Seven Underrated Thanksgiving Films to Enjoy This Year
Turkey’s done, and you’ve already watched the classic Thanksgiving flicks like Hannah and Her Sisters and Planes Trains and Automobiles, and dug into the indie dysfunction with Pieces of April and Home for the Holidays. But, if this Thanksgiving you’re looking for some movies to throw on during the Holiday weekend, here are some options which are currently under the radar.
Family Dysfunction: The Ice Storm
Remember, your parents have their own sex lives. Probably the most overlooked movie in Ang Lee’s filmography and was a considered a financial bomb when released, the 1973 set movie about a wealthy Connecticut family features some beautiful scenes which rival his very best. Kevin Kline and Joan Allen’s middle aged couple, suffering from some frustration and boredom turn to sexual experimentation and alcohol, while their teen children (Tobey Maguire and Christina Ricci) start exploring their own sexuality. Besides the outstanding performances (seriously, Kevin Kline’s kind of amazing in the movie), stunning cinematography of glossy ice coated suburban neighborhoods, and a memorable soundtrack of indie 70s music, the fact that the movie predates American Beauty by two years makes it’s underrated status sort of baffling. Pretty much perfect adult entertainment.
Family To Avoid: The House of Yes
Not everyone goes home to family, and some movies make you very grateful to be able to avoid that stress. Few families are as a bad as the Pascals. Incestuous sister Jacqueline can’t give up her obsession with twin brother Marty, and she clearly isn’t happy to meet his fiancée Lesly. Along with her sexual attraction to her brother, she is consumed by a disturbing preoccupation with the Kennedy assassination and Jackie-O. While Parker Posey and Josh Hamilton performances as the close twins are memorable, Genevieve Bujold’s way, WAY too overprotective mother of her dangerous daughter is probably even more disturbing. Despite the movie’s over the top dark tone, the movie earned its status as quintessential 90s indie and made Sundance Winner Parker Posey Hollywood’s Indie Darling.
Black Friday Alternative: The Daytrippers
Speaking of Parker Posey, 1997 brought her second Thanksgiving movie and features another dysfunctional family, although The Daytrippers is slightly more recognizable. Posey plays college student Jo, home with boyfriend Carl (Liev Schreiber), who drives into the city with her hypercritical mom (the late Anne Meara in her career best performance) and older sister Eliza (Hope Davis). Eliza needs to track down her husband Louis (Stanley Tucci), after finding a mysterious love letter from him, not addressed to her. The first movie from Superbad and Adventureland director Greg Mottola, and he already showed his comic skills as a director. The movie is a classic road movie in the style of Flirting with Disaster, and perfectly captures the day after a Holiday when they are already a little tired of all that togetherness.
Culminating at Thanksgiving: Broadway Danny Rose
Seems Woody Allen loves Thanksgiving, considering he made two Thanksgiving films in two years. And sure, Hannah and Her Sisters will always be considered the Thanksgiving classic. But Broadway Danny Rose is a perfect pairing if you like his humor (especially his 80s, humanist period). In Allen’s ode to the underdog, he pays tribute to a figure usually ridiculed by comics, the agent (played by him), and creates a screwy, sweet comedy in the style of Billy Wilder (including filming in stunning black and white). Broadway Danny Rose also features one of Mia Farrow’s best performances among her many solid collaborations with Allen as a mobster’s girlfriend. The movie’s happy ending happens over Thanksgiving, much the way The Apartment concludes on New Year’s Eve.
Kicking off the Season: Miracle on 34th St
Miracle on 34th St is a total classic of Christmas film, but it’s easy to overlook the fact that the whole movie starts on Thanksgiving, kicking off the holiday season. And the movie does succeed at putting you in that happy, hazy mood thanks to the presence of cinema’s ultimate movie Santa, Edmund Gwenn’s Oscar winning performance, opposite cynics Maureen O’Hara and Natalie Wood. But the real reason to watch on Thanksgiving is to catch a glimpse of the 1946 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, when Edmund Gwenn was the Parade’s actual Santa.
New Classic: Mistress America
This year we finally got a new Thanksgiving movie with the arrival of Noah Baumbach’s Mistress America. Set during the first semester of freshman year, Tracy (Lola Kirk) meets soon-to-be step-sister Brooke (Greta Gerwig) in New York. After a brief but intense friendship, things fall apart and Thanksgiving (the weekend of their parents’ nuptials) finds the single girls alone in the city. Of all of Noah Baumbach movies, this may be the easiest to digest, and is probably also his funniest, with Gerwig hilarious as the hyper, opinionated, but ultimately ridiculous Brooke (the movie even detours into a well-constructed farce). Besides concluding on Thanksgiving in New York, Baumbach also filmed Kirk at the actual Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Nostalgia Kick: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Yes this is a kids animated special, and yes, the Peanuts will always be kinda popular. But the brilliance of this specific Peanuts special (arguably the funniest) can be easy to overlook. The premise, Charlie Brown feeling the pressure to provide a last minute Thanksgiving for his friends, including the oblivious Peppermint Patty who invites herself over, is one of the best examples of why Peanuts were kind of ahead of their time. Sometimes the pressure a kid feels isn’t that different from the stresses of adult life. From Charlie Brown’s inability to cook anything besides toast to the stress that consumes him over hosting a Holiday meal, this kids program nails “hosting pressure” better than most movies meant for adults. And as those anti-consumerism The Peanuts should, it all ends up reminding audiences it’s about togetherness, not the meal.
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