Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving! (CREDIT: Pief Weyman/TriStar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Starring: Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, Josh Andrés Rivera, Hunter Schafer, Jason Schwartzman, Fionnula Flanagan, Burn Gorman, Ashley Liao, Max Raphael, Zoe Renee, Nick Benson, Isobel Jesper Jones, George Somner

Director: Francis Lawrence

Running Time: 157 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Kids Killing Kids

Release Date: November 17, 2023 (Theaters)

Thanksgiving

Starring: Nell Verlaque, Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Rick Hoffman, Gabriel Davenport, Gina Gershon, Tim Dillon, Tomaso Sanelli, Jenna Warren, Amanda Barker

Director: Eli Roth

Running Time: 106 Minutes

Rating: R for Having Some Friends Over for Dinner, and a Trampoline Striptease

Release Date: November 17, 2023 (Theaters)

Trolls Band Together

Starring: Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Camila Cabello, Eric André, Kid Cudi, Troye Sivan, Daveed Diggs, Amy Schumer, Andrew Rannells, Zosia Mamet, Kenan Thompson, RuPaul, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Icona Pop, Ron Funches, Anderson .Paak, Kunal Nayyar, David Fynn, Kevin Michael Richardson, Patti Harrison, Walt Dohrn, GloZell

Director: Walt Dohrn

Running Time: 92 Minutes

Rating: PG for Some Mild Worries About Being Eaten Alive

Release Date: November 17, 2023 (Theaters)

Appropriately enough, the Thanksgiving box office is looking pretty overstuffed this year. Hollywood seems to be increasingly confused about whether or not it even wants to release its movies theatrically anymore, but you could’ve fooled me with the November 17 release schedule. Whether by planning or sheer accident, November 2023 has been quite possibly the most cinematically multi-faceted month since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. So if you’re ready to go see something a few days before settling down with the turkey, you won’t be at a loss for options. And quite frankly, this is a lineup that would’ve looked right at home ten, or even twenty, years ago. I’ve already covered the triumphant sports flick that’s coming out, and now it’s time to dig into the latest franchise extension, candy-coated cartoon, and terrifying counter-programming.

CREDIT: Murray Close/Lionsgate

I wasn’t exactly super excited for The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, certainly not to the same degree I was for the original Hunger Games eleven years ago, back when I was literally finishing the book the night before opening day. This was never a franchise that felt like it was screaming out to be explained in prequel form. (To be fair, does any franchise require an origin story?) But I was ultimately indubitably struck by Songbirds & Snakes‘ surprising storytelling decisions. The deadly Hunger Games themselves (here in their tenth edition) are almost beside the point. Instead, we witness the rise of Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), the future autocratic president of Panem. As a young man, he fights to alternately survive, defend, and rebel against a totalitarian state. Additionally, we get District 12 tribute Lucy Gray (Rachel Zegler) tapping into a rich tradition of Appalachian folk music, Hunger Games host Lucky Flickerman (Jason Schwartzman) showing off his amateur magic skills, and Viola Davis unsurprisingly relishing her chance to play the villainous gamemaker Volumnia Gaul.

Maybe The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is an ideal movie to see in your thirties, whereas the original Hunger Games was perfect for twentysomethings. Or at least that’s how it worked out for me. Katniss Everdeen’s journey captured the thrill of coming into your own as a person, whereas young Coriolanus’ path focuses more on the compromises of a world on the brink of destruction, while still capturing a sense of wonder and beauty.

CREDIT: DreamWorks Animation

I really didn’t have any expectations at all one way or the other when it came to Trolls Band Together. I didn’t see either of the previous two Trolls flicks, nor was I particularly interested in either one. But despite that lack of loyalty, I found Band Together to be an oddly satisfying comfort food viewing, with its professionally composed cotton candy design and jukebox pop soundtrack. Maybe there’s something about the story’s focus on long-lost siblings reuniting that appeals to my core. If there are any Trolls superfans out here, I’m guessing you’ll dig this; to the rest of you who get dragged along, I recommend drinking a really colorful, sugary soda to get yourself in the right mood.

CREDIT: TriStar Pictures and Spyglass Media Group

Now to finish off the menu, we come to the main course that I was actually looking forward to wholeheartedly. Based on one of the fake trailers that played in the middle of the the 2007 double feature Grindhouse, Thanksgiving feels like exactly the sort of movie that Eli Roth should be directing. I was on board with Cabin Fever, his loony 2002 splatterfest debut, but then I mostly skipped out on the likes of the two Hostels and The Green Inferno, which came across as too mean-spirited in their button-pushing. After a surprising kid-friendly diversion with 2018’s The House with a Clock in Its Walls, he’s back to being as gleefully R-rated as he’s ever been with Thanksgiving.

After a Black Friday sale turns into a deadly riot, the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts finds itself the victim of a sadistically vengeful serial killer who wears a mask of John Carver, the first governor of Plymouth Colony. As the victims are sliced, diced, cooked, stuffed, and shaped into a turkey, I couldn’t help but come to one inescapable conclusion: everyone must have had so much fun making this movie!

Grades:
Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes: 4 out of 5 Jabberjays
Trolls Band Together: 3 out of 5 Bergens
Thanksgiving: 4 out of 5 Carving Knives