THE OATH

Tiffany Haddish     Ike Barinholtz     John Cho     Billy Magnussen

     This film is so unrealistic it becomes meaningless.  The premise looks promising for an exploration into our politically divided country trying to deal with the film President’s requirement that every citizen sign an oath of loyalty to him.  It is timely, in that we hear reports of our current President actually asking directly whether members of his staff are/will be loyal to him.  But, unfortunately, writer/director (and star) Ike Barinholtz placed the issue in a family drama that doesn’t even pretend sensitivity or subtlety in its exploration and goes over the top in absurdity.  And although I’m sure this is intended to be its “comedy”, few people were laughing in the screening—only a few chuckles. It’s basically an hour-and-a-half of screaming arguments peppered with foul language, threats, and insults.  

     It’s Thanksgiving, and Chris (Barinholtz) and Kai (Haddish) have invited his family to their house.  Chris is something of an agitator, vehemently opposed to the oath and compelled to find out exactly who has signed it.  Most are in a politically conservative frame of mind and did sign it, but Chris can’t let it go; he incites arguments repeatedly, showing that despite his “liberal” views, he is judgmental and socially insensitive and disrespectful. He has had long-standing conflicts with his brother, and their old resentments add fuel to the fire.

     Just to make matters worse, up the conflict to another level, (and increase the absurdity), “someone” has reported Chris to the CPU, the government organization within Homeland Security that has the authority to bring people in for questioning.  There have been rumors that some people have disappeared after being taken away.  So when two agents, Peter (Cho) and Mason (Magnussen) come to the house and are let in when Chris is out of the room, he goes ballistic.  The ensuing fracas involves not just verbal and physical exchanges, but a gun, a taser, a couple of shovels, and lots of blood.

     Although the actors are generally very good, their characters are unsympathetic and often obnoxious. The solutions they, especially Chris, come up with are rather stupid, the most glaring being that despite the serious injuries of one person, 9-1-1 or an ambulance are never called. Surprising to me, the only adults that are sympathetic and sensible at all are Kai and Peter, one of the agents. (A clever casting choice was Haddish, in that in previous roles, particularly in Girls Trip, she is the outrageous one; here, she constantly tries to calm her husband down and give him good advice, which he seldom takes.)  Peter talks and behaves like a good government agent who knows how to instill calmness in a situation and is basically honest.  Other than these two, the other characters mainly elicit groans.  

     It’s difficult to come up with what Ike Barinholtz had in mind as to the purpose or point of this film.  I hear he wanted people to stay mindful of humane values in the current political climate, but when no character in this film seems to do that, its puzzling. Reflective of his background in comedy, The Oath movie feels like an extended comedy routine that goes on too long.  Only, instead of comedy, we see a dysfunctional family and suffer through it as we would in a real-life situation with such a group.  

     Finally, of all things about this film that were almost intolerable, the pounding blast of music that marks the countdown from Monday to Black Friday when all oaths should be signed is appallingly bad.  Bret Mazur blasts our ears five times just to tell us a day has passed.

If you would like to see how a dysfunctional family spends Thanksgiving, The Oath may be the film for you. It’s billed as a comedy, but…

Grade:  D+                                  By Donna R. Copeland

SEARCHING

John Cho     Michele La     Debra Messing     Sara Sohn     Joseph Lee

     Searching is more and more an apt title as you begin watching the film (mostly reading messages online and watching videos), then stick with it to the end, which doesn’t come as soon as you think. After all, it starts with home movies (haven’t we all sat through those at friends’ and on Facebook?), then it moves to interchanges between a father and daughter—the usual fare (“Clean up after yourself!”).  The next scenes pick up, showing a father trying to connect with his daughter after she went to a study group one evening.  He has missed calls she made to him, and she doesn’t respond to his numerous texts or phone calls.  He doesn’t know whether to be worried or be annoyed with his daughter.

     That’s about enough for you to know to avoid giving away spoilers.  David Kim (Cho), the father of Margot (La), eventually reports his daughter missing to the police, whereupon Detective Rosemary Vick (Messing) picks up the case and does her best to reassure him.  Kim is facile with the computer, and immediately runs searches about her to evaluate her qualifications.  She is apparently dedicated and noteworthy, and he relaxes a bit.  However, he keeps searching online for more and more information, something he does throughout the story, and the viewer sees the same information he finds online.

     This movie is about many things.  It’s certainly about how much we can find out online by searching.  But it’s also about what we may do with the information we find there.  We see that one can jump to (false) conclusions on specific bits of data. We see the important distinction between presumably objective professionals (like detectives) conducting such searches and someone emotionally involved in interpreting the data.  We see that sometimes the emotionally involved nonprofessional person can spot things or know things a professional might not know or might miss.  The filmmakers seem to be quite aware of the tension and paradoxes here and exploit them knowingly.

     At first, I was turned off by the approach taken by writer-director Aneesh Chaganty and his co-writer Sev Ohanian.  My thought was something akin to:  “I spend hours a day on the computer, do I have to do the same thing in a movie?”  I love actors and sets within real-life dramas; reading a story online is off-putting.  But the storytellers were not through, and I would eventually be taken to a familiar place of action and human drama.

     In this film, we’re gradually given more and more information that makes a ho-hum drama turn out to be intriguing and even exciting.  It’s a victory for the Internet and plainly shows how substantive intellect applied to it can be invaluable.  The story also ends up being a thriller as we discover incrementally leads that end up nowhere but one in particular that nails the case.

     John Cho as the father and the one who essentially carries the movie with impressive skill exemplifies going through every imaginable emotion as he tries to sort out whether his daughter ran away from home, as he discovers how little he really knows about her life, as he gets into trouble for over-reacting and drawing false conclusions, as he deals with his brother Peter (Lee) who apparently knew his daughter better than he did—Cho captures the whole range. Debra Messing competently steps out beyond her sit-com role in TV’s “Will and Grace” to embody a very different character in Detective Vick.  

     This is a fascinating movie, not only for the content, but also in its focus on the Internet’s role in our lives today.  My experience was one of ambivalence about the techno aspects initially, and by the end, when high drama was so lavishly thrown in, I felt a bit like I had been jerked around.  A good detective story gives out clues all along that one might see (preferably) only in retrospect; this script throws in twists and turns that have simply been added on for dramatic effect.

A surprise thriller that starts out slow and gradually builds up to something you can really care about.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland

STAR TREK BEYOND

Chris Pine   Zachary Quinto   Karl Urban   Simon Pegg   John Cho   Zoe Saldana   

Anton Yelchin   Idris Elba   Sofia Boutella   Lydia Wilson

          After three years in space, the crew of the USS Enterprise is getting a bit antsy.  Captain Kirk (Pine) applies for the job of vice admiral because he’s a bit bored, those with families are feeling the separation, and Chief Engineer Scottie (Pegg) is dithering about budget problems.  Suddenly, an escape pod appears, and its occupant, Kalara (Wilson) requests Captain Kirk’s help after an alien warlord attacked her ship and captured her crew.

In all good faith, the Enterprise heads to the crippled ship, only to find out it is a trap.  The remainder of the story entails taking on the warlord at great risk, suffering severe threats and requiring all the ingenuity, tactics, and memory the captain and his crew can muster simply to survive. 

          They do encounter an ally in Jaylah (Boutella) when she saves Scotty from soldiers about to capture him.  Her people were already captured and killed by the warlord Krall (Elba).  Much to Scotty’s surprise, she has come upon the Federation’s missing USS Franklin, making it her home, and ingeniously getting key equipment up and running.  Moreover, she has the ability to put a hologram around it to conceal it.

        Star Trek fans will be thrilled with the returning cast from previous films, like Pine, Quinto, Saldana, Pegg, Urban, Cho, and Yelchin (sadly, Yelchin died earlier this year in an accident).  Beloved Spock actor, Leonard Nimoy also passed away this year, and tributes are made to both in the film.  Two new key figures have been introduced, played by Elba (Krall) and Boutella (Jaylah).  

          All the actors kindle the human/bot dramas into a warm and glowing fire, but the film is almost completely overrun by warring spectacles—including, of course, the obligatory hand-to-hand combat.  (How I wish filmmakers of blockbuster movies would eliminate this completely unnecessary motif, particularly in the context of futuristic technology).  The special effects are impressive, but it’s too bad they overpower interesting stories.  This feature clearly marks the influence of Director Justin Lin, known for his The Fast and the Furious action films.  Many will prefer such a hyped up version, whereas the rest of us are more focused on human drama.

A fast and furious rendition of the Star Trek franchise.

Grade:  C                                    By Donna R. Copeland