These flicks are the perfect diversion for a Thanksgiving holiday, so settle down on the sofa, grab another piece of pie and enjoy!
- Neil Turitz, BettyConfidential.com
If you can manage to wrestle the remote control from your football-loving family members, or are looking for a way to avoid your Great Aunt Emily quizzing you about why you are still single, or you just need a moment or two of piece and quiet while you savor some hot cider, we've found 10 great (celluloid) escapes.
Read 10 No-Fail Tips for the Perfect Thanksgiving
10. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
One of our rules should probably be that if it's possible to include a Peanuts movie in one of these holiday lists, we're going to find a way to do it.
9. The Myth of Fingerprints
An entertaining little indie flick starring Julianne Moore and Noah Wyle about a young man trying to reconnect with his distant father and an old girlfriend, and it happens over Thanksgiving weekend. A mixed bag, but ultimately worth it.
8. The Ice Storm
Ang Lee's adaptation of the Rick Moody novel about a pair of suburban families in 1973 is dark and powerful and heartbreaking, but a pretty incredible piece of work.
7. Pieces of April
Another indie, this one stars Katie Holmes as an alternative young woman living in New York's East Village, whose family is coming to visit her and her tiny apartment for Thanksgiving. The fact that she has a strained relationship with her mother (who also is dying of cancer) complicates matters. Patricia Clarkson, playing April's mom, got an Oscar nomination for her work.
6. Home for the Holidays
Jodie Foster's directorial debut, it stars Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes painful, but almost always right on the money when capturing the essence of family and the complications it creates.
5. Brokeback Mountain
Another Ang Lee offering, maybe his best known, that brilliantly told the devastating tale of two gay cowboys and the unhappy lives they each led. Oscar nominations all around for Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams.
4. Alice's Restaurant
There's nothing quite like watching Arlo Guthrie and some of his friends running around with a bunch of garbage, fleeing from the police. A fun little Thanksgiving adventure.
3. Holiday Inn
We don't care that this silly little flick doesn't have much of a plot, or that it isn't much more than a bunch of terrific Irving Berlin songs held together by a thin stream of scenes with Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, we just love it and can watch it over and over again.
2. Planes, Trains and Automobiles
One of the late John Hughes' lesser known films, it's a little gem and the first real adult movie he made after spending the '80s in high school. Steve Martin is terrific and the late John Candy is kind of mesmerizing as one of the most annoying travel companions ever. The reveal at the end of why he is the way he is will melt your heart.
1. Hannah and Her Sisters
We won't call it Woody Allen's best film (we think that's Manhattan), but it's certainly up there. The warm and winning tale of Hannah (Mia Farrow), her two sisters and their boyfriends and husbands never stops being completely engaging, from start to finish.
Neil Turitz is a screenwriter, freelance journalist and the editor of the entertainment news blog FilmNewsBriefs.com. He knows a lot about movies and TV and is unafraid of sharing his knowledge and opinions with complete strangers.
To read more from BettyConfidential | How to Not Gain Weight This Thanksgiving & Thanksgiving Without Turkey?
Get more BettyConfidential! Follow us on Twitter,
Friend us on Facebook, and Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter!
6 comments