When epicurean delights hit the big screen, magic fills the air. The color is often magnified, and there's always a shining gleam in the eye. But you don't need faerie dust and magical spells to make this happen -- it's all within the food -- the hard, yet giving crunch of a piece of chocolate, the melting creaminess of aged cheese, the glistening slice of a fresh roast turkey, and even the refreshing bite of wine, or the calming warmth of tea to cap it off.

Although foodie movies are without their two greatest allies -- the sense of smell and taste -- some still manage to portray the enchanting spirit of fine feasts. Many films have food in them, but not as many delve into the passion of it -- the appreciation of flavor and texture, as well as the art. Stranger than Fiction has some tasty treats, but they're a side benefit of the film. Ying Ning's Perpetual Motion taps into it a little more -- detailing the creation of a feast, as well as the sensuality inherent in appreciative eating. But then there are others where it is all about the cuisine. It may seem picky, but in a world where we want the best of everything, is it really that snobbish to love a delectable piece of food?

The nibbles might bring people together, or drive them on the path of their lives, but either way, the films would be lost without it. In the wake of the holiday that makes gourmet gluttony a national celebration, here are seven films for foodies. They only tap into a small portion of both the world of cinema and culinary delights, but they hit many aspects of it, from the real drama of tea to the magic of chocolate. Nibble on these, and be sure to share your own.

Earlier this month a bunch of us came up with a list of the movie characters we'd love to have thanksgiving with. Now, here's the opposite. The title is pretty self-explanatory, so I don't need to set it up much. But as usual, we invite you to tell us of your own picks for worst Thanksgiving dinner guest. Please try to make it a movie character, though, because none of us know your annoying aunt, and plus this is a movie site.


Hannibal Lecter from Manhunter, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon and Hannibal Rising

If you were to have Dr. Lecter (Brian Cox; Anthony Hopkins; Gaspard Ulliel) to your Thanksgiving feast, you'd want to prepare and cook all the food yourself. Otherwise, you might end up eating human flesh instead of turkey (or turducken, or whatever non-people-based meal you prefer). Then again, you might actually end up the meal, which is certainly much worse than unknowingly tasting Ray Liotta's brains. So, the best thing is to not even invite the guy.


Graham Young from Young Poisoner's Handbook

Another character who might be an interesting guest, but like with Lecter, you'll need to keep an eye on the food, or at least on the tea. Graham (Hugh O'Conor), aka "the teacup murderer" likes to play with poison, and there's a good chance he's going to spike the dinner or drinks with thallium.

I'm thankful for a lot of things this year, my son being first and foremost, but I wouldn't get too far down the list without coming to movies and food, and then food in movies. Showing characters eating or relating to food in some way can be a quick and easy way to capture a magical moment. You can reveal something about a character, you can take a break from an otherwise hectic narrative, or you can simply bask in the sheer, physical beauty of food, the same way another movie might show characters dancing. The following is my second annual "thankful" list of food scenes in current movies playing on 400 screens or less.

I'm thankful for the use of the term "savory snacks" in Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited (285 screens). When Jack (Jason Schwartzman) returns from having made love with the Indian stewardess (Amara Karan) in the train's bathroom, his brothers ask: "where's our savory snacks"? I'm thankful for the adorable Sarah Silverman and the way she sighed her way through the line "I want someone to eat cheese with" in I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (3 screens). And I'm thankful for Scarlett Johansson eating potato chips in bed in The Nanny Diaries (26 screens) -- her only way of dealing with the end of a horrible, horrible day.

Today a lot of you will head off to do whatever, wherever with whomever, and if you're like me you're stoked for two reasons: a) no work and b) eating until way after the belt comes off. More power to you and yours -- and we here at Cinematical sincerely wish you a happy, healthy Thanksgiving and hope you spend the day with someone(s) or something you truly care about ... (waits for the two girls in the back corner to go "awww"). I'll be writing a list of things I'm not thankful for this year a bit later on, but I figured I'd compliment that with a list of things I am thankful for this year -- all of which are movie-related, of course. So, in no particular order:

I'm thankful for getting to experience my first film festival overseas in Berlin earlier this year, and for all those people who made fun of me in German but turned the other way so I wouldn't take notice.

I'm thankful that three of my favorite filmmakers (Wes Anderson, P.T. Anderson and the Coen brothers) put out three fantastic flicks this year (The Darjeeling Limited, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men) for me to experience, debate and enjoy. I'm also thankful the Starz network decided to air Rushmore last week, allowing me to DVR it and watch it again for the first time in several years. God I love that movie.

I'm thankful for 2 Days in Paris, The Grand, Knocked Up and Superbad. They made me laugh harder than I've laughed in a long time. I will never look at a penis illustration the same way again.

I'm thankful for being given the opportunity to get up every morning and do what I love doing, alongside people I admire and respect. I'm also thankful for those comments that trash me to a point where I'm on the verge of slitting my wrists with a spork. You keep me in check, and for that I am grateful.

I'm thankful Tom Cruise didn't kill anyone.

I'm thankful the writers finally got another 15 minutes, although they deserve a lot more.

And finally, I'm thankful for HD (but not for the two different formats -- we'll get to that in another post). Back in May, my wife gave me a 46-inch Sony Bravia for my 30th birthday and I love the thing like it's my child. So pretty. So sweet. Want to pet it. Love youuuuuu.

So, what movie-related things are you thankful for this year?

Eating has become more and more difficult in the 21st century. Food isn't always the wondrous, romantic thing depicted in most movies. Recently we have learned about MSG, GMOs, polyunsaturated fats, trans-fats and the presence of the horrid "high fructose corn syrup" in just about everything. (It's in bread. Bread!) Sales of organic foods have increased drastically, and everyone has become an ingredient-reader and an amateur foodie. Now multiply this by about fifteen and you've got Thanksgiving dinner. Who's a vegetarian? Who's a vegan? Who's on the Atkins diet? Does putting the stuffing inside the turkey actually make it poisonous? Were those slivered almonds made on machinery that also processed peanuts? Who's allergic? What's the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? To get yourself prepared, I've assembled a chronological list of food cautionary tales, or hard culinary lessons learned.

Soylent Green (1973)
Is there anyone out there who doesn't yet know the secret component of everyone's favorite future foodstuff? If not, watching this film, directed by Richard Fleischer, will make you want to read the ingredients more often.

The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
The key scene in Luis Bunuel's film takes place at a dinner party. Guests gather around the table, pull down their pants and sit on toilets. They talk, rifle through magazines and otherwise engage in casual conversation. One guest rises, politely excuses himself and shyly asks for the dining room. Once inside, he shuts the door and begins eating. That's really funny, and in the joke, Bunuel asks why we perform one bodily function with great dignity in public and another with shame in private. As humans, our beliefs and behavior are utterly arbitrary. Try not to think about that at the dinner table.

The 1990s had no shortage of dysfunctional family movies, but Jodie Foster's second (and still most recent) directorial effort Home for the Holidays (1995) sends them all packing by bringing the family together for Thanksgiving dinner. Most movies in this genre handle the wide tapestry of characters by assigning them one-dimensional, easily defined personality types, but Foster and her screenwriter, the great W.D. "Rick" Richter, fit in dozens of remarkable little moments that bring everyone into three-dimensional relief. It begins with Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter, at her pluckiest) happily at work, restoring old paintings. (The opening credit sequence is rich with information, such as using egg yolks as a base.) Unfortunately, she gets laid off, tries to make out with her boss and comes down with a cold. Her teenage daughter (Claire Danes) announces that she's spending the holiday with her boyfriend and will be having sex for the first time.

With failure and humiliation hung around her neck, she returns home for turkey day. To rub it in, Claudia loses her fancy, big city coat at the airport and must settle for wearing her mother's puffy, hideously out-of-date coat for the rest of the visit. On the plane, she calls her closest companion, her brother Tommy (Robert Downey Jr.) and begs him to come too. It's an awkward, babbling message, but touchingly honest. Tommy, a cackling, gay nutcase full of mischievous energy, does turn up and brings the sexy Leo Fish (Dylan McDermott). Claudia is single, and in a lesser movie -- Dan in Real Life, for example -- everyone in the family would pester her to find a man, as if they had no concerns of their own. And certainly the subject comes up, most heartbreakingly in a scene with the sad-sack David Strathairn as an old classmate -- a meeting arranged by Claudia's mom (Anne Bancroft).

While they might be all sorts of succulent and tasty, poultry gets the crappy end of the slang stick. The chicken is the coward, and instead of a platter signifying all things delectable, turkeys are considered the foolish and often useless. To top that off -- when turkeys hit the celebrity realm, well, they're usually also box office bombs. In honor of our never-ending love of celebrity gossip, train-wrecks, and disaster stories, I present you with seven tasty turkeys in honor of our upcoming turkey day. Many are just a gross waste of potential, and some, I'm sure you'll agree, don't even have half the potential that studios give them credit for. Whatever the reason, they're all riding the stinker train.

Gobble, gobble!


Paris Hilton

She's mocked by many, loved by few, but Paris Hilton seems to be able to outlast even the little train that could. Prison didn't stop her, and neither do crappy movies. Working backwards: Pledge This! was so very bad that it's pretty much off the radar; the same goes for Bottoms Up; House of Wax did alright, but doesn't hold the moviegoer love; and, which Hillz? Yet somehow, somewhere, she got cast in Repo! The Genetic Opera!, which let her loose on the streets of Toronto to gripe over sex tape woes. We keep waiting for her to fall, or go away, but I'm starting to think that this super-skinny turkey is here to stay. She's like one of those inflatable boxing stand-ups that somehow swings its way upright each and every time.

If you like to eat ... and you like to eat, there is no greater holiday than Thanksgiving. Part of what makes Thanksgiving so damn special (apart from Mom's super awesome homemade pumpkin/apple/whatever your favorite thing is pie) is getting to sit around a table with the ones you love and give thanks for being able to do just that. But what if you had a chance to replace that wacky uncle with one of your favorite movie characters? Who would you choose? Keep in mind you'd have to pick someone the rest of your family would get along with; someone who'd help take your Thanksgiving dinner up a gigantic notch.

Would you really want someone like Ferris Bueller there? He'd probably eat fast and then bolt, giving some lame excuse that incorporates computer-generated belching sounds. You probably wouldn't want a heartthrob (Brad Pitt's character in ... anything) or a hottie (mmm, Rose McGowan with a machine-gun leg) because then your family would fawn all over them, snapping photo after photo until the character eventually freaks and does something bad. You're going to want a movie character who adds enjoyment and, perhaps, someone who would bring some tasty treats along with them. We asked seven Cinematical writers which movie character they'd invite to Thanksgiving dinner, and why. Feel free to click through our answers, and then tell us who you'd love to stuff in between the turkeys at your household.

Patrick Walsh would invite ...