2018, d. Ike Barinholtz - Netflix
The world is not a great place right now. Insidious agents Russian, American and otherwise have managed to create such an extreme level of divisiveness that people are continually angry at everyone about everything. Everything is the result of an agenda causing people to be on one side or the other...there's no longer a concept of "common ground". This brewing pot of division has been a decades long process, one that's been permitted to happen and has culminated in political contrasts that have allowed some truly horrendous people to rise to the upper reaches of power. One of those is a certain toe-headed, orange-faced, totalitarian blowhard to the south who feels he is flawless, above the law and demands respect and fealty with no reciprocation.
About 150 scandals ago, the orange tyrant was heard to have requested loyalty oaths from the people working for him in the government, promising to serve his best interests, not the people of the country. This film, from comedian/writer/actor/director Ike Barinholtz, takes it one step further and has the fictional president of the United States asking its people to sign a loyalty oath, noting that it's "completely voluntary" except that it's increasingly clear through news reports that there are repercussions for not signing it.
The deadline for signing the Oath is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, so the film leads into this time, as families start to gather and prepare food and argue over differences in political opinion. Barinholtz play Chris, a stern opposer to the Oath and a bit of a cable news junkie. Tiffany Haddish plays Kai, his wife, who suffers through Chris' rants and outrage and new obsession, agreeing halfheartedly, but mostly just hoping for it to end. They have a great relationship otherwise, but it's clear Chris' news fixation is a problem.
At this stage all Chris can talk about is The Oath, but he's promised to let go of it for Thanksgiving, since his right-leaning parents are coming (Nora Dunn and Chris Ellis), as is his far right-wing brother (Barinholtz's actual brother, Jon) and his new, alt-right propaganda-spewing girlfriend (Meredith Hagner). Chris' sister (Carrie Brownstein) seems to be the only other bastion of liberalism in the family so he's elated when she finally shows up (her husband [Jay Duplass] in tow, but down and out with the flu).
The Oath keeps simmering to the surface, no matter how hard everyone tries to surpress it, and even when it's not a topic, Chris can't help but clash with the more extreme right-wing members of his family. After a particularly tragic Thanksgiving, the family is visited by a pair of, essentially, Oath enforcers, one very reasonable (John Cho), the other a clearly unstable, aggressive zealot (Billy Magnusson).
Up to this stage in the film it's a very tense, sporadically funny, mostly uncomfortable and perhaps upsetting film that earnestly looks at people's inability to find middle ground or common sense. Regurgitation of talking points and an utter inability to see any other viewpoint but one's own (regardless of what side you're on) shows how rigidly divided people have become, even (or perhaps especially) families.
But once the government agents turn up, the proceedings turn from political satire to outright farce. If things were uncomfortable before, wait until things get hilariously violent, and more that a few mistakes are made, including a bit of light assault and kidnapping.
The film is an effectively dark comedy for its first hour, the performances all quite excellent, but it excels far more in its farcical final act. It just takes too long to get there. The film doesn't necessarily villainize the right wing as much as I think it would like to, but it certainly highlights the fact that there are extremes that the right wing falls into that make them utterly impossible to connect with, particularly when challenging them so vehemently.
The first two acts are good but uneasy watching, and the subject matter is too depressing to really enjoy it in any way, but the third act is gold. Barinholtz ratchets up the comedic tension expertly and doesn't over-extend the moment beyond the audience's breaking point (certainly well past the characters' breaking points however). It's a very assured first directorial feature from him. The film ends with a major deus ex machina, but it's also quite satisfying in its resolution, a little promise that cooler heads will prevail.
Difficult, but likeable.
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