Top Best Thanksgiving Movies

Whether you're heading home this upcoming Thanksgiving or camping out with friends, you’re likely to spend at least a few hours searching for the perfect movie to get into the holiday spirit. To that end, we’ve crafted a list of slightly more offbeat movies set on, around, or at the very least around the idea of Thanksgiving for your viewing pleasure.

French Girl

We know, we know, it’s a Zach Braff film. But hear us out: This French-Canadian rom-com is set partly in the food world, which would pair nicely with a vast amount of turkey and sides. Plus, the Vanessa Hudgens bisexuality subplot will be fun to discuss with your grandparents!

His Three Daughters

If you need a little escape from your own semi-dysfunctional family this holiday season, consider Azazel Jacobs’s intimate drama about three sisters (played by Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon, and the great Natasha Lyonne) who reunite in New York City to care for their dying father. Cue: fierce infighting, some light gambling, and moments of truly touching grace.

The Queen of My Dreams

This mother-daughter story features Sex Lives of College Girls star Amrit Kaur as a young, queer Canadian-Pakistani woman who returns to her family’s ancestral home after the death of her father. It’s sad, sure, but it’s also got enough humanity to make you tear up over something other than your most conservative family member’s bad political jokes at the dinner table.

The Humans

Adapted from director Stephen Karam’s own Tony-winning play, The Humans—about a family assembled in a leaking, creaking Lower Manhattan apartment for Thanksgiving dinner—features a winning ensemble cast, including Amy Schumer, Beanie Feldstein, Steven Yeun, and June Squibb. Come November, its sobering drama (and touching humor) may well be just what the doctor ordered.

Little Women

Yes, it was released on Christmas Day in 2019—and has all of the snow and crackling fires to make that appropriate—but Greta Gerwig’s spirited retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel goes down easy on Thanksgiving, too. One of history’s great family dramas, Little Women is at once about four sisters finding their way in the world, and the ties that bind them all together.

Krisha

In Trey Edward Shults’s bracing feature-length directorial debut, Krisha Fairchild plays Krisha, a sort of recovering addict who invites her estranged extended family over for Thanksgiving dinner. While the day begins peaceably enough, in time tempers flare, feelings get hurt, and it becomes clear that Krisha isn’t quite as reformed as she’d claimed to be.

Mistress America

In this deeply charming comedy from Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, Gerwig plays Brooke, the freewheeling soon-to-be stepsister of Lola Kirke’s Tracy, a freshman at Barnard. As Tracy adjusts to life in New York, she finds, in Brooke, a fast friend—and the inspiration for a story—and all kinds of drama ensues. We won’t spoil any of that for you, but suffice it to say that the film concludes with a winningly New York-y Thanksgiving feast.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

If you’re looking to entertain a mixed audience of Gen Z-ers, millennials, and boomers, look no further—this Wes Anderson film combines the director’s signature wit and visual charm with an all-star lineup of celebrity voice artists—from George Clooney to Meryl Streep to Jason Schwartzman to Bill Murray—that are sure to delight even the most sugar-high child or cranky aunt. Sure, it’s not exactly about Thanksgiving (the vibe is more…theft), but its color palette is gorgeously autumnal.

Funny People

The film’s focus is a comedian who learns he has late-stage cancer and not much time left to live—but there’s an exceptional scene at a Thanksgiving dinner in which Sandler’s George broaches the subject of getting old and being alone that will make you want to hug all your friends and thank them for being so incredibly important to you.

Julie & Julia

Nora Ephron’s film about a Brooklyn cooking blogger who idolizes Julia Child beyond all reason isn’t perfect (though it would be, if it were only the Meryl Streep scenes), but what could make for a happier holiday than watching Streep and Stanley Tucci eat a bunch of butter?

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

In the years since this Kevin James movie was released, it has gained a cult following, in part due to a late-blooming meme campaign. Yet Paul Blart: Mall Cop leans hard into mindless entertainment, centering on a busy mall taken hostage on arguably the worst day of the year for a mall cop: Black Friday.

You’ve Got Mail

The classic scene between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in which Joe Fox comes to the rescue in a Zabar’s cash-only line actually takes place on Thanksgiving. Come for the holiday theme in You’ve Got Mail, stay for the story of two business rivals who unknowingly fall in love via the earliest version of the web.

With these movies, you will have a Thanksgiving Day filled with joy and warmth with your family. Choose a movie, relax and enjoy special moments with your loved ones with POPTube.