Roadside Attractions just released the teaser trailer for The Oath, a dark comedy written by first time feature film director Ike Barinholtz (Central Intelligence, The Mindy Project). The level of violence might be slightly exaggerated, however the timely comedy’s teaser trailer perfectly captures the current state of America.
The producers of Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman – and Jordan Peele’s Get out – Sean McKittrick, and Ray Mansfield – produced the political comedy which shares a name (but nothing else) with the 2018 TV series starring Sean Bean and the 2016 crime drama directed by Baltasar Kormakur. David Stassen and Andrew Robinson also produced.
Writer/director Barinholtz stars in the ensemble comedy along with Tiffany Haddish, John Cho, Carrie Brownstein, Billy Magnussen, Meredith Hagner, Jon Barinholtz, Nora Dunn, and Chris Ellis. Tiffany Haddish was also involved as an executive producer with Edward H. Hamm Jr and Kristen Murtha.
Barinholtz came up with the idea for the comedy in November 2016, shortly after Trump’s election. “Right after Trump won, I had Thanksgiving at my house,” stated Barinholtz. “And after dinner, my family and I got into an argument about the election. The strange thing was that we were all pretty much aligned politically. So I thought if we’re getting this angry at each other, I can only imagine what’s happening to other people around the country.”
Roadside Attractions has set an October 12, 2018 limited theatrical release date for The Oath.
The Plot: “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 levelheaded 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.”
