Barinholtz wrote and directed the script about a family Thanksgiving that ends up going from a discussion to argument to police shooting. All the comedy, drama and chaos is triggered by a government mandate that everyone must sign an oath of loyalty to the United States.
“I always have a big Thanksgiving at my house,” Barinholtz says. “My mom, my brother and I got into this big argument. We were all kind of blaming each other for what happened in the election.
“What struck me was that we’re all on the same side and had voted for the same person. I thought if this was going on around our family table, what was going on at tables across the country?”
He quickly found out his family was not an exception. All the conflict made Barinholtz realise the holiday designed to bring families together had been changed forever. The silver-lining was the political bickering was fodder for a great script.
Writing a politically charged script makes sense for Barinholtz as he thought about a career in government while he was growing up in Chicago.
“Election Day was a very big day for me growing up. I have very fond memories of being a little boy and going to polling places where I would hand out doughnuts, watch people come into vote and see the politicians,” Barinholtz says. “It was so glamorous to me, but also instilled in me this sense of civic pride. I really could see myself as being a senator from Illinois.
“Then as I got older I started to think that maybe I didn’t have the discipline to be a politician. I said to myself that instead of being a politician, I could play a politician. So the arts won.”
Although Barinholtz is best known for his on-screen work in such productions as Blockers, Snatched, Suicide Squad, Sisters and Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House, the Chicago native has done a lot of writing. He was very active in the writer’s room while on MADtv and was one of the writers for The Mindy Project. Barinholtz also penned the buddy comedy film Central Intelligence.
Unlike his other past jobs, Barinholtz served as the writer, director, producer and star of The Oath.
“Before this, everything I have done has gone through some kind of filter,” Barinholtz says. “Even episodes of TV shows that I have directed have had to go through filters. You go through the filter of the producer of the TV show.
“This was the first time I was able to change something in my head and present it with no filters. And so, I really believe the director part controls everything.”
Barinholtz did hedge his bet a little by surrounding himself with people he could trust. The cast includes Tiffany Haddish, John Cho, Max Greenfield, Jon Barinholtz and Billy Magnussen.
The way he has written The Oath has a very claustrophobic feel, as much of the story takes place inside a residence. Barinholtz is happy the way the movie is shot comes across a lot like a stage play, but he wasn’t thinking along those lines while writing the script. He just wanted to create a film that would trigger some discussions.
Right now, The Oath is just a movie. The idea of a national oath of loyalty resonates with such potential to be a reality, Barinholtz says, “I keep checking Twitter to make sure it hasn’t happened.” – TNS
