A family gather in their youngest daughter's creaky New York apartment for Thanksgiving. Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) introduces her family to her new partner, Richard (Steven Yeun); her older sister Aimee (Amy Schumer) is struggling to get over her breakup; her father Erik (Richard Jenkins) is plagued by deep existential anxiety; and her mother, Deidre (Jayne Houdyshell) is hiding her own health problems.
Initially a play, it opened on Broadway in 2016, where it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the Tony Award for Best Play. It was then adapted into a 2021 movie written and directed by the play's original creator, Stephen Karam.
Tropes
- Adult Child: Despite being independent, in a relationship, and in her late 20s, Brigid still resents her parents for not helping her fund a more lavish lifestyle, and she's rudderless and unsuccessful in her career. Similarly, Richard has more or less put his life on hold in anticipation of his trust fund, which won't kick in for another five years, when he's 40.
- Big Applesauce: The setting is a single New York apartment. Discussed, though, in that Brigid's parents are from Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Erik resents Brigid for loving New York and hating Pennsylvania.
- Bittersweet Ending: Erik and Deirdre are in a miserable position, but still love and care for each other; Mo Mo is unlikely to survive another year but has reassured the family that she's not afraid; and Aimee and Brigid will survive and manage their lackluster personal lives. The film ends when Erik gets himself out of a panic attack and leaves the hellish Thanksgiving dinner.
- Bottle Episode: The whole film (and play) is set over a single evening in Brigid and Rich's new apartment.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Discussed. Aimee has a hole in her colon which leads her into these situations.
- Crapsack World: The film highlights the sad realities of aging, illness, death, and fiscal insecurity in a post-9/11 world. None of the characters are successful financially or emotionally, with bleak futures that are made worse by their own lackluster ability to cope.
- Dinner and a Show: The premise, Played for Drama, is that it's a Thanksgiving dinner that gets increasingly tense and mysterious.
- Granola Girl: Brigid is obsessed with superfoods and went on "one juice cleanse", which her father won't let her forget.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Although nothing explicitly supernatural happens, Erik is plagued by visions and existential dread in Brigid's apartment on Thanksgiving.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Discussed. Richard's monologue about this idea is where the title comes from.
- Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life: While it's taken a toll on his marriage for obvious reasons, cheating has ruined Erik's life. Because he worked for a Catholic school and his affair was with a woman from the school, he gets fired and loses his pension.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Erik and Deirdre are very critical of the way Brigid and Richard run their household, especially living together while unmarried, and Erik is annoyed in general that Brigid is determined to live in New York City after his own mother scraped by to get his own family out of the city.
- Real Time: Although not literally filmed this way and it does cheat a couple of times with jumps between characters, this is a ninety-minute movie that covers ninety minutes.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Mo Mo, who is in her mid-nineties, has been suffering from dementia for four years and is only lucid when saying grace at dinner. The daughters are saddened but handle her condition maturely and with both kindness and humor, but Erik and Deirdre are financially and emotionally stretched thin.
- Serendipitous Survival: On the morning of 9/11, Erik had intended to visit the Observation Deck of the World Trade Center, but survived because it was still closed at the time. Nevertheless, he's still plagued by horrible memories of the day.
- Sorry That I'm Dying: Played with. Deirdre reads a letter that Mo Mo wrote for the girls before losing her faculties, apologizing for her decline and encouraging them to stop worrying so much about life.
- Thanksgiving Episode: The film is set over a Thanksgiving dinner.
- Toilet Humour: Played for Drama. Aimee is extremely gassy and keeps farting in the bathroom due to her condition, but it humiliates her. Furthermore, her new reality that she'll soon be defecating out of a hole in her stomach leaves her unconvinced she'll ever be able to find a new romantic partner.
- Wham Line: Erik almost casually reveals that he was fired because of a morality clause when he cheated on Deirdre, leaving his daughters completely stunned.
