The Best Movies to Watch on Thanksgiving (That Aren’t Actually About Thanksgiving)

Do you ever feel like Thanksgiving doesn’t quite get the respect it deserves as a holiday? Just look at the lack of Thanksgiving movies that have come out over the years, especially compared to the hordes of Christmas and Halloween movies that exist. Planes, Trains and Automobiles has stood alone as the go-to Thanksgiving movie for decades, joined predominantly by genre entries like Eli Roth’s slasher Thanksgiving.

There may not be very many Thanksgiving movies out there, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a ton of movies that are perfect to watch on the November holiday. Whether it’s because of their cozy aesthetics, big family troubles, or memorable food scenes, films that check the right Thanksgiving boxes are all over the place. You just have to know where to look.

With that in mind, here are some of the very best movies to watch on Thanksgiving, even if they’re not about carving turkeys.

Knives Out (2019)

This is an easy one. Knives Out is one of the most recent films to join the unofficial Thanksgiving canon, and it did so almost instantly after its release in 2019. Not only did the film hit theaters around the holiday, but this thing is just oozing Thanksgiving energy in every conceivable way.

Knives Out is set in a cozy, very fall-coded northeastern mansion. It’s about a big family with a ton of issues gathering together for the first time in a while, all of that tension palpable from the moment they arrive. And let’s be honest, we’ve all got an obnoxious relative like Don Johnson’s Richard. This is the most Thanksgiving movie to not feature a turkey.

Spider-Man (2002)

Rocky is too directly connected to Thanksgiving to include on this list, with the majority of the film taking place the week of the holiday. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, however, comes under the required turkey threshold to be considered a Thanksgiving Movie.

Spider-Man spends a little time celebrating Thanksgiving, with the family meal between Peter and Norman’s families acting as perhaps the most pivotal scene of the entire film. And the “Unity Day Festival” where Green Goblin shows up is a fictional version of the iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The Family Stone (2005)

Yes, The Family Stone is technically a Christmas movie, but it feels so much more like a Thanksgiving movie.

Like Knives Out, The Family Stone features a wildly dysfunctional family coming together and accidentally allowing their many issue to bubble to the surface. As funny as it is in certain scenes, it’s relentlessly stressful from start to finish. Really captures the Thanksgiving vibe for a lot of us.

[RELATED: All of the Best TV Marathons to Watch This Thanksgiving]

Uncle Buck (1989)

Not every movie about estranged relatives coming to town has to play out like a real-life nightmare.

The kids in Uncle Buck may not have the easiest go of things when John Candy shows up at their door, but the ride is at least a hilarious one for us viewers to experience. Buck represents the relative we all wish we could have. You know, the one that comes to realize how their own flaws affect others and makes active changes to try and be better.

Star Wars (1977)

One of the most iconic films of all time, Star Wars doesn’t actually have anything to do with Thanksgiving whatsoever. This is all about those beloved cable TV marathons.

In the years before streaming, cable networks like TNT used to always run marathons of the original Star Wars trilogy on Thanksgiving Day. There’s just something about seeing Luke Skywalker gaze at the twin suns of Tatooine that takes me back to the couch at my grandmother’s house, turning the volume up just a couple notches so I could hear over the my uncles snoring in the recliners.

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Few movies strike the fall chords quite like When Harry Met Sally. Seriously, just think about how cozy you feel when you see that poster.

On top of the cozy vibes and ever-changing interpersonal dynamics, When Harry Met Sally also contains one of the most memorable meal scenes in cinematic history.