THE EMOTIONAL ONE: HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1995)

If there’s a misfit in the all-time canon of holiday movies it’s this classic dramedy sleeper, which tells the story of one eventful Thanksgiving in the home of a Baltimore family — although much of what makes it so irresistible is that in the Larsons, we all see some aspect of our own neurotic families.

Directed with exceptional nuance by Jodie Foster, Home for the Holidays is funny when it needs to be, but there’s an undercurrent of melancholy that runs throughout. Parents age themselves into public embarrassments. Resentments between siblings boil to the surface. But while these conditions might erupt into comedy, laughs aren’t the endgame. Foster, working from W.D. Richter’s script, doesn’t use surface comedy to wash away deeper conflict or painful truths. Keeping that balance makes the laughs come from a deeper, more meaningful place. The tears, too.

Recommended for anyone who loves Holly Hunter, which, let’s face it, should cover pretty much everyone; and for those who like their holiday movies to revolve around awkward family dynamics (The Family Stone, The Ref).

THE INDIE GEM: IT'S A DISASTER (2013)

The best dark comedies often come cloaked in the setup of more traditional fare. The misdirection is part of the fun.

Casting collaborators from his longtime comedy troupe The Vacationeers alongside familiar pros like David Cross and Julia Stiles, indie filmmaker Todd Berger has crafted a lean and vicious comedy of dire circumstance, and one that feels frighteningly relevant. But it doesn’t start that way.

A monthly couples-only brunch eases us into the Austin home of Pete and Emma with plenty of relatable barbs about friendship and romantic entanglements — but the story pivots in a hurry when a neighbor shows up in a hazmat suit.

Recommended for those who like their humor laced with a little arsenic (think Heathers or The Last Supper), and for those who connect with the modern indie aesthetic of, say, the Duplass brothers.

THE FORGOTTEN OSCAR DARLING: THE HOSPITAL (1971)

Over the course of a long and tumultuous career, Paddy Chayefsky’s screenplays won three Academy Awards. The first, for 1955’s Marty, also claimed Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, and it took home the top prize at Cannes. The last was in 1976, when Network, en route to carving out a lasting place in our cultural lexicon, also brought home four major Oscars. Both films have endured; Network, in particular, looks more prescient than ever.

But wedged between those classics is a jagged, forgotten little film with a lot on its mind: The Hospital, starring George C. Scott as the troubled Chief of Medicine at a chaotic Manhattan hospital who just might be succumbing to the madness around him. Chayefsky’s gift for dialogue is used to perfect effect in service of his trademark brand of righteous anger and pitch-black satire — this time directed at the American medical system. Despite its own impressive awards haul, The Hospital is not a conventional crowd-pleaser, but nearly 50 years later, its caustic humor still hits the mark.

Recommended for classic film buffs, and especially for fans of cinematic wordsmiths like Chayefsky and David Mamet.

THE FAMILIAR FAVORITE: GET SHORTY (1995)

The walking caricature that is Late-Era John Travolta tends to obscure the fact that for a while, in the right role, he was legitimately great. In 1995 he was riding a Pulp Fiction-sized wave of career resurrection, and he chose well with this breezy, swaggering adaptation of a then-lesser-known Elmore Leonard novel.

Travolta shines in one of his last watchable performances, and he’s buoyed by a stellar supporting cast. Gene Hackman, James Gandolfini, Dennis Farina, Rene Russo, and Danny DeVito are each hilariously realized — but despite that collective star power, look for character actor Delroy Lindo, who steals every scene he’s in.

Recommended for fans of other Leonard film adaptations (crime-comedy classics Out of Sight, Jackie Brown, and Life of Crime, the last of which is also streaming on Prime); fans of director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black, The Addams Family movies, and the oddly unappreciated trifle Big Trouble); and fans of satirical showbiz comedies.

Four great comedies now streaming on Prime