For all its charms of sumptuous food, football, films and family, Thanksgiving has its share of dysfunction: delayed flights, kitchen mishaps, leftover resentments. It’s a recipe for relatable drama and even a few laughs. Writer-director Will Slocombe cooks up this tension with this month’s “Cold Turkey,” starring Alicia Witt as Nina, a free-spirited daughter who comes home for the holiday after fifteen years, clashing with her sister (Sonya Walger), her father (Peter Bogdanovich) and his younger wife (Cheryl Hines). New York Magazine calls it “a simmering piece of holiday dystopia with a good, scorching boil-over.”
My piece on Word & Film rounds up other films where Thanksgiving is a catalyst for conflict, if not character change. They include “Pieces of April,” “Hannah & Her Sisters,” and “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” Check it out here.