5 Must-Watch Movies for Your Thanksgiving Break

Addams Family Values(1993)

There's much to love in this sequel to the film adaptation of everyone's favorite creepy-family sitcom, but nothing beats the hilarious, furiously cathartic stunt that young Wednesday (Christina Ricci) pulls while trapped at a bougie, first-world summer camp. Hijacking a tone-deaf play put on for the campers' parents, Wednesday orchestrates a dark reenactment of the pilgrims' slaughter of Native Americans, going so far as to nearly burning her Barbie-girl nemesis at the stake.

Pocahontas (1995)

America wasn't always painting with all the colors of the wind. When Europeans first hit this soil, only one color mattered: White. While it may not be the shrewdest commentary on the theft of this land from Native Americans, Disney's beloved animated classic shined a vibrant light on the truth for younger generations, humanizing the "savages" (as the film's villains call them), whose culture is still endangered.

Pieces of April(2003)

In this gritty and underrated drama, Katie Holmes plays the title character, a troubled black sheep who flees to New York and scares her well-meaning, but ignorant family with her goth looks and black boyfriend (Derek Luke), among other things. When it comes time for the fam to pay a visit to April, who agrees to host Thanksgiving, hilarity and healing ensues, highlighted by an Oscar-nominated performance by Patricia Clarkson, who's a bitter scream as April's cancer-stricken mom.

I Am Love(2009)

Luca Gadagnino's Call Me By Your Name may be one of the most sumptuous films of the year, but the director's true masterpiece is this Italian-language, baroque melodrama, one of the greatest feasts for the eyes of the new century. Featuring Tilda Swinton as a jaded aristocrat in a fervid affair with a lower-class chef, the movie makes the food just as sexy as the lovers' heated trysts.

Eat Pray Love (2010)

Or, maybe, just Eat. Director Ryan Murphy missed the mark a bit with this belabored adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's globetrotting memoir, but the first act, wherein lead star Julia Roberts gorges herself on the legendary drinks and cuisine of Italy, is a fabulous slice of vicarious indulgence. Sipping wine, slurping up pasta, and shamelessly treating herself to--gasp!--bread, Ms. Roberts throws caution to the wind, even comforting her local gal pal when both realize they're developing muffin tops. After all, it's a holiday, honey.