Film

Home for the Holidays

Jodie Foster's ensemble comedy about a woman who loses her job, kisses her boss goodbye, and flies home to a family that greets her with open arms and open warfare. It's messy, loud and oddly tender — the kind of movie that understands Thanksgiving is less about turkey than about surviving the people who love you. Great for anyone who finds family gatherings simultaneously unbearable and essential.

TMDb rating6.3

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Pieces of April2003no page yet

Another holiday-dinner-as-disaster-zone comedy, this one following an estranged daughter trying to cook Thanksgiving for a family that doesn't much like her. Scrappy, funny, and unexpectedly moving by the end.

But Lower budget and rougher edges than Home for the Holidays — it trades polish for grit.

The Family Stone2005

A big ensemble cast crammed into one house over Christmas, secrets and grudges surfacing over dinner. Same warm-chaos energy, with a starrier cast and a sharper emotional gut-punch near the end.

But Tonal whiplash — it swerves from comedy to tearjerker faster than some viewers will want.

The Family Stone poster

You Can Count on Me2000

A quieter sibling story — a wayward brother returns to small-town life and unsettles his sister's careful world. Less farce, more slow-burn tenderness, with performances that feel lived-in.

But Very little plot momentum; if you want holiday chaos and jokes, this is far more subdued.

You Can Count on Me poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Krisha2016no page yet

Same bones — the black-sheep relative arriving home to a holiday table full of unresolved history — but played entirely straight, as slow-building psychological horror instead of comedy.

A recovering addict returns to her family's Thanksgiving after years away, and the reunion curdles in real time. Shot with handheld dread, it's the same setup as Claudia's homecoming pushed into something closer to horror.

But Genuinely tense and uncomfortable rather than funny — there's little of the comic relief that softens the Larsons' chaos.

More like this (8)

Rachel Getting Married2008

A family wedding instead of a holiday, but the same handheld intimacy and simmering old wounds. Anne Hathaway's performance as the disruptive returning sibling is a genuine gut-punch.

But The shaky, documentary-style camera and long unstructured scenes can feel exhausting rather than immersive.

Rachel Getting Married poster

Hannah and Her Sisters1986

Woody Allen's warmest ensemble film, hopping between siblings, affairs and neuroses over several Thanksgivings. Funnier and more autumnal than you'd expect, with a genuinely affectionate view of messy families.

But Allen's involvement is understandably a dealbreaker for many viewers now.

Hannah and Her Sisters poster

Little Miss Sunshine2006

A different kind of family disaster movie — a road trip instead of a house, but the same bruised, bickering clan learning to tolerate each other. Deadpan, silly, and quietly devastating in places.

But The quirky-indie tone and yellow-van aesthetic have been so widely imitated it can feel a little dated now.

Little Miss Sunshine poster

Dan in Real Life2007no page yet

A widowed dad crammed into a chaotic extended-family lake house, falling for the wrong woman under everyone's nose. Gentle, sweetly awkward comedy for people who like their family chaos low-stakes.

But Much softer and more conventional — no real edge or darkness compared to the Larson family's dysfunction.

Everybody's Fine2009no page yet

A widower travels to visit his grown children instead of the other way round, slowly discovering their lives aren't what they've told him. Robert De Niro plays gentle rather than intense, and it lands harder for it.

But Melancholy and slow-paced — this leans drama far more than comedy.

This Is Where I Leave You2014

Adult siblings forced under one roof to sit shiva for their father, old sibling roles snapping back into place instantly. Starry cast, plenty of bickering-as-love-language humor.

But Broader and glossier than Home for the Holidays — more sitcom-polished than genuinely messy.

This Is Where I Leave You poster

You Can't Take It with You1938

The direct grandparent of the eccentric-family-dinner-comedy formula — same premise of a 'normal' outsider dropped into a houseful of loving lunatics, decades before Foster made her version.

Frank Capra's screwball classic about a wildly eccentric family colliding with buttoned-up in-laws over dinner. It's the ancestor of every 'meet the crazy family' comedy, including this one, and it's still riotously funny.

But Black-and-white, stagey, and unapologetically old-fashioned in its rhythms and moralizing.

You Can't Take It with You poster

An American Family1973

Strips away the jokes and the actors entirely — same fascination with what a family looks like under pressure, but as unvarnished documentary rather than comic invention.

The original fly-on-the-wall documentary series that invented the genre — cameras embedded in one real household as it quietly falls apart. Watching an actual family unravel gives Home for the Holidays' fiction an eerie real-world echo.

But Slow, unscripted, and dated in its filming style — this demands patience a scripted comedy never asks for.

An American Family poster

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