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12 movies to stream this Thanksgiving weekend

12 movies to stream this Thanksgiving weekend

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Sing Street

The best part of American Thanksgiving is the very good National Dog Show that airs every year right after the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It’s truly a treat, getting to look at so many sweet puppers from the comfort of your sofa. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last all day. By afternoon, you need something else to watch while your body digests a gallon of masticated vegetable sludge, gelatinous fruit cocktail, and half a bird.

Our modern era supplies virtually unlimited streaming service options. In fact, the abundance of choice can paralyze the unprepared. To help, we’ve selected 12 currently streaming flicks that should suit your needs this holiday weekend — whether that be something to watch with an inebriated aunt, or a teen cousin who hates you.

Netflix

burn after reading

Burn After Reading

One of the funniest of the Coen Brothers’ movies, Burn After Reading stars Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and John Malkovich. It’s basically a dream come true as far as pitching a movie choice to the middle-aged attendees at your family dinner. The film follows a group of Washington D.C. ne’er-do-wells who manage to cause a bunch of stupid, violent disasters. Bonus: It features no less than 9,000 highly GIF-able moments of Brad Pitt as a numbskull personal trainer with a wad of Bubble Yum permanently embedded in his jaw. If you need a good, deep, cynical laugh, this is a solid choice. — Kaitlyn Tiffany

Watch it with: Uncle who is about to slip into turkey coma.

Sing Street

As with every Irish movie I have ever seen in my whole life, Sing Street features a decent performance from Aidan Gillen — who you probably know as Littlefinger from Game of Thrones! In the vain of John Hughes movies, it’s all about the lengths that teens will go for love. Also, it’s a musical. If you’re in the mood to boogie your Turkey Day carbs away, it’s a great choice. I can’t promise it will succeed in making you believe in humanity again, but it will sure try. — Kaitlyn Tiffany

Watch it with: Your HBO-loving cousin, who can be convinced to watch a musical because it stars the weird dude from Game of Thrones/the mayor from The Wire.

Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day

If you've never seen Trailer Park Boys, the Canadian TV show about three below-the-law types living in a Nova Scotia trailer park, your mileage with this movie may vary. Briefly: Julian (the stable drunk), Ricky (the idiot), and Bubbles (the wildcard) have just been released from jail and need to devise some money-making schemes. Countdown to Liquor Day has it all — car chases, bank robberies, weed farms, stupid men, and kittens — but if you're looking for some cranial stimulation this isn't it. Unless we're talking about supplementary drug use, in which case maybe this is it. — Lizzie Plaugic

Watch it with: Your sister’s stoner boyfriend who you have trouble connecting with.

Iris

Hard to believe it took this long for someone to make a documentary about 90-something style icon Iris Apfel, but it's not the kind of thing you can just do overnight. During her lifetime, Apfel worked at fashion magazines, ran a textile company, completed restoration projects for the White House, and inspired the Metropolitan Museum of Art to create an exhibit of her clothes. Iris examines these accomplishments, but focuses more on Apefel's later-in-life rise to fashion fame. Watching a woman who's nearly a century old run from photo shoot to business meeting to red carpet event might make you reconsider those post-holiday lazy days. — Lizzie Plaugic

Watch it with: Your grandparent most concerned about your outfit choices.

HBO Go

charlotte's web

Charlotte’s Web

The 1973 animated adaptation of Charlotte’s Web is a classic for a couple of reasons. It’s based on a children’s book by E.B. White, a man who frequently wrote about his pet geese as if they were human beings in The New Yorker. It features the song “Smorgasbord,” the best eating jam of all time, which is also sung by a rat. It’s perfect for Thanksgiving because of all the food! It’s also perfect for this particular Thanksgiving because you can turn to your grandpa and be all “oh, I just lovvvve this story about an illiterate pig who becomes successful for literally no reason, don’t you?” — Kaitlyn Tiffany

Watch it with: Grandpa.

Appropriate Behavior

Iranian-American director Desiree Akhavan wrote and starred in Appropriate Behavior, her debut feature film. It follows Akhavan (as Shirin) as she builds herself back up after a gnarly break-up — both by teaching a film class full of five-year-olds how to remake scenes from The Birds and by briefly becoming homeless. It is yet another New York City romantic comedy, but it’s also angsty, sad, and vehemently anti-Sex and the City. — Kaitlyn Tiffany

Watch it with: Whichever 20-somethings are around and also currently miserable.

ghost world

Ghost World

Ghost World, an adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel of the same name, stars Thora Birch before Hollywood forgot who she was, and Scarlett Johansson before she voiced a sexy AI. It’s a timely reminder that everything eventually falls apart, we're all alone, and green hair won't be your look forever. Steve Buscemi is a sad freak in this movie, but aren't we all when we go home for the holidays? — Lizzie Plaugic

Watch it with: A warm blanket.

Repo Man

Emilio Estevez is in his prime, playing another version of the only role he has ever been good at: a little punk. To make some extra dough after he loses his job, Estevez's Otto starts repossessing cars with a shady company and, plot twist — aliens. No sci-fi-adjacent movie has ever benefitted more from an '80s greaser aesthetic, Harry Dean Stanton, a company called United Fruitcake Outlet, Emilio Estevez wearing a single earring, and a theme song by Iggy Pop. — Lizzie Plaugic

Watch it with: Your friend who you invited to dinner and now deserves an apology for being forced to spend time with your family.

Amazon Prime

addams family
 

The Addams Family

A bonafide campy classic, The Addams Family is a great Thanksgiving pick because it includes a seánce. It seems like a good way to broach the idea of a family seánce, if you were looking for one. Be sure to chase it with Addams Family Values, which features one of cinema’s finest depictions of the Thanksgiving tradition. — Kaitlyn Tiffany

Watch it with: Whichever family members have the least resistance to witchcraft.

The Meddler

Written by Lorene Scafaria (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist), The Meddler is the film most likely to make you cry for two full hours this Thanksgiving. There is a touching scene that occurs to the backdrop of Beyoncé’s “I Was Here.” There is a touching scene that occurs to the backdrop of Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again.” There are several touching scenes that occur in an Apple Store, and I’m not even a corporate shill. It stars Susan Sarandon and Rose Byrne as a mother-daughter pair under duress (caused by personal grief and the fact that both of them are very annoying people), and it also features the apartment complex from The Hills. Cool! — Kaitlyn Tiffany

Watch it with: Oh my god, mommmm.

Fatal Attraction

Nothing says "gluttonous holiday celebrating genocide" quite like Glenn Close trying to make murder sexually appealing.  — Lizzie Plaugic

Watch it with: Your ex.

Creative Control

What better way to escape from reality during a major holiday than to watch a movie about how technology distorts that very reality. Creative Control’s follows an eccentric celebrity (Reggie Watts) doing his best to market a pair of augmented reality glasses to non-geniuses. Shot entirely in black and white, the movie is just pretentious enough to convince you it's worth watching. — Lizzie Plaugic

Watch it with: Your brother who still won’t stop talking about Google Glass.