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?

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).

Say what you want about Eli Roth and the vicious, stomach-turning films he puts into theaters, but the guy is one of the most passionate filmmakers working today. This weekend he returns with Hostel: Part II; a sequel to the very successful horror film that had a lot of people buzzing when it first came out back in 2005. Quite simply, he's the kind of guy you'd love to have your back in a fight. He's real, he's raw, he's emotional -- and he's very proud of the work he produces. I recently caught up with Eli to talk up everything Hostel, as well as check the status on some of those other buzzed-about films Roth has planned for us down the line. Where is he at with Cell, the Stephen King adaptation? Will he direct a Grindhouse 2 with Edgar Wright? What's up with this Trailer Trash movie? Or how about an animated horror flick? Oh, and how does Roth really feel about the MPAA? Well, read on and you'll find out ...

Cinematical: Here's what I'm hearing about Eli Roth lately: Eli Roth wants to make a Grindhouse 2 with Edgar Wright, and he also wants to make a Trailer Trash movie. Is all of it true?

Eli Roth: Well, one was that if they were going to do a Grindhouse 2, I was joking with Edgar that he should do Don't and I would do Thanksgiving. And we still might do it. But it would have to be something we did between movies; kind of like a fun side project. But then I also want to do a whole movie of fake trailers -- like Kentucky Fried Movie, Borat or Jackass -- called Trailer Trash. Thanksgiving was the most fun I've ever had shooting anything, and the response to it was the best response to anything I've ever done in my career. And so I have so many more ideas like that that are ready to go that I'd love to start shooting it.

Cinematical: So basically you're going to shoot an entire movie full of three-minute trailers?

ER: Picture Thanksgiving, and now picture an entire movie with trailers like that.

Cinematical: And how far along are you on it; who else is involved?

ER: I'm not saying anything else on it except that I'm writing it with my brother. But I have a story, I have a plot, and I want a make a movie like Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- totally silly, totally absurd -- something like Borat; Borat is a good example.

It looks like the DVD pirates have found their next big target. Movieweb is reporting that copies of Hostel Part II have already hit the streets for sale in Los Angeles. According to the first person account of an B. Alan Orange, he managed to snag a $5 studio-grade copy of the torture flick. The sequel to the 2005 film centers the action this time on a group of girls kidnapped and tortured in a remote European location. The movie is expected to be a big success, but could a few crappy street DVDs really hurt the opening weekend profits? Not to worry, Roth seems to lining up plenty of projects for the near future. Just today, Monika reported that the director was looking to expand on his Grindhouse trailer, Thanksgiving, as well as the slightly nutty concept film Trailer Trash - The Movie.

Hostel Part II is not the first high profile summer movie to have been hit by piracy. Just this May copies of Spiderman 3 were supposedly flooding the market before the film had its North American release. In the end, Sony released an official statement denying that copies had flooded the market in Beijing for $1 a piece. At least Roth can take solace in the fact that his was going for five. But it's not like Spiderman suffered at the Box Office and I think the same will hold true for fans of Roth's particular brand of horror. Law abiding citizens who want to see Hostel: Part II will just have to wait until June 8th.

Though shooting hasn't started yet, George Lucas told USA Today that we should expect the first trailer for Indiana Jones 4 to arrive in our laps this Thanksgiving. In Lucas' perfect world, Thanksgiving is also the time when we will finally learn the official title (Indiana Jones and the Quest for a New Wheelchair?) for the film as well. Regarding whether or not Harrison Ford is in good enough shape to take on the role, Lucas says "He's not running in any of the movies. He's either on a horse or driving a car or a motorcycle. And he'll play his age in this movie with what's appropriate. The chases are more suspenseful than speedy. Like the rolling ball in the first film -- it's not that he's running that fast, it's that there's a giant ball coming at him. And he will get beat up, which is a tradition for us."

But who will beat him up? Ever since Cate Blanchett was cast, folks immediately began speculating -- is she Indy's lover, his enemy ... or both? While USA Today calls Blanchett Indy's "new leading lady," apparently Lucas wasn't so keen on casting her. Says the Star Wars king, "That's who my director wanted, and I always bow to the wishes of my director. I approved it because she seemed like a good idea. When I met her at the Academy Awards, I told her, 'Hey, you work for me now!' " Wow, that last sentence made it seem as if Lucas wasn't the control freak most make him out to be. Then again, we all know how well Lucas' previous casting decisions (ahem, Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman) turned out.

Oddly missing from the USA Today article were any Shia LaBeouf questions. Did he sign on for a role? Did Lucas tell Spielberg, "I'll give you Blanchett, but you're not getting LaBeouf?" While that mystery hangs out there, Lucas did say that Sean Connery appearing in the fourth installment as Indy's father was still a possibility. "We're still trying," he says. Well, I think I speak for all fans when I say, "try harder!"