Thanksgiving movies don’t get the credit they deserve. We get a ton of Christmas, Halloween and other holiday movies canonized as classics and added to the yearly viewing rotation. But Thanksgiving has always remained the day when people slowly food-coma themselves into oblivion in front of football or parades.
Still, I think it’s time to spotlight a few pretty great Thanksgiving movies for those of us who prefer cinema to sports and celebrate the genius it takes to build a movie around a problematic holiday where the most excitement involved is usually how many deviled eggs one can eat before things go south.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles—This is the obvious one for people of a certain generation. But I’ll always bring this 1987 film up when younger folks are around to keep the appreciation of John Candy alive for a thousand years to come. This classic follows an uptight ad exec (the wonderful Steve Martin) and a talkative but affable salesperson (Candy) as they go on a very circuitous journey from New York to Chicago (by way of Kansas and a few other states) to try to make it home for Thanksgiving.
It remains endlessly quotable (“Our speedometer has melted, and as a result, it’s very hard to see with any degree of accuracy exactly how fast we were going”), genuinely heartwarming and a good reminder that the holiday isn’t about pilgrims as much as a celebration of the people we love and choose to share our lives with.
Knives Out—While the film isn’t specifically set on Thanksgiving, Knives Out is still the perfect viewing antidote for those of us who have complicated relationships with our family. From writer/director Rian Johnson, Knives Out is a classic cinematic throwback to detectives like Marple, Poirot and Holmes.
It’s all centered around a profoundly dysfunctional family played by a murderers’ row of great actors, including Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Christopher Plummer and Toni Collette. Watching these characters sit around a table and squabble over petty insecurities reminds me of too many Thanksgivings to count and, for good or ill, feels pretty nostalgic.
Fantastic Mr. Fox—This also isn’t set on Thanksgiving necessarily. But with the autumn leaves filling almost every frame and the focus on community, food and families both fond and otherwise, it’s not only the perfect film for kids to watch on the holiday; grown-ups will find their eyes getting awfully moist as well.
What on the surface seems like a simple story about securing food for the winter plays quite differently at a time when food security is in question. Big-hearted, warmly optimistic and filled to the brim with calls for goodness and charity, Fantastic Mr. Fox should be canonized as the Thanksgiving movie closest to the spirit of the holiday.
You’ve Got Mail—While only briefly touching on Thanksgiving, You’ve Got Mail is still a perfect romance to watch with one’s person after dinner. With a chemistry that I’m not sure any actors have achieved since, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are so effortlessly charming and dreamy that it’s hard not to fall in love with them, too. Even if some of the story points feel a little sexist now, the film is still the equivalent of a rich dessert shared with a special someone.
Big Night—Not connected to Thanksgiving in any way other than in how it celebrates family and food, Big Night should still be played as an appetizer to the Thanksgiving meal. I’m not sure food has ever looked more delicious onscreen before or since. Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Minnie Driver, Ian Holm and Isabella Rossellini cook up something truly delicious here that makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
There are so many other solid Thanksgiving canon choices. For the horror movie fanatic in one’s life, they could show Eli Roth’s turkey slasher, Thanksgiving. And for the Boomer in one’s life, there’s The Big Chill. The little ones will always appreciate A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. If one is after a heartwarming dramedy, don’t forget about the Jodie Foster-directed Home for the Holidays. Or if they want to focus on the historical perspective, Terence Malick’s The New World is an underseen classic.
Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It has one of the tensest Thanksgiving dinners committed to film. And Pieces of April reminds us to forgive and find gratitude in the small things.
