Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully, your day is full of family, food, and football. Once you’re ready to sit on the couch and relax, it’s time for a movie. Fire up Amazon Prime Video and enjoy the hundreds of movies for streaming consumption. With so many options, start with this guide, which lists 10 great movies to watch on Thanksgiving.
One of the selections is The Holiday, a warm rom-com that will be a catalyst for the Christmas season. If rom-coms aren’t on the menu, try Creed, the terrific sports drama that reinvigorated the Rocky franchise. The other three movies include a musical adventure, a romantic drama, and a football comedy.
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
The Holiday (2006)
It might be Thanksgiving, but Christmas romances are superior holiday rom-coms. The Holiday is never brought up with the elites in the genre, like When Harry Met Sally or Love Actually. However, The Holiday is probably in the next tier of delightful romantic comedies. Plus, it comes from Nancy Meyers, one of the best writers within the genre.
Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) is a journalist who can’t get over her ex-boyfriend. Amanda Woods (Cameron Diaz), the owner of a Hollywood movie trailer company, breaks up with her unfaithful boyfriend. A change of scenery is exactly what both women need, so they agree to swap houses for the holiday. Despite swearing off men, both find love in unexpected places.
Stream The Holiday on Prime Video.
Creed (2015)
During Thanksgiving weekend in 2015, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan shocked the film community with Creed, the excellent spinoff in the Rocky franchise. Adonis “Donnie” Johnson (Jordan) is the illegitimate child of former boxing champion Apollo Creed. Apollo never met Donnie, having died before the child was born.
Now an adult, Donnie is an amateur boxer with aspirations of turning pro. To be a great boxer, Donnie must learn from one of the best to ever put on boxing gloves, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Despite his initial hesitation, Rocky agrees to train and mentor Adonis. With Rocky in his corner, Donnie’s career takes off, eventually leading to a title shot. However, Rocky implores his wisdom in Donnie and teaches him that the most important opponent he’ll ever face is himself. There is a strong argument that Creed belongs in the top three for Rocky movie rankings.
Stream Creed on Prime Video.
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
A wistful, beautiful movie that’s also a lot of fun, Catch Me If You Can tells the story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a master con man who evaded authorities for years in part by assuming a series of fake identities. Leonardo DiCaprio is perfect casting in the central role as a man on the run both from authorities and from deeper truths about his life.
In Steven Spielberg’s hands, Catch Me If You Can becomes a story about a broken boy trying desperately to escape from his parent’s divorce, and the yarn he manages to weave will keep you watching it over and over again.
You can watch Catch Me If You Can on Amazon Prime Video.
School of Rock (2003)
If you need a movie for the entire family, School of Rock is the right combination of humor and sweetness that kids and adults will enjoy. Directed by Richard Linklater and written by The White Lotus‘s Mike White, School of Rock stars Jack Black as Dewey Finn, an aspiring guitarist who dreams of becoming a renowned rock star. Dewey’s plans nosedive after getting kicked out of his band.
Desperate for money. Dewey poses as a substitute teacher at a prestigious elementary school. While watching the kids in their music class, Dewey has an epiphany. These talented children can form the basis of his new band. Dewey forms a band under the guise of a school project. All roads lead to the local Battle of the Bands, where Dewey hopes to put on a rock show that will change the world.
Stream School of Rock on Prime Video.
Stuck in Love (2012)
Although Stuck in Love has two critical scenes set on Thanksgiving, it’s more of a romantic drama than a holiday-themed movie. Novelist Bill Borgens (Greg Kinnear) is a father to teenagers Sam (Lily Collins) and Rusty (Nat Wolff). Bill’s wife, Erica (Jennifer Connelly), left him for another man. However, Bill still misses her and holds out hope she might return.
Each family member deals with love’s challenges and the difficulties of forming a relationship. Bill can’t get over Erica, so he turns to his neighbor and romantic partner, Tricia (Veronica Mars’ Kristen Bell), for help moving on. Sam builds a connection with her classmate Lou (Logan Lerman), but her crippling fear of ending up as her parents prevent him from falling in love. Finally, Rusty likes one of his classmates (Liana Liberato), but his lack of experience causes feelings of self-doubt.
Stream Stuck in Love on Prime Video.
The Longest Yard (2005)
It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without football. How about a prison game between the guards and the convicts? That’s the plot of The Longest Yard, the 2005 remake of the 1974 film of the same name. Adam Sandler stars as Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler), a disgraced quarterback who tarnished his reputation in a points-shaving scandal. After a destructive car crash, Crew is sentenced to three years in prison.
Crewe’s plan to quietly serve his sentence is disrupted when the nefarious Warden Hazen (James Cromwell) recruits him to a football team of prison guards. Crewe suggests to the warden that the guards need a tune-up game against an inferior opponent to boost the team’s morale. Much to his surprise, the warden tasks Crewe with quarterbacking a football team of inmates against the guards. It all culminates in a violent game that the warden will try to win by any means necessary. However, the inmates won’t go down without a fight. Will Crew join in?
Stream The Longest Yard on Prime Video.
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
A great movie about football, family, and good food, Silver Linings Playbook tells the story of a diehard Eagles fan who is released from a mental hospital following a bipolar episode. As he attempts to navigate the realities of his new life while living at home with his parents, he meets a young girl who is just as messed up as he is.
As the two of them begin to form a connection, he comes to new understandings about his family and a new appreciation for the life he has. After all, if you have family and football, what else do you need?
You can watch Silver Linings Playbook on Amazon Prime Video.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
For a certain generation, James Bond movies are a Thanksgiving staple. For a good decade-plus, cable channels such as TNT and TBS aired Bond marathons during the Thanksgiving holiday, which allowed dudes around the world to sit back, eat some turkey, and watch 007 kick some butt in exotic locales.
Not all Bond movies are created equal (I’m looking at you, Octopussy), but the better ones are truly glorious, and Bond didn’t get much better than in The Spy Who Loved Me. Roger Moore is the British secret agent, and he’s tasked with saving the world from a recluse named Karl Stromberg (Curt Jürgens) from destroying the world so he can start a new civilization under the sea. Part of this new world order is oversized henchmen like Jaws (Richard Kiel), who has metal teeth and wants to rip Bond apart. It’s all very silly and very fun, and there’s not a turkey in sight. It’s glorious.
The Spy Who Loved Me is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Best in Show (2000)
The National Dog Show is now a Thanksgiving Day TV staple, but that wasn’t always the case. Its popularity is due in large part to Best in Show, a hilarious 2000 mockumentary directed by Christopher Guest that follows a handful of contestants from around the country who are competing with their dogs at the fictional Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show.
Among the competitors are Cookie and Gerry (Eugene Levy and Catherine O’ Hara), a Florida couple who seem to run into one of Cookie’s many, many lovers along the way to the show (and during and after); Harlan (Guest), a barely coherent Southern fish bait shop owner and budding ventriloquist; Meg and Hamilton (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock), a yuppie couple who focus too much of their frustrations and energies on their dog; Christie and Sherri Ann (Jane Lynch and Jennifer Coolidge), a butch dog trainer and her trophy wife client; and Scott and Stefan (John Michael Higgins and Michael McKean), a gay couple who pamper their pooches almost as much as they pamper themselves.
And those are just the contestants! The movie is chock full of hilarious characters, throwaway gags, and a gentle skewering of its subject matter that somehow transforms into a loving ode to all things canine. Best in Show is frequently cited as one of the funniest movies of the 21st century, and who are we to argue with the truth?
Best in Show is available to rent or purchase on Amazon Prime Video.
My Old Ass (2024)
A recent release that deserves as many eyeballs as it can get, My Old Ass is, at least in part, about embracing the life and family that you have. The film tells the story of a teenage girl on the verge of adulthood who sees an older version of herself while tripping on acid.
As she begins to take advice from this older version of her, she begins a new romance and discovers that she doesn’t fully understand everything happening in her family. My Old Ass is a movie about living in the moment and finding gratitude for what you have, which makes it perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday.
You can watch My Old Ass on Amazon Prime Video.
