10 Stealth Thanksgiving Movies
Reading Time: 4 minutesIf you want to find the quintessential Thanksgiving cinema experience, you have to dive deep.
There are too many Christmas movies and too few Thanksgiving movies. The first that comes to most people’s minds is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, then maybe Adams Family Values or the horrible Alice’s Restaurant. But after that, there aren’t too many to speak of. Unless you dig deep.
Here are 10 movies you probably never realized qualify as fourth-Thursday-of-November classics. They are all either set at Thanksgiving, feature key moments that revolve around the holiday, or are simply infused with that elusive Thanksgiving spirit.
Before director Woody Allen gained notoriety as an alleged sex predator, he made critically acclaimed movies about annoying New York yuppies, and Hannah and Her Sisters is the best of them. An ensemble drama/comedy, Hannah and Her Sisters uses Thanksgiving dinner as a structural device: It begins at a Thanksgiving party hosted by Hannah, has another Thanksgiving dinner at its midpoint, and ends with a third Thanksgiving feast.
Where to stream: Available for rental only on AppleTV, Prime Video, Google Play and YouTube
Paul Blart: Mall Cop doesn’t deserve its reputation as a bad movie. It’s not great, but it’s a serviceable comedy—like a funny Die Hard—and there are a few inspired moments that actually made me laugh. Plus, its heart is in the right place, and that makes it better than most comedies. It’s also a Thanksgiving movie, kind of: There’s a short Thanksgiving dinner scene during which Blart eats lots of pie (because he’s so fat. Get it?), but it’s really about a terrorist attack on a mall on Black Friday. Make watching it your annual holiday tradition—it’s a better idea than watching the sequel, anyway.
Where to stream: Hulu
Spike Lee’s debut joint tells the story of Nola Darling’s relationships with three very different men. The groundbreaking film sparked a revolution in African-American cinema, and it features one of the most charged Thanksgiving dinners in movie history. When Nola invites all three of her lovers to the same meal, it quickly turns into a game of one-upsmanship between the men as they compete with one another for Nola’s affection while not seeming to realize that the choice isn’t theirs to make.
Where to stream: Netflix
Featuring a who’s-who of your grandpa’s favorite rock superstars, including Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, and Ringo Starr, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz might be the best concert film ever made (if you’re into this kind of music.) It’s also a Thanksgiving movie in that the ‘farewell to The Band’ concert it documents took place on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976. It’s not just the calendar that makes Waltz a Thanksgiving movie though—its depiction of a glamorous party with toxic relationships and seething resentment lurking just under the surface might remind you of your family’s annual meal. Although Bob Dylan is a much cooler outspoken, disruptive outsider than my Uncle Gary.
Where to stream: Available for rental only on Apple TV
Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush is a biting commentary on the dehumanizing nature of materialism. One of its most poignant and hilarious scenes is the Thanksgiving dinner where the destitute Little Tramp boils and eats his own boot. He’s so good-hearted, he even serves the larger slice of the footwear to his pal. Watching the pair try smile as they choke down boiled shoe-leather and eat laces like spaghetti is hilarious and sad, and it still holds up nearly 100 years after it was made.
Where to stream: HBO Max, Criterion Channel, History Vault, Plex
Ang Lee’s poignant tale of romance between closeted cowpokes uses Thanksgiving dinner as a symbol of ‘acceptable’ American family relationships that our hearts so often rebel against. In Brokeback Mountain, a seemingly mundane conflict over watching a football game at dinner is actually the moment when Jack finally stands up to his overbearing father, telling him, ‘You sit down, before I knock your ignorant ass into next week.’ Meanwhile, his lover Ennis is sharing an uncomfortable Thanksgiving with his daughters, his ex-wife, and her new man.
Where to stream: Starz
It’s not gay cowboys in The Ice Storm, it’s 1970s swingers and their children, but Ang Lee’s Thanksgiving is still about conflicts with dad. Like he did in Brokeback Mountain, director Ang Lee uses Thanksgiving to represent traditional American values. He contrasts the soothing stories we tell ourselves about the meaning of the holiday with the messy reality of our lives and history.
After Kevin Kline basically says he’s thankful his own father is dead so they can have a peaceful meal, his daughter Christina Ricci proves him wrong by channeling teenage angst and saying grace like this: ‘Dear Lord, thank you for this Thanksgiving holiday and for all the material possessions we have and enjoy, and for letting us white people kill all the Indians.’
Where to stream: Fubo, Showtime, DirecTV
Even though it doesn’t technically take place at Thanksgiving, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre may be the ultimate Thanksgiving movie. The excruciating dinner party scene, in which captive guest Sally is tied to a chair in a dining room decorated with rotting animal carcasses and the family leers at her before cutting her finger so grandpa can suck her blood, isn’t like any Thanksgiving dinner I’ve ever attended, but it feels exactly like some of them. Leatherface all decked out like a 50s housewife is the curdled whipped cream on the sickening pumpkin pie. It’s hilarious to consider how, exactly, Leatherface ended up as the matriarch of the murderous family, but it’s also so twisted and wrong you can’t laugh at it.
Where to stream: AMC+
Nobody eats Thanksgiving dinner at the Vietnamese POW camp in Rescue Dawn, but director Werner Herzog’s starving airmen dream about food constantly, describing elaborate feasts to one another while literally eating worms. Even if all you’re having for dinner this year is a turkey TV dinner, Rescue Dawn will have you overflowing with with gratitude, I promise.
Where to stream: Prime Video, Canopy
Sylvester Stallone’s tale of a palooka from Philly who gets a lucky break contains a Thanksgiving scene where Rocky’s mousy girlfriend Adrian is preparing a turkey. Paulie, her asshole brother, throws the bird out the door while Rocky watches. Paulie is forcing his shut-in sister to come out of her shell and go on date with Rocky, so he’s not as horrible as it seems at first. (Rocky is more complex movie than people know.)
In keeping with the rule of sequels that declares everything must be bigger and worse, Thanksgiving plays a role in Rocky 2, but it’s not as the setting for a complicated familial relationship. Instead, it’s a boxing match: The big fight between Rocky and Apollo Creed that ends the movie takes place on Thanksgiving. But Rocky 2 is a seriously terrible movie, so don’t watch it on Thanksgiving or any other day.
Where to stream: Available for rental only on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, and YouTube.