This time of year is party season and not even the movies are immune. But just as not all parties are created equal and you should probably avoid that mid-afternoon office supply company mixer, not all party movies offer the same level of non-stop riotous behaviour.

In fact, a lot of the time the bigger the movie party the less impressive the actual party is: just because Office Christmas Party spends about 75 percent of the film at an actual party doesn’t make it more fun than the parade scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — and that only goes for two and a half minutes.

So how do you know which party movies to hit and which ones to avoid? Obviously you can stick with the all-time greats — Animal House, Dazed and Confused if you’re looking for a more mellow time, Superbad if you can overlook Emma Stone somehow ending up with Jonah Hill (he’s a funny guy, but c’mon) — but if you want to go a bit deeper, here’s a handy guide to what makes a movie with a party into a real party movie.

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You Don’t Need To Rush It

One of the things that Sisters got right is that it only slowly revealed itself to be a party movie — for the first twenty minutes or so it looked like it was going to be about Tina Fey and Amy Poehler arguing about family stuff, then they decide to host a party, then for a while the party seems to be going nowhere and then suddenly everyone is going crazy trashing the house and the cute love interest guy has a music box stuck up his butt.

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You Don’t Have To Party Just For The Sake Of It

Romeo + Juliet isn’t exactly a party movie, but the party where Leo and Claire meet is a pretty memorable one. Not because it’s full of crazy excess (though it’s a Baz Lurhmann movie so of course it is and then some) but because it’s where the two lovers make a connection. It’s an awesome scene, but it’s also the backdrop for the core moment in the film — it would have worked set anywhere, but having it at a party really adds to the impact.

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The Big Party Scene Doesn’t Have To Wait ‘Til Last

A lot of party movies save the serious debauchery for a big finish, but it doesn’t always pay off. This is the End turned it around and went for a big, celebrity-cameo packed party right up front that really set the tone for what was to come. Of course, what was to come was the end of the world and the horrific deaths of pretty much all those big name cameo players, but at least you can’t say they peaked too soon.

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Inviting The Neighbours Is Always A Good Sign

Everyone knows when you have a neighbour who’s a party-throwing fiend, you can either put the cops on speed-dial or wander over and join in on the fun, and the movies are no exception. The Bad Neighbour films went down the first route and sure, they were a lot of fun — but were they a classic of 20^th Century literature?

Let The Great Gatsby be your guide here… though realistically, if your idea of a quiet little get-together involves inviting the entire Jazz Age over to watch you detonate more fireworks than the Battle of the Somme, it’s not like you can pretend it never happened when your pissed-off neighbours turn up the next day.

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Filmmakers Really, Really Like Da Club

Every single movie with a nightclub scene goes out of its way to make sure the nightclub looks like the most amazing nightclub in the history of clubbing. Even Goodfellas, a film that’s not exactly short of classic scenes, keeps one of the best tracking shots of all time for a backstage visit to a hip nightclub. So when you have a film set almost entirely in a club like Studio 54 or The Last Days of Disco, you know you’re in for a good time.

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Yes, It Is Possible To Go Too Far

In Project X a bunch of nerdy teens hold a party that gets way, way out of control in the usual, just keep piling things on until the neighbourhood is on fire way. The difference here is, it’s filmed found footage style! And that’s it. No, wait, they put a little person in an oven and he later drives a car into the pool. And the cameraman filming everything may have murdered his parents.

A better film might have made this stuff interesting: here it’s just a bunch of dumb stuff that happens. And why is it called Project X? NOBODY KNOWS.

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Old Friends Are Often The Best Friends

You wouldn’t want to say every movie in the House Party series is a winner – House Party 4: Down to the Last Mile doesn’t even feature Kid & Play trying to put together one wild night that will totally change their lives forever – but that first film is a sure-fire early-90s big-hair-and-bright-colours winner. Maybe skip the fifth and seemingly last film in the series though – yes, the chance to see Kid & Play back together again in House Party 5: Tonight’s the Night is tempting, but it’s pretty obvious that all their best bits are in the trailer.

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You Just Can’t Go Wrong With A Great Host

24 Hour Party People obviously features a lot of partying. But it’s Steve Coogan’s constant presence as Manchester square turned music mogul Tony Wilson that really lifts it above the norm. And what about the greatest party movie of all time, Bachelor Party? Two words: Tom Hanks in a gradually escalating cavalcade of good times driven entirely by Hanks as the most likable guy who ever lived. It also features a drug-taking donkey. Why aren’t there more drug taking donkeys in movies these days? It feels like there’s a demand out there that isn’t being filled.

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Maybe Just Watch Can’t Hardly Wait

Now this is what you want from a party movie: a bunch of likable young dorks blunder around trying to hook up with each other. And they do! Bathroom sex! Nerd karaoke! Oh, and some nerds get kidnapped by aliens at the end. Who doesn’t want to see a movie where nice people fall in love, losers become popular, jocks are punished for their douchebag behavior and Seth Green talks like Gary Oldman in True Romance?

(Fun fact: jock douchebag Mike Dexter grew up to be the blonde vampire dad in the Twilight movies.)

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Anthony Morris is a freelance journalist who has been writing about films for the last 15 years. He writes regularly for a variety of publications, including Empire magazine, and is the DVD editor of the Big Issue. He can be found on twitter at @morrbeat.