Sunday, October 14, 2018

The Oath - WTF

Wow, we watched "The Oath" yesterday. And by watched I mean we went out and paid good money to see it in a theater.

I feel bamboozled.

If you watch the trailer on YouTube, particularly the Red Band trailer, this look high-larious. Ike Barinholtz and Tiffany Haddish are a married couple, who have Ike's family over for Thanksgiving.  They are good liberals and some of their family members are good conservatives.  This leads to hijinks as they debate whether to sign a new loyalty oath to the President and USA (in that order).

I am sure when this was written and mainly filmed it was very lighthearted. Somewhere along the line, it changed into a possible reality and shit got real.

I love a black comedy! War of the Roses is my favorite Christmas movie. But this swung from Black Comedy to uncomfortable projection of the future and back way to often. Shooting a civilian enforcer of moral values accidentally - funny. Having the sister stomp on his face repeatedly - disturbing.

You will at first be annoyed that Tiffany Haddish doesn't get to be as funny as she should be allowed to. But then, you notice ... she is a hell of an actress. It is impressive. Not impressive enough to save the movie, but impressive.

We were asked to give feedback after the movie - and the one question that totally stumped me was "who is the prime target audience for this movie?"  I can't think of one. It should be me or a conservative me - but it isn't. It isn't a black comedy - the world changed as it was made. It is a bit of the Marx Brothers mixed with A Clockwork Orange - but not in a good way.