18 movies (mostly) set in bars

“Cocktail” falls in the thick of Tom Cruise’s run as the coolest, biggest movie star, or one of them. As such, in terms of cultural context, you may just think of it as that film where Cruise does flair bartending and “Kokomo” is played. It was a massive hit, to be sure. However, even if “Cocktail” helped bolster the very idea of flair bartending, the movie is goofy as hell. It won the Razzie for Worst Picture. And yet, we remember it as part of Cruise’s iconic run. That’s movie-star power.

“Coyote Ugly” is another story of the “young person comes to New York and finds purpose and footing in a trendy bar.” Personally, though, we feel like a trip to the titular bar would be a chore. Also, with all due respect, Piper Perabo is no Tom Cruise from a screen-presence perspective. Even so, “Coyote Ugly” became a hit, even if it also was poorly received critically.

George Clooney and Ben Affleck are two movie stars who became directors, though the latter has definitely been better in that realm than the former. In “The Tender Bar,” Clooney directed Affleck, who is one of the leads of a coming-of-age story based on a memoir by Pulitzer winner J.R. Moehringer. Affleck plays Charlie, the uncle and father figure to the character based on Moehringer, and Charlie owns the local bar in town. It’s a smaller film, but definitely better received from a critical perspective.

Drinking: Not always fun! Edgar Wright finished off his “Cornetto Trilogy” with another riff on genre fare, but a darker one than “Shaun of the Dead” or “Hot Fuzz.” A group of friends reunite after over 20 years to finish a pub crawl that fell short of success, but in the process find themselves in the middle of an alien invasion. In the mix, though, there is a lot of examination of the relationship to alcohol these characters have, especially Simon Pegg’s Gary, the member of the group who never managed to get things together.

Many poets have been known for their drinking, but Charles Bukowski is the poet laureate of drunkenness. Bukowski wrote the script to “Barfly” a quasi-autobiography about the man. It is, unsurprisingly, largely set in various bars around Los Angeles. Mickey Rourke, back during his movie-star days, plays the Bukowski analog.

Dennis Lehane adapted his own short story for “The Drop,” which of course means it’s a crime story and also needlessly bleak. What it does have going for it, though, is performances from Tom Hardy and, in his final film role, James Gandolfini. A robbery goes down at a bar owned by the mob, which needless to say leads to a lot of complications.

Did you know Steve Buscemi has written and directed films? It’s true, and he began with “Trees Lounge.” The film is an ensemble piece, and you know it’s an artsy ‘90s indie film because Chloe Sevigny is in the cast. Now, “Trees Lounge” barely made a blip at the box office, but it still managed to make an impact. None other than David Chase called it an inspiration for “The Sopranos,” and he cast Buscemi in the iconic HBO show because of “Trees Lounge.”

Quentin Tarantino wrote the script for “From Dusk till Dawn,” which was in turn directed by his good friend Robert Rodriguez. That led, unfortunately, to Tarantino playing a key acting role in the film. However, George Clooney is also around to star (in his pre-movie star days) and Salma Hayek has a notable role as well. The unsurprisingly pulpy plot involves two bank robbers who go to a strip club (a kind of bar!) to meet their contact after a robbery, only to find out the club is packed to the brim with vampires. Now, it’s a fight for survival.

“St. Elmo’s Fire” is kind of like “American Graffiti” for the ‘80s generation. It’s a coming-of-age movie about recent college grads and the cast is filled with Brat Packers like Demi Moore and Rob Lowe. While St. Elmo’s Fire is a weather phenomenon in real life, in the film St. Elmo’s is the bar where the friends hang out and where much of the action takes place.

The entirety of the “Roxbury” sketches on “Saturday Night Live” was Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan bobbing their heads to Haddaway's “What is Love.” This, evidently, justified a film in 1998. “A Night at the Roxbury” invents a plot built around the Butabi brothers, who had zero backstory previously, trying to spend the night at the Roxbury, a popular Los Angeles nightclub. “A Night at the Roxbury” helped pave the way for the end of the “SNL” movie, as it is quite bad. Ferrell went onto movie stardom. Kattan…not so much.

Everybody comes to Rick’s. This is both a key element of the iconic Classic Hollywood film “Casablanca,” and also the name of the play the film is based on. If, somehow, you are unfamiliar with the plot of one of the most famous movies in history, Humphrey Bogart plays Rick, the owner of a nightclub in Casablanca, Morocco during World War II. Rick’s becomes a hub for both freedom fighters and Nazi collaborators. The movie won Best Picture and is basically the opposite of “A Night at the Roxbury” in many ways.

Many hotels have a bar. Rarely are those bars abandoned other than for several ghosts preying upon your fragile psyche. The Overlook Hotel is the setting for essentially all of Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of “The Shining,” with the hotel bar only one of the notable settings. However, it’s absolutely vital to the story, arguably the most important setting in the film (take that, room 237). Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic, truly begins his journey into madness thanks to that hotel bar.

“Grabbers” is a cult horror comedy made for cheap in Ireland. Alien monsters (the titular Grabbers) come to a small Irish town, and the townsfolk realize that they can’t kill and consume people who are drunk, as alcohol is toxic to them. This leads to much of the town gathering in the pub to get tanked as they try to figure out a long-term solution.

What would bars be without breweries? Well, places that served wine and liquor, but bear with us. “Strange Brew” is less bar focused, but it is as awash in alcohol as any movie. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas co-starred, co-directed, and co-wrote this film based on their “SCTV” characters Bob and Doug McKenzie. Like the Butabis, the McKenzie’s didn’t have a ton of backstory, but Moranis and Thomas made a weird, wise decision to basically adapt “Hamlet” and replace the castle with a brewery. That’s the making of a cult classic.

Restaurants in the vein of TGI Friday’s are basically gussied-up bars, so they count as well. After all, the guy who founded TGI Friday’s wanted to commercialize and franchise the idea of a singles bar. “Waiting…” is set in a fictional restaurant bar called Shenaniganz. It’s a raunchy 2000s comedy, and is a throwback to a different era in the career of Ryan Reynolds. Not a good era, mind you. Naturally, Anna Faris and Justin Long are in the cast as well. That was essentially legally required in a mediocre raunchy comedy of the era.

A pool hall is essentially a billiards-focused bar. “The Color of Money” is set in a series of pool halls, from the seedy to the, um, slightly less seedy. Paul Newman returned to his role of “Fast Eddie” Felson from “The Hustler,” this time joined by Tom Cruise as a young hotshot pool hustler. Martin Scorsese directed as well. The film actually earned Newman his one and only Oscar.

“Sweet Home Alabama” is something of a stretch. It isn’t “mostly” set in a bar, per se. However, even if you have never seen this Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy, we bet you know one line from it. “You have a baby… in a bar.” It was the centerpiece of the trailer. It’s the defining line from “Sweet Home Alabama.” That makes for one of the most notable bar scenes, and bar-related lines, in a film.

“Road House” has the most-bonkers idea of what a bar is like. The Double Deuce is overseen by a bouncer who is apparently famous for his, you know, bouncing? It’s a chaotic, violence-tinged honky-tonk. Patrick Swayze plays Dalton, the famed “cooler” who is needed to keep the Double Deuce from exploding. “Road House” is silly, but a ton of fun. It’s a classic cheesy ‘80s flick. The film got a remake in 2024 directed by Doug Liman and starring Jake Gyllenhaal. That makes a ton of sense, but also is perhaps still too high quality for “Road House.”