Entertainment
What Thanksgiving Movies are on Netflix? Watch These to Make Your Crazy Family Seem Normal
The holidays: more like the holidaze, am I right? After the whirlwind of Halloween, there comes Thanksgiving, which, aside from delicious food and leftovers and connotations of erased histories, there also comes the insanity of families. Blood may be thicker than water, and that means that we all have to grin and bear it—or not—when huge family gatherings happen. There's not much you can do to prepare or to weather the storm (besides copious amounts of seasonal cocktails), but if you need to gird your loins or put things into perspective, watch these 8 movies on Netflix to prep.
Image: sockbrigand/ Tumblr.
'Rachel Getting Married,' 2008
Anne Hathaway takes a very dark and serious turn as Kym, a girl who takes leave from a rehab center for a few days to go home and attend her sister’s wedding. Rehab plus a wedding… is there anything more tense for a family than that?
Image: mustlovemovies/ Tumblr.
'Girl Most Likely,' 2012
After being dumped by her incredibly wealthy boyfriend and faking a suicide attempt to win him back, Imogene has to move back from New York to New Jersey with her freewheeling, gambling mother and sheltered younger brother who’s obsessed with hermit crabs. She tries to get her career as a playwright back on track while dealing with her breakup and, oh yeah, searching for her father who she thought was dead but actually lives in NYC.
Image: screensnaps/ Tumblr.
'The Virgin Suicides,' 1999
This beautiful, beautifully tragic film by Sofia Coppola is an adaptation of the Eugenides novel of the same name, and follows a group of boys’ infatuation with the Lisbon sisters, who are all but confined to their home by their overprotective parents in Detroit in the 1970s. Starring an impossibly young and sweet Kirsten Dunst.
Image: virgin-suicides/ Tumblr.
'Our Idiot Brother,' 2011
Paul Rudd (swoon) plays a goofy, well-meaning but generally wayward Ned, who has a brief brush with the lawman over pot, and has to lean on his three dramatically different sisters for help when he’s down on his luck. Not the best movie, but a great cast with Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer as Ned’s sisters, and, of course, Paul Rudd. With a huge beard.
Image: tribecafilm/ Tumblr.
'Kramer Vs. Kramer,' 1979
Obviously only watch this if you’re in the mood for a serious cry. Probably the most heartbreaking divorce movie ever.
Image: agirlwastestime/ Tumblr.
'The Birdcage,' 1996
What do you do if you have two very gay, very ostentatious dads and you’re bringing home your girlfriend’s uptight, conservative traditional parents to your fathers’ drag club in Miami? Well, you know the rest.
Image: filmfuggo/ Tumblr.
'The Kids Are All Right,' 2012
What a great film about a non-traditional family that truly loves each other so much. Featuring Annette Benning singing Joni Mitchell, Julianne Moore as her slightly confused wife, and a super cute Mark Ruffalo as the sperm donor to Benning and Moore’s great kids. Makes you feel like things will turn out OK in the end, and who doesn’t need that?
Image: ladauphine/ Tumblr.
'Arrested Development'
OK, not a movie, but the best portrayal of a dysfunctional family that we may ever see. As the intro itself says, “Now the story of a family that lost everything.” Your mother might be terrible, but is she as terrible as Lucille Bluth?
Image: frangelito/ Tumblr.
