Christmas movies are aplenty. When it comes to Thanksgiving movies to watch to get into the start of the holiday season, the go-to offerings are usually the John Hughes/Steven Martin/John Candy classic Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and the animated classic A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is the perfect holiday movie. The 1987 John Hughes masterpiece runs on all holiday movie cylinders, offering the perfect blend of thematic resonance, character arcs, story structure, emotional depth, holiday backdrops, snow, holiday travel, and hilarious laughs. It’s not just a perfect comedy. It’s not just a perfect holiday flick. It’s a perfect movie.
Read the Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Script Here!
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving? Who can deny the fact that it is pure holiday nostalgia? It’s everything you want in a holiday movie. It’s warm, sentimental, and pure bliss with the familiar faces of the Peanuts gang we all grew up with. Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Sally, Peppermint Patty, Snoopy, Woodstock and all the rest are there. This is the group that offers cinematic animation treats for all mainstream holidays - Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving.
You can’t go wrong with those two classics. But what other Thanksgiving movies are out there? What can set the mood, atmosphere, and tone of the long Thanksgiving weekend?
Here we present five underrated classics that capture various elements of Thanksgiving themes and settings (along with some bonus picks to be thankful for!).
1. 'Dutch' (1991)
Dutch is a spiritual cousin to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. It’s also written and produced by John Hughes, which makes sense because it shares many of his previous Thanksgiving road trip themes. You get a road trip, a Thanksgiving deadline, and great character arcs by the end. While it has its similarities with that other timeless road trip classic, Dutch has its own unique flavor.
Ed O’Neill (Married with Children, Modern Family) plays a working-class guy tasked with picking up his girlfriend’s snobby prep-school son and driving him home for Thanksgiving. What follows is a series of disasters and conflicts between the two, leading to the inevitable bonding.
Why It’s a Thanksgiving Movie
Like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, the whole objective of the movie is to get home in time for Thanksgiving dinner. This objective is the outer conflict for each character, creating urgency and escalating obstacles that audiences relate with the Thanksgiving holiday and all of its idiosyncrasies.
Holidays make for a great ticking time clock that drives the narrative. All of the conflict thrown their way during the road trip builds to the emotional payoff of a new family gathering at the dinner table. Dutch embraces this formula to a tee.
It may not match Hughes’ 1987 classic, but it’s a great double feature.
2. 'Home for the Holidays' (1995)
Directed by Jodie Foster, this underappreciated classic gives us Thanksgiving chaos, emotional family meltdowns, and a perfect ensemble piece that resonates with the ensemble of family members we come across as the holiday season begins. One could argue that it's the most accurate and relatable depiction of dysfunctional Thanksgiving family gatherings.
Holly Hunter stars as a woman returning home after losing her job, facing romantic uncertainty, and bracing for the chaos she knows is coming.
Why It’s a Thanksgiving Movie
The story takes place over Thanksgiving weekend. The holiday gathering is the catalyst for the story’s emotional conflicts and confrontations.
- Relatives arrive
- Old wounds reopen
- Secrets are revealed
- The turkey gets dropped
- Thanksgiving rituals become family battlegrounds
The movie works because the characters feel real. They’re flawed, but we understand why we should be rooting for them. The story has a warmth to it. It embraces the awkwardness and anxiety of Thanksgiving for some without mocking it. While it may not be everyone’s holiday plight, it’s relatable… even if it’s overly melodramatic.
3. 'Pieces of April' (2003)
Katie Holmes (hot from the Dawson’s Creek series at the time) plays April, the rebellious daughter who invites her estranged family to her tiny, rundown New York apartment for a Thanksgiving dinner she’s desperately trying to prepare for the first time.
Why It’s a Thanksgiving Movie
The entire movie is built around the preparation for the Thanksgiving feast.
- The oven crisis
- The support of her building’s neighbors
- The family’s journey
It’s Thanksgiving distilled. April is trying to prove herself to her family. Her mother has ongoing resentments towards her daughter. Her father is trying his best to keep everyone together. Everything collides during the eventual meal.
April isn’t just cooking dinner. She’s trying to rebuild relationships one “ingredient” at a time. Because of its indie budget, there are limited locations and compressed time, allowing the script to center on the emotional dynamics of the characters and their dysfunctional (but loving at its core) relationships.
The script isn’t available online in PDF format, but you can find it on Google Reads or Amazon.
4. 'The Ice Storm' (1997)
Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm is not a feel-good holiday movie - and that’s maybe why it’s perfect for this list. Set over Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, the film follows two affluent Connecticut families unraveling under the weight of emotional neglect, infidelity, dysfunction, and suburban boredom.
Why It’s a Thanksgiving Movie
The film begins with characters returning home for the Thanksgiving break. School is out. Work obligations ease. The holiday week creates a rare stillness in the lives of the families and their neighbors. This stillness forces them to confront their realities instead of avoiding them through school and work.
It really is the anti-warm-and-cozy Thanksgiving movie. It’s raw and, sometimes, real. Maybe too real for some. But it’s a nice way to enjoy a powerful drama complete with the Thanksgiving day setting. And the cast is outstanding (Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, and young Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Katie Holmes, and Tobey Maguire).
5. 'The House of Yes' (1997)
This one is a masterclass in dark and dry comedy. Parker Posey delivers one of her best performances (she was the queen of 1990s indie flicks) in this twisted and dark comedy about an unhinged woman, her twin brother, and the disastrous Thanksgiving gathering that unfolds when he brings home his new fiancee, played brilliantly by Beverly Hills, 90210 alum Tori Spelling.
Why It’s a Thanksgiving Movie
The entire story takes place during a Thanksgiving visit gone horribly (and hilariously) wrong. The holiday serves as a pretext for family reconnection, but it quickly spirals into psychological games, creepy revelations, and tons of hilariously uncomfortable moments.
The movie was based on a play - and it feels like one. Plenty of character-driven dialogue. There’s pure tension in almost every scene, which is enhanced with the Thanksgiving setting.
Two Bonus Underrated Thanksgiving Movies to Be Thankful For!
These aren’t full-blown Thanksgiving movies, but the holiday weekend is woven into the narrative, offering a perfect Thanksgiving atmosphere as the backdrop of otherwise amazing movies and performances. Because of that, they deserve a special mention - and special consideration for your Thanksgiving week movie viewing.
Bonus Thanksgiving Movie #1 - 'The Brothers McMullen' (1995)
Edward Burns’ debut indie drama won Sundance with its grounded portrayal of three Irish-American brothers navigating love, faith, family, and identity. The dialogue is crisp, fitting in with other 1990s indie cinema gems like Pulp Fiction and Clerks.
While it’s not a strictly Turkey Day movie like the first five, Thanksgiving bookends parts of the story represents themes of holiday movie reflection, reconnection, and emotional crossroads. It’s character-driven, dialogue-rich, and authentic, making it a great mellow Thanksgiving watch.
The script isn’t available online in PDF format, but you can find it on Amazon.
Bonus Thanksgiving Movie #2 - 'Scent of a Woman' (1992)
A Thanksgiving Weekend story anchored by one of cinema’s greatest Oscar-winning performances. Chris O’Donnell plays Charlie, a prep school kid who can’t afford to go home for Thanksgiving. To help pay for a trip home for Christmas, he answers an ad and agrees to take care of retired Lt. Col Frank Slade (Al Pacino), a blind and cranky military vet.
Charlie is having a rough time in school, having witnessed a school prank that has gotten his selfish buddies, and himself, in trouble. He is being pressured to name names or face being expelled from school. He also wants to go to college and can’t afford being kicked out.
Meanwhile, Charlie is tasked with taking care of Frank. But Frank has plans of his own. He wants to live some life and make some amends with family. Charlie is forced to guide him through excitement, danger, and awkward family interactions.
It’s a great Thanksgiving watch because of the East Coast fall setting, with Thanksgiving and Christmas always in the backdrop. Like Neal and Del in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Charlie and Frank embark on a journey during the holiday season without their family, which, in turn, forces them to be family for each other.
Charlie teaches Frank that life is worth living. Frank teaches Charlie that honor is worth fighting for. This all leads to an iconic showdown between Charlie’s prep school board and Frank as he fights for Charlie’s cause.
Pacino won an Oscar for this role. It’s one of his best.
Why These Movies Are Perfect Viewings for the Holiday Season
Thanksgiving is a strange and wonderful in-between space. It’s not quite the full-blown spectacle of Christmas or Hannukah, not as emotionally heavy as New Year’s Eve and Day with their significance of endings and beginnings, but loaded with its own unique blend of nostalgia, chaos, reflection, and reconnection with family and friends.
The holiday is also not attached to any particular religious holiday, making Thanksgiving movies an even more universal viewing experience.
Films like Dutch, Home for the Holidays, and Pieces of April thrive on the relatable emotional rollercoaster and pressure cooker of the long Thanksgiving weekend.
- People traveling
- Families reuniting
- Secrets and true feelings revealed
- Resentments
- Reconnections
Indie darlings like The Ice Storm and The House of Yes offer a more introspective side of Thanksgiving, showing how the holiday can be unsettling for some.
Thanksgiving movies resonate because it isn’t really about the feast - it’s about who sits around the table, the dynamics between them all, and what everyone brings to that table emotionally. It’s a reminder that every messy, beautiful, and imperfect family has an entertaining story worth telling.
Anyone can watch a formulaic, feel good holiday movie. It’s gems like these that dig a little deeper.