Casey Chong serves up a feast of great Thanksgiving movies…
Every year between Halloween and Christmas, there’s Thanksgiving awaits you for reuniting with your family and your loved ones. And of course, a bountiful dinner meal that lined your table from a stuffed whole turkey to mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin/pecan pie. Once the feast is over, it’s time to catch up on a good movie or two. One that revolves around Thanksgiving. From comedies to dramas and even unusual genre fare like horror, we present you seven of these best Thanksgiving movies worth checking out…
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
John Hughes may have found success directing teen comedies that defined the ‘80s era from Sixteen Candles to The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But his transition to the more adult-oriented comedies was equally memorable, notably the 1987 hit comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Not to mention a quintessential Thanksgiving movie where writer-director Hughes gamely captures the overwhelming feeling of travelling back home just in time for the annual holiday feast. And more so if the travel requires one to journey from New York to Chicago, evidently in Neal Page’s situation played by Steve Martin in one of his funniest roles to date.
Hughes keeps the pace tight like a series of pressure-cooker scenarios mirroring Neal’s frustration trying to get home as soon as possible. Then comes John Candy’s happy-go-lucky shower-ring salesman Del Griffith, a stranger who made Neal’s life more miserable than it already is. This, of course, leads to a genuinely hilarious odd-couple comedy with Martin and Candy playing off each other well. Hughes sure fulfills the title as we see these two mismatched strangers share their rides in various modes of transportation. Planes, Trains and Automobile have plenty of memorable moments, one of which includes Neal’s profanity-laden tirade lashing at the car rental agent played by Edie McClurg.
Pieces of April (2003)
Prepping an all-rounder Thanksgiving meal can be a daunting task, particularly if you are not good at it. That’s the challenge where we see Katie Holmes’ titular April trying hard to make a nice Thanksgiving dinner for his family travelling over to her place. Naturally, things do not go her way as Peter Hedges, making his directorial debut, effectively showcases April’s worst day going upstairs and downstairs trying to find any neighbor willing to let her use an oven to roast her turkey.
Then, there’s April’s family’s side – a dysfunctional family, to be exact – with father Jim Burns (Oliver Platt) has to put up with his terminally-ill wife’s (Patricia Clarkson’s Joy) erratic behavior along with their teenage kids (Alison Pill’s Beth and John Gallagher Jr.’s Timmy) and April’s senile grandmother (Alice Drummond). Hedges brings out the best in these actors here while offering the viewers what it’s like to spend time with such a dysfunctional family like the Burns. Interestingly, Pieces of April’s reportedly $300,000 budget and the decision to shoot it on digital video gives the movie an intimate, you-are-there visual style minus the usual Hollywood gloss.
Home for the Holidays (1995)
Jodie Foster’s sophomore directorial feature after Little Man Tate captures the messy and erratic feeling commonly associated with family gatherings, especially one who has to deal with a dysfunctional family. Beyond its seemingly charming title, the story is like a whirlwind affair over Thanksgiving through the eyes of Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter in an engaging lead performance), a recently out-of-work art restorer coming home for the holiday. Everything from the family secret to sibling feud is uncovered throughout this bittersweet comedy while the movie benefits from a great ensemble cast all around.
Apart from the aforementioned Holly Hunter, Home for the Holidays features solid supporting turns from Anne Bancroft as Claudia’s mom to Robert Downey Jr. as her playful brother, Tommy and Cynthia Stevenson as her uptight sister, Joanne. The movie may have been Foster’s second film as a director but she proves to have a firm grasp in guiding her actors, notably allowing Downey Jr. to improvise most of his lines to the point of stealing most of the show whenever he’s on the screen.
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Here is one of Woody Allen’s best movies in his illustrious career as he explores the complicated family dynamics and romance over the course of not one but three Thanksgiving dinners and everything in between. Allen’s screenplay intertwines the stories about the three sisters (Mia Farrow’s Hannah, Barbara Hershey’s Lee and Dianne Wiest’s Holly) and their respective predicaments and conflicts, leaving ample room for them to blossom among their best performances to date. The movie focuses not only on the sisters’ side but also the men associated with them, one of which includes Michael Caine’s Oscar-winning turn as Hannah’s estranged husband, Elliot who has an affair with Lee. But Allen never loses sight of juggling between these multiple characters, thanks to his assured direction.
Allen also effectively slips in a few witty humor with the director himself playing a memorable supporting role as Hannah’s hypochondriac ex-husband, Mickey suffering from a potential hearing loss. His subsequent visit to different doctors resulted in some of the funniest moments ever written in a Woody Allen movie with the actor’s signature neurotic acting style on full display.
The Ice Storm (1997)
Ang Lee’s 1970s-set drama is as chilly as the title itself. The Thanksgiving weekend is devoid of anything joyful and certainly there are no happy families here in The Ice Storm, which focuses on the Hoods (Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire and Christina Ricci) and the Carvers (Jamey Sheridan, Sigourney Weaver, Elijah Wood and Adam Hann-Byrd) living in the New Canaan, Connecticut suburb. Lee’s astute direction, coupled with James Schamus’ well-written screenplay adapted from Rick Moody’s 1994 novel of the same name, explores the existential dread of broken families, infidelity, loss of innocence and sexual awakenings.
The movie also features some of the best ensemble cast in the ‘90s era from Kevin Kline and Joan Allen’s understated turns as husband-and-wife Ben and Elena to the scene-stealing Christina Ricci as the Hoods’ sexually impulsive daughter, Wendy. Further credits go to Lee for transporting the viewers to the disillusioned 1970s era with meticulous details on the wintry setting (it was filmed on location in Connecticut), costumes and production design.
Thanksgiving (2023)
It’s a literal Thanksgiving nightmare in Eli Roth’s holiday-themed slasher featuring a silent killer dressing as a pilgrim-like John Carver, complete with a buckle-style hat. The killer is out there stalking and killing anyone involved in the tragedy. That tragedy in question leads to Roth’s effective combination of dark satire on the Black Friday craze and consumerism in the opening scene, easily the best moment of the movie. And of course, with an added gore and violence as the impatient mob of shoppers eagerly awaiting to get their hands on the Black Friday promotion in a local superstore ends with a riot before causing a mass stampede.
The rest of the movie sees Roth going full-blast with the slasher department. In other words, more graphically violent kills, and more gore. Thanksgiving certainly doesn’t carve the oft-seen slasher genre in a new or different light but it sure fulfills the genre requirement that fans are looking for an entertainingly gory horror.
Tower Heist (2011)
Looking for an action comedy to watch this Thanksgiving? Add Tower Heist to your watchlist, a New York City-set caper about a group of disgruntled employees led by Ben Stiller’s Josh Kovaks looking for a payback after their billionaire employer (a slippery Alan Alda) embezzled their pensions on a Ponzi scheme.
Brett Ratner, best known for the Rush Hour franchise, directed this fun action comedy while giving his all-star cast featuring everyone from Ben Stiller to Matthew Broderick and particularly, Eddie Murphy in his classic street-smart crook character as Darnell “Slide” Davis, enough space to strut their stuff. The movie famously culminates in a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, part of which was shot on the actual day itself.
What are your favourite Thanksgiving movies? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Casey Chong
