Son In Law is the ONLY Great Thanksgiving Movie

By Dan Salem

Posted on November 4, 2025

The California man meets Corn Country in what is truly the ONLY great Thanksgiving Movie. We present to you ‘Son In Law,’ a movie you’ll never forget.

When we talk about holiday movies, Christmas has a vast catalog. Such films as Elf, Home Alone, and It’s a Wonderful Life top the charts. Halloween has its classics like Halloweentown and Hocus Pocus, but Thanksgiving? The cinematic landscape is shockingly bare, often relegated to the background of dramas or brief, uncomfortable family scenes. Yet one film stands on top, Son In Law.

Son In Law: A changed farm girl returns home for Thanksgiving with her flamboyant party animal friend, who is a fish out of water in a small farm town.

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Watch on Blu-Ray/DVD: Click to Purchase from $3.74

There is one movie that embraces the pure, messy, cross-cultural chaos of the holiday, offering both big laughs and genuine heart. This is 1993’s Son In Law, starring Pauly Shore as the immortal “Stoney” Brown. This movie doesn’t just feature a Thanksgiving scene. Tt’s the entire glorious, hilarious thesis of the American holiday experience.

The True Meaning of Thanksgiving: Culture Clash

Unlike films that romanticize the holiday, Son in Law perfectly captures Thanksgiving’s most common reality, the culture clash. The film’s plot is a pitch-perfect setup for this. Rebecca (Carla Gugino) brings her bizarre, L.A.-based college friend, Stoney, home for Thanksgiving. Home is a quiet, conservative, and very Midwestern farm family in South Dakota.

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Thanksgiving is defined by the uncomfortable juxtaposition of the familiar and the foreign. No movie demonstrates this better than Stoney arriving in cargo shorts and dreadlocks to a house full of people who only wear flannel and mistrust anything that moves faster than a tractor.

Stoney as the Catalyst: Stoney, in his unique, hyper-active “Weasel” persona, forces the conservative family to shed their stiffness. His presence breaks the rigid structure of tradition, forcing the patriarch, Walter (Lane Smith), to confront his biases and his family to find their inner silliness.
The Best Thanksgiving Meal Scene Ever: The dinner scene itself is the centerpiece of the film. From Stoney mistaking the mashed potatoes for ice cream to his utterly inappropriate but genuinely funny interjections, the scene captures the excruciating, yet memorable, feeling of hosting a guest who has absolutely no concept of your family’s customs. It is pure, unadulterated Thanksgiving awkwardness turned into comedy gold.

A Story of True Acceptance and Belonging

While the film operates on broad comedy, its underlying theme is precisely what the holiday is supposed to be about. Acceptance and gratitude for what we have, especially family.

Stoney, despite his outlandish behavior, is not a villain. He is genuinely kind and fiercely loyal to Rebecca and quickly bonds with the younger brother, Zach. Eventually he wins over the initially hostile Walter by showing simple, honest decency.

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The movie teaches us that true family isn’t about blood or shared tradition. It’s about making room at the table for someone wildly different. The fact that the farmers, initially rigid and unwelcoming, ultimately embrace Stoney and his L.A. weirdness is far more heartwarming and emotionally resonant than any forced holiday drama.

Why Every Other Contender Falls Short

The short list of other “Thanksgiving movies” typically includes:

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987): A road trip movie that ends on Thanksgiving. The core story is about travel disaster, not the holiday itself.
Addams Family Values (1993): A brilliant film, but Thanksgiving is a satirical subplot (the camp play) and not the central focus of the movie’s emotional arc.
Pieces of April (2003): A great movie about family tension, but its tone is far more dramatic and indie, lacking the universal comedic appeal needed for holiday re-watches.

Son In Law: A changed farm girl returns home for Thanksgiving with her flamboyant party animal friend, who is a fish out of water in a small farm town.

Stream the Movie: Click To Stream from $3.79

Watch on Blu-Ray/DVD: Click to Purchase from $3.74

Son in Law, however, is entirely structured around the pressure cooker of the family holiday. It understands that Thanksgiving is often about being forced to interact with people you barely know, or barely tolerate, and finding a way to survive the four-day weekend.

In the end, Stoney Brown saves Thanksgiving, not just for Rebecca’s family, but for an entire generation of film watchers who finally found a movie that truly understands the bizarre, hilarious, and ultimately loving mess that makes the holiday what it is. It’s time to stop searching for the perfect drama and embrace the perfect comedy.

Horror Movie Roulette: [Buy this Film on Blu-ray] OR [Stream this other Film Live]

What do you think? Should Planes, Trains & Automobiles get an honorable mention, or is Stoney Brown the one true holiday hero?

Alone: This film, distributed by Breaking Glass Pictures, explores the dark trauma of domestic abuse amid the very real horror of being stalked in isolation. The debut film from directors Dan Salem and Mandi Mellen, its described as an homage to films like Halloween and The Invisible Man, with a villain always cloaked in shadows, leaving the audience unsure of what is real.

Stream the Movie: Click To Stream Now

Son In Law: A changed farm girl returns home for Thanksgiving with her flamboyant party animal friend, who is a fish out of water in a small farm town.

Stream the Movie: Click To Stream from $3.79

Watch on Blu-Ray/DVD: Click to Purchase from $3.74

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Photo Credits to Walt Disney Pictures

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