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5 Netflix Family-Centric Movies to Watch This Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving will be harder than ever this year with a divided America. Here are movies to get you through it 

by Lauren Sarner

Thanksgiving is going tbe rougher than usual this year. Half of America is terrified and distraught that Donald Trump has been elected president; the other half voted for him. Although family gatherings filled with political disagreements are par for the course, this is different. This year, your drunk racist uncle has been validated, and when base prejudices are the issue, it’s harder to come to a consensus. It will be more difficult to remain civil, which means that when you’re killing time with some Netflix post-Thanksgiving dinner, the movie selection is essential. Here are five currently streaming that are failsafe choices.

1. The Princess Bride

It’s impossible not to love The Princess Bride. If you’ve seen it a million times, it never gets old, and if you haven’t seen it, your world is about to be rocked. The story of a simple farm boy turned pirate — Dread Pirate Roberts, to be specific — a Princess Buttercup, Rodents of Unusual Size, and the chattiest duel in the world never fails to elicit smiles. This is an iron-clad classic. No matter what happens to America, we will always have The Princess Bride.

2. Johnny English

Before there was the Kingsman series, there was Johnny English, starring Mr. Bean’s Rowan Atkinson. The topic of Britain has come up a lot in comparing the rise of Trump to Brexit, but selecting this movie allows you to circle that topic while dispelling the tension with laughs.

3. The Little Prince

This deceptively simple “children”‘s classic has deep existential musings on love, curiosity, and tolerance. It’s the perfect family movie for an atmosphere of mistrust and tension. Even if your family does not have kids, this is one cartoon that demands attention from adults too.

4. Holes

This is Shia LaBeouf’s best movie. In our post-fact world, that is an inarguable truth that anyone can agree on. From it’s weird early 2000s music nostalgia to its dusty setting, this story has always been far more charming than it’s got any right to be.

5. To Kill A Mockingbird

Because there’s nothing wrong with stirring up the family gathering with a little bit of pointed commentary through fiction. If suspicious eyebrows are raised, you can pretend you just really like Atticus Finch’s glasses.

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