The Humans and the Cringe Nature of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving doesn’t have the greatest reputation among the major American holidays.

It’s a time of the year often most famous for confrontational family conversations and marketers tend to give it the cold shoulder.

It’s not that the other big holidays are perfect or that it’s impossible to have a good Thanksgiving.

But Thanksgiving doesn’t have any of the present-opening joys of Christmas or fun parties of Halloween to compensate for its shortcomings.

It’s harder to distract one from how often this holiday is known for shouting matches and burnt turkeys more than anything else.

Maybe that’s why Hollywood has often avoided making movies centered on this holiday, though The Humans, a 2021 drama directed by Stephen Karam, makes it clear there’s lots of compelling cinematic potential to be wrung out of the terrors specific to Thanksgiving.

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