The Oath

When your serial molester President starts putting serial molesters on the Supreme Court, it’s time to at least consider the possibility that political satire as we know it is dead. If that is indeed the case, then the ostensibly timely but hopelessly limp and scattershot political satire The Oath simply dumps another shovelful of dirt on the grave, as the film tries and fails to coast on its own hot-button fumes. The Oath was co-written and directed by Ike Barinholtz, who also stars alongside Tiffany Haddish as a liberal married couple hosting Thanksgiving for their politically divided family during a particularly contentious political moment. Barinholtz’s previous directing credits are limited to a handful of episodes of The Mindy Project, the sitcom on which he played a supporting part. That aesthetic feels right for The Oath, a film that can’t follow a single thread long enough to make it to a commercial break.