.S.<\/p>\n \t\u2018My Best Friend\u2019s Wedding\u2019 (1997)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tWatching Cameron Diaz croak her way<\/a> through Burt Bacharach\u2019s \u201cI Just Don\u2019t Know What to Do With Myself\u201d in one of the more believable karaoke scenes of all time will make almost any amateur singer feel better about their skills. But what she doesn\u2019t have in vocal stylings she makes up for in the most important karaoke quality: bravery. In My Best Friend\u2019s Wedding, Diaz plays Kimberly, a 20-year-old student whose fianc\u00e9, 27-year-old Michael (Dylan Mulroney), invites his best friend, Julianne (Julia Roberts), to their wedding. Julianne decides she\u2019s in love with Michael and tries to win him over, while also cozying up to Kimberly. It\u2019s sociopathic behavior under the guise of love (thank goodness Rupert Everett shows up to shake sense into everyone) but the karaoke scene serves as a revealing moment for both Julianne and the audience: Kimberly may not be perfect, but she sure as hell has guts. \u2014EGP<\/p>\n \t\u2018The Cable Guy\u2019 (1996)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tIn the mid-1990s, critics weren\u2019t ready to see Jim Carrey, who\u2019d taught a generation of kids to talk with their butts in Ace Ventura, as a serious actor. Of course, that didn\u2019t stop him. In this pitch-black comedy, Carrey plays the titular utility serviceman, Chip, who begins stalking his new friend Steven Kovacs (Matthew Broderick). Chip throws a karaoke party at Kovacs\u2019 apartment, which quickly becomes twisted and uncomfortable when he launches into a rendition<\/a> of Jefferson Starship\u2019s \u201cSomebody to Love,\u201d flailing on the ground as he gives the words exaggerated vibrato. The scene is off-putting \u2014\u00a0karaoke, but make it violent \u2014 and it doesn\u2019t help that it\u2019s intercut with images of Kovacs hooking up with a woman he doesn\u2019t yet know is a sex worker. But by taking director Ben Stiller\u2019s obsession with childhood nostalgia and turning it on its creepy-doll head, The Cable Guy harnesses Carrey\u2019s rubber-man physicality \u2014\u00a0for evil. \u2014EGP<\/p>\n \t\u2018Bridget Jones\u2019s Diary\u2019 (2001)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tThe karaoke scene in Bridget Jones\u2019s Diary is brief but essential, setting up the fundamental dynamic \u2014 hapless heroine pines for dashing douchebag \u2014 that makes the film an archetype of early-aughts romantic comedies. Singing, and we use the term loosely, Badfinger\u2019s \u201cWithout You\u201d at her office holiday party, Ren\u00e9e Zellweger\u2019s Bridget hits every note<\/a> of humiliation, if not the actual notes of the song. Her Oscar-worthy 30-second performance includes slurred words, an ear-piercing range, and a lit cigarette dangling from one hand. (Miss you, 2000s.) It borders on unintelligible, but it\u2019s clearly enough, somehow, to draw the attention of her boss and crush Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). Not that that turns out to be such a prize. \u2014CT Jones<\/p>\n \t\u2018500 Days of Summer\u2019 (2009)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tIf you weren\u2019t already a little bit in love with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, watching him practically get possessed with the spirit of a rock god while performing the Pixies\u2019 \u201cHere Comes Your Man\u201d<\/a> in an early scene in this slightly mopey rom-com is more than enough to get you there. By the time the credits roll on 500 Days of Summer, JGL\u2019s Tom Hansen has had his heart broken, and the movie has made plenty of declarative statements about love, manic pixie dream girls, and the connective power of indie rock. But there\u2019s something powerful about the way the film\u2019s depiction of a perfect co-worker karaoke night captures that bright spark of new friendship, crisp beers, sticky tables, and a mounting sense that something, or someone, is about to change your life forever. \u2014CTJ<\/p>\n \t\u2018Lost in Translation\u2019 (2003)<\/p>\n \t\t\t \n\tBill Murray has been known to stop by karaoke rooms<\/a> in real life and belt out a few impromptu numbers for startled fans, so it\u2019s no surprise that his after-hours amateur crooning is arguably the highlight of Sofia Coppola\u2019s moody masterpiece. Out for a night on the town in Tokyo, Murray\u2019s movie star and Scarlett Johansson\u2019s bored tourist end up crashing a karaoke room<\/a>, where he lays into a boisterous version of \u201cPeace, Love and Understanding\u201d and she offers up a sultry \u201cBrass in Pocket.\u201d Then Murray starts singing \u201cMore Than This,\u201d and what starts out as a slightly detached take on Roxy Music\u2019s classic turns into a genuinely world-weary lament. You can see the characters emotionally bonding over their feelings of displacement and ennui as he sighs, \u201cyou know there\u2019s nothing\/more than this.\u201d And for a brief moment, two lonely souls find someone else who understands what it\u2019s like to feel truly lost. \u2014David Fear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The only thing more awkward and occasionally liberating than doing karaoke yourself? Watching actors pretend to do it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46,166927],"class_list":["post-388334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-karaoke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Like](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Cara Howe \/ Netflix\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Sarah Shatz\/Columbia Pictures\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Chiabella James \/MGM Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Francois Duhamel\/United Artists\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Columbia Pictures\/Everett Collection\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Fox Searchlight\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n