Thanksgiving can be a fraught holiday, what with ideologically diverse extended family members, and even more so in an election year. Assembling the family after a lengthy period of heated political rhetoric, all culminating in the bitter defeat of one party and the gloating arrogance of another, can be a recipe for disaster on a day when we should be celebrating recipes for casseroles. It’s especially bad this year, following one of the most divisive and ridiculous political seasons in American history. Luckily, like everything else, there’s a movie for that. Released in 2018 as a direct response to Donald Trump’s first presidency, The Oath is even more relevant in 2024 during Trump’s second presidency. It’s probably funnier, too.

The Thanksgiving Table in America Is Forever Changed
Release Date October 12, 2018 Runtime 93 Expand

The Oath was a passion project for the very funny Ike Barinholtz, who wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film. “The impetus came very shortly after the [2016] election and was actually at my own Thanksgiving, which is a really big holiday for me and my family,” Barinholtz told The Hollywood Reporter in October 2018. “After dinner, a little bit of wine was going around, and my mother and my brother and I got in this argument and we kind of started blaming each other: ‘Well, this is why it happened, because of people like this.'” Barinholtz continued:

“What struck me was that we’re all on the same side, we all voted for the same person, [albeit] with different levels of enthusiasm, but we’re aligned politically. I thought, ‘Oh my god, if this is happening in this house, what’s happening around the country?’ And in talking to my friends, who had all gone home, and my family, I knew that the holiday table in America is forever changed. The maxim ‘Don’t talk politics at the table’ is going to be harder than ever, you have to be really disciplined to not talk about politics now.”

2:03 Related The 13 Best Thanksgiving Horror Movies (Including Some Goofy Turkeys, Too) Not ready for Christmas movies? Here are 13 wonderfully weird Thanksgiving horror movies you can watch this holiday season.

The result is a fantasy comedy thriller that exists in a world where the Republican U.S. President has created an oath of allegiance to himself that Americans can sign, with the due date being Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. While people are told they don’t “have” to sign the oath, there will obviously be a database tracking those who have pledged their allegiance to the President and those who haven’t. There is also a governmental agency now tasked with monitoring the oath.

A Family’s Thanksgiving Becomes a Hostage Negotiation

The Oath takes place in this world over the days leading up to Thanksgiving and the day after, and is set at the Montana household. Chris Montana (Barinholtz) and his wife, Kai (Tiffany Haddish), are hosting the big Thanksgiving dinner and have invited his family — Chris’ liberal sister Alice (Carrie Brownstein), her husband (Jay Duplass) and their kids; Chris’ conservative brother Pat (Jon Barinholtz, Ike’s real brother) and his super-conservative girlfriend, Abbie (Meredith Hagner); and Chris’ center-right parents, Eleanor (Nora Dunn) and Hank (Chris Ellis).

Related The 30 Best Thanksgiving Movies of All Time, Ranked This list of Thanksgiving films will make you thankful that your life isn’t like the movies.

Chris has become obsessive about the oath, what some would call a woke “social justice warrior,” and is very outspoken about what he sees as rising fascism. He stays up at night watching the news and posting screeds on social media, so Thanksgiving with his more conservative family is bound to be contentious. And contentious it is. Things get extremely fiery and loud, and culminates in the reveal that Chris’ whole family has signed the oath, even his own wife. He spends the night with a plate of food in his car.

The next day, a pair of government agents show up at Chris’ house, Peter and Mason (perfectly played by John Cho and Billy Magnussen, respectively). While Peter is relatively understanding and kind, Mason is a devout believer in the President and a hotheaded military freak. Things get tense when Chris stands defiant and criticizes the men, leading to a physical altercation and a bad head injury to Peter. In a panic, Chris and the family subdue and tie up Mason, who psychologically taunts and threatens them while they try and figure out what the hell they’re going to do next, all while Peter continues to bleed profusely.

Billy Magnussen is especially wonderful as a vicious, cruel man nonetheless bound and gagged, trying to outwit his captors and prey on their ideological positions to set himself free. He targets those family members who politically agree with him to try and manipulate them, a microcosm of how the political system works on a mass scale.

Related The Best Thanksgiving TV Episodes of All Time, Ranked With Turkey Day right around the corner, here are the best Thanksgiving episodes in TV history.

‘The Oath’ Makes Fun of Both Sides of the Aisle

The Oath is funny throughout, largely thanks to Ike Barinholtz’s self-righteous and manic performance that manages to satirize liberals in a film that also critiques the far right. The dialogue is excellent and perfectly captures the political arguments taking place around the country, reflecting the left-right divide in detail. Everyone is represented and made fun of in The Oath — woke liberals, regular liberals, psychotically devoted Trumpists, centrist Republicans, and the generally indifferent. Forcing them all together, first for Thanksgiving and then under the extreme duress of this violent situation with the government agents, brings out the vehement truth and neuroses of them all.

There’s a brilliant twist at the end of The Oath that’s a rare example of a realistic deus ex machina, and it keeps the film from becoming too nihilistic and dark. And in the end, the family kind of comes together, because some things (like life and death and prison) are more important than ideology. So if you’re looking for a funny, feel-good antidote to the tensions of this year and the potential discomfort of Thanksgiving, check out The Oath, because you’re not alone. The Oath is available to rent or buy on digital platforms like Google Play, Apple TV, YouTube, and on Prime Video through the link below:

Watch The Oath