One of the better skits in recent seasons of “Saturday Night Live” is when they lampooned the idea of a contentious family Thanksgiving dinner, where politics seemed to divide everyone. Of course, in that scene, it took the healing powers of Adele to save the day. But what if Adele isn’t available? Well, then you have the teaser for the upcoming film “The Oath.”
In the first trailer, you see what happens when the White House institutes a new policy where Americans have to sign what’s called the “Patriot’s Oath,” with the deadline being right after Thanksgiving. As you might expect, in these…ummm…divided political times, the family dinner discussion turns aggressive, and as these things go, tasers and knives are busted out as a family looks to murder each other over their ideologies.
As if the premise wasn’t enough to keep you interested, “The Oath” features a great comedic cast that includes Ike Barinholtz, Tiffany Haddish, John Cho, Carrie Brownstein, Billy Magnussen, Meredith Hagner, Jon Barinholtz, Nora Dunn, and Chris Ellis. The film also features Ike Barinholtz performing triple duty as star, writer, and director.
“The Oath” will hit theaters on October 12, just in time for the upcoming political races and well before you have to sit around the dinner table and discuss the results with your family. Because we all know that Uncle John is going to be there spouting his alt-right shenanigans and you may have to choke him out.
Here’s the official synopsis:
A controversial White House policy turns family member against family member in THE OATH, a savagely funny dark comedy about surviving life and Thanksgiving in the age of political tribalism. When Chris (Ike Barinholtz), a high-strung 24-hour progressive news junkie, and his more level-headed wife Kai (Tiffany Haddish) learn that citizens are being asked to sign a loyalty oath to the President, their reaction is disbelief, followed by idealistic refusal. But as the Thanksgiving deadline to sign approaches, the combination of sparring relatives, Chris’s own agitation and the unexpected arrival of two government agents (John Cho and Billy Magnussen) sends an already tense holiday dinner gathering completely off the rails. As timely as it is outrageous, THE OATH is a gleefully wicked reinvention of the traditional holiday comedy for our divisive political times.