Ike Barinholtz's THE OATH explores our divisive USA like nothing we've yet seen

What a blessing -- if a rather nasty one -- is thrust upon us by writer/director/star Ike Barinholtz, who seems determined to hold up in front of us an almost too-current picture of what's left of middle-class society today: as fractured and divisive as anything TrustMovies has seen so far in his 77-year lifetime. After the critics' screening he attended down here in South Florida a few weeks back, folk were standing around in little groups, animatedly discussing the pros and cons of what they'd just viewed.

In THE OATH, Mr. Barinholtz (shown above, right, with his co-star Tiffany Haddish, who plays his wife) provides his smartest move by making his character, Chris, quite the knee-jerk liberal, with the accent thoroughly on the jerk. Oh, yes, his progressive heart and mind are firmly on the side of the 99 per cent against the reigning one per cent, but his attitude and actions are such that he comes off like a number-one asshole kept barely in check by his more tolerant and understanding wife.

The movie's plot is set maybe next year, when the President of the USA declares that all citizens should sign an oath, declaring their "loyalty" to their country. Yes, this is not at all a difficult turn of events for any sentient person to imagine, and when the deadline for signing is set as the day after Thanksgiving, this brings a whole new meaning to "Black Friday." Chris' family, it turns out, is one of those thoroughly divided into "red" and "blue," thus setting us up for a very tricky Thanksgiving meal.

There is humor and satire aplenty here, with the two leads doing a bang-up job in their respective roles. Barinholtz takes a brave stance in making Chris so simultaneously spot-on yet unappealing, while it is great to see Ms Haddish drop her usual snark to play -- and very well -- a genuinely conflicted, caring wife. Supporting roles are smartly cast, including the filmmaker's own brother, Jon Barinholtz, playing Chris' ultra-right-wing bro, Pat (shown above, right, with Meredith Hagner, who plays his like-minded girlfriend, Abbie).

A little over halfway along, the movie takes quite a turn, as representatives from the government's new "oversight" agency arrive at the home and begin to quietly (and then not-so) interrogate husband and wife. As beautifully played in good cop/bad cop fashion by John Cho and Billy Magnussen (shown above, right and left, respectively), the pair makes for a very interesting antagonist. At this point, The Oath takes on aspects of the home invasion thriller, while never letting go of its humor or satirical bite.

During our post-movie lobby chat after the critic's screening, one woman said she found the film brilliant until its final few minutes, during which, for her, it all fell apart. The ending will probably prove as divisive as our current red/blue split. For me that finale works wonderfully well, providing a much-needed "if-only" respite from the horrors at hand. How well Barinholtz uses those old American clichés of milk and apple pie, and how nice to see our family finally sit down to a well-earned dessert.

Perhaps, when the Blu-ray and DVD are released to home video, we'll get to see an alternate ending (if not several). I'm sure Mr. Barinholtz had a few in mind here. Till then, content yourself with one of the most riveting, funny, and timely films in a long, long while.

From Roadside Attractions and running a swift 93 minutes, The Oath opens here in South Florida and elsewhere this Friday, October 19. In the Miami area, look for it at the AMC Aventura 24, Regal South Beach 18, and AMC Sunset Place 24; in Broward County at the Cinemark Paradise 24 and Regal Cypress Creek ; and in Palm Beach County at the Regal Shadowood 16 and Cobb's Downtown at the Mall Gardens Palm 16. Wherever you live around this divisive USA, to find a theater near you, click here -- and then click GET TICKETS on the task bar atop your screen.

Netflix streaming tip: German lollapalooza, LOOK WHO'S BACK, all about the return of...

...oh god, no. Not him. Yes, Hitler's back, and the Germans have got him (again) via this new movie based on a best-selling novel of a few years previous. Sure, the idea of this -- Adolf Hitler suddenly returns to earth just as he left it. But the world is a different place today, so how will he fit in? -- is certainly a crazy one. But before you say, "Oh, this is just stupid sensationalism trying to make a quick buck," remember that Donald Trump may be our next President. And even though this film was made well prior to his "candidacy," LOOK WHO'S BACK (Er ist wieder da is its original German title) speaks as much to us here in the USA as it does to Europe and specifically to Germany/Austria.

The filmmaker is David Wnendt (shown at right), the guy responsible for one of last year's most transgressive movies, Wetlands, and he's gone one (or maybe twenty) better with this new work which holds up a mirror not simply to the character of our Adolf but to the German populace today (and by extension Europe and all of Western society). It ain't a pretty sight, but it's a damned funny one: fresh and satirical and full of ironies big and small. And the further into the film we get, the funnier and more pointed it becomes.

As Hitler adapts to this new world, he quickly finds his footing once again, this time using the current (and all too willing) media to further his plans. And of course the German populace -- many of whom don't know enough history to realize who this guy is and what he represents -- prove to be all too adoring acolytes. Look Who's Back is satirical, hilarious, occasionally shocking and full of both the expected and plenty of surprise.

Hitler's come-down, along with the reason for it, is especially piquant and perfect, given what seems to move the general populace more than anything else these days.

The cast is exemplary, beginning with actor who plays Adolf: Oliver Masucci (above and below), who captures the look, sound, feel and just about everything needed to bring Hitler to funny/queasy life all over again. The other name most familiar to me is German actress Katja Riemann, who plays the head of the TV station on which our boy makes his modern-day debut.

I could go on ad nauseum, telling you why you must see this crazy miracle of a movie. But why ruin any more of its delights? So far as I know, the only place you can catch it currently is on Netflix. For this film alone, a subscription to the streaming arm of the service is, well, mandatory.

A CONVENIENT TRUTH: Dominick Bagnato's new mockumentary tackles energy and immigration

Obviously stepping off from that popular and Oscar-winning doc of nine years ago, An Inconvenient Truth (note not only its title but its poster art), this new, very hit-and-miss but sometimes surprising and funny mockumentary by first-time/full-length filmmaker Dominick Bagnato will soon have you questioning exactly what and who his film is actually satirizing. My guess is practically everyone and everything about our currently clueless and far-too-entitled nation. As the movie begins, we are introduced to a California congressman, Coleman Burleson, who has recently recanted his earlier campaign against the idea of global warming only to come up with a brand new "proposal" on this subject -- slowly unfurled -- that he insists will solve a number of current problems.

I am not going to tell you what this proposal is (not to worry, it's neither modest nor Swiftian) -- most of my peers will no doubt spoil it for you, anyway -- because much of the fun arrives precisely at the moment (and via the music) with which Mr. Bagnato, shown at left, unveils his idea. Unfortunately, this very idea has already been presented to us alert viewers who have seen the fine British TV series Black Mirror. There, it was handled in a dark and serious way. Here, it's mostly a hoot.

Because Congressman Burleson (Alan Berman, above and below, right) is from California, a state that has a certain amount of illegal aliens arriving consistently from Mexico, his idea not only impacts the environ-ment but also everything from immigration to energy, racism and obesity.

How all this is explained proves a little too catch-as-catch can. Some of the sections are funny and work well  -- the Congressman and his gosh-I-didn't-know-he-was-illegal gardener (Guy Wellman, above, left) and our politician's wife (Elise Rovinsky, below), ever helpful, hopeful and getting tipsier with each new glass and scene -- others fall a bit flat due to over-reaching and not enough clever ammunition.

But as the film lasts only 82 minutes, it passes relatively quickly and every time you grow a little tired of it -- boom -- you find yourself laughing again, whether it's from the scenes with America's new Minute Men (below)

or the just-folk interviews with various people, most of whom offer a happy, utterly naive attitude to just about everything in their world.
How American!

Though he occasionally nudges a bit hard, Bagnato's humor is more often of the quiet and subtle type, never more so than in the funny, clever moment on which he concludes his little film.

A Convenient Truth, from Living Daylights Pictures, opens this Friday, February 20, in New York City at the Quad Cinema.. Elsewhere? Don't know, but surely the film will be available on DVD and streaming soon.

NOTE: the following personal appearances for Q&A's at the Quad: 

 Fri., Feb. 20th - 7:30pm (Premiere screening w/cast and crew members) 

 Sat., Feb. 21st - 7:30pm (Lead actors - Alan Berman & Kevin Hauver) 

 Sun., Feb. 22nd - 3:30pm (Editor - Charlie Pinto) 

 Mon., Feb. 23rd - 7:30pm (Writer/Director Dominick Bagnato) 

 Tues., Feb. 24th - 7:30pm (Actors Joshua Ryan & Nick Magliocco) 

 Wed., Feb. 24th - 7:30pm (Writer/Director Dominick Bagnato) 

 Thurs., Feb. 25th - 7:30pm (Producers  Charlie Pinto & Patrick Steward)

TRUEBLOOD: Vampire for Political Junkies -- Our Monthly Sunday Corner with Lee Liberman

Bloodlust is Howard Fineman's (HuffPost Editorial Director) word-picture for the Republican Party's ecstatic tirades against the Obama administration. The parody of political and social bloodlust makes HBO's TRUEBLOOD true fun for the politically inclined, particularly LGBT politically inclined. Too bad the 7-season series doesn't pull its weight entirely. I didn't throw in the towel because the political satire and main charac-ters earn their keep.

Turns out it was creator Alan Ball (shown below, of Six Feet Under and American Beauty) who attracted Academy Award winner Anna Paquin and her British co-star Stephen Moyer to vampire fare based on the Sookie Stackhouse vampire mystery novels by Charlaine Harris. Moyer and Paquin met and fell in love

while making the pilot in 2007 and now are married parents of twins. These confluences led me to follow Ball and his irresistible crazies and pretty people into the bloodlusty world of vampire and get as hooked on Trueblood as on the Colbert Report for outlandish social and political commentary (Congressional hearings are like Christmas morning!) Unfortunately Trueblood's serrated edge turns into a dulled knife in the last few seasons (while Colbert continues to deliver).

But at times the series provides a belly-laugh funny parallel universe to U.S. political and social goings-on as the characters hurtle through over-the-top politically and socially relevant situations flung at them in the fictional red-neck town of Bon Temps, Louisiana (and environs). Through its supernaturals ('supes'), the series takes on discrimination, civil rights and child abuse, evangelical extremism, tyranny, political corruption, big business, drug addiction, PTSD, AIDS, and family relations.

Tru Blood (as opposed to series title TrueBlood) is the so-called Japanese-made synthetic blood served on tap or in beer bottles (above) that enables vampires to avoid feeding on/draining humans. The beverage has launched a progressive vampire movement to 'come out of the closet' and mainstream in everyday America. TruBlood splits vampires into two camps --mainstreamers who campaign for citizenship and equal rights versus their opposition who slavishly follow an evangelical origins myth ( 'the true word and blood of God' -- here, Lilith) and harbor a virulent obsession to rule over human society. Throw in some KKK-like human racists and exploiters of the public, werewolves, shapeshifters, fairies, and nihilist vampires who thrive on anarchy and it's a heady mix -- confounding the hopes of liberal vampires who seek to live peacefully with humans ('can't we all just get along').

Stephen Moyer (above, right) plays courtly Bill Compton whose ancestors hailed from Bon Temps. Compton was on his way home to his young family after soldiering for the Civil War South when he was waylaid and made vampire by a predator beauty. He now hopes to put behind him years of his own pre-TruBlood savagery and re-claim some humanity in his ancestral home. There (briefly) he plays good citizen and we find him graciously lecturing to the local church ladies about their civil war ancestors with whom he soldiered in the 1860's. He is restoring the fallen-down Compton estate when he and Sookie Stackhouse (Paquin, above, left) lock eyes at local hangout Merlotte's and the action launches into full gear.

Sookie is a perky waitress and telepath, later to be revealed as half-fairie. Bill is thrilling to her because she can't read his (vampire dead) mind. ('It's exhausting having everyone's thoughts coming at you'.) Their love percolates with sadness and longing through the seasons as their relationship founders; she wearies of being a "danger whore" as Bill gets unwillingly drawn into Vampire Authority internal conflict. Will Bill and Sookie ever reunite? This is one case where the avidly-followed off-screen lives of the actors plus the screen chemistry between Paquin and Moyer gets mixed up in the viewer's mind, making one hope for love to conquer all by series end.

The Vampire Authority, muscularly led by 500-year-old Roman, Christopher Meloni (a much more charismatic role than Meloni's Law and Order character), represents the progressive vampire wing. These mainstreamers aim to co-exist with humans and contain the Sanguinistas, the charismatic evangelical wing. Horrifically, the Sanguinistas win control over the vampire hierarchy in season 5, launching a ruthless regime that puts one not a little in terror of supremacy by the demogogues in our own political/evangelical right wing. (Hey folks, do vote on November 4 to save the Democratic Senate majority.)

One season is devoted to local evangelical church, 'Soldiers of God', led by Steve Newlin, a baby-faced Ralph Reed type (Michael MacMillan) and his flirty, narcissistic blond wife Sarah (Anna Camp, above). The church marquee, 'God Hates Fangs' reprises the real Westboro Baptist church -- 'God hates fags'. The Newlins take their playbook from our abortion-and gay-hating racist and militaristic gun cults; they protest vampires in public and train in secret to murder them. Unfortunately the vamps on parade around town are flagrant taunts -- picture the flamboyant gay/transvestite culture of the AIDS era and the gay-bashing and murders that still occur. Soldiers of God seeks to kill decent vampires like Bill and others like Sookie who consort with vampires. Sarah seduces Sookie's brother Jason Stackhouse murmuring: 'God tells her to', as she tears his clothes off. Her preacher husband Steve turns up later as a proud gay vampire who is also hot for Jason, and well-suited to his new job as the public relations face of the new Sanguinista regime.

Hot-body charming Australian, Ryan Kwanten (above, left), plays Jason Stackhouse, a dumb jock and perpetual naif who has had sex with every girl in Bon Temps and comes to find himself in a soul-less muddle. Kwanten inhabits the none-too-bright Jason with such sweet humility, it's no wonder the girls fall all over him. In one memorable sexcapade, Jason hooks up with Amy, a V (vampire-blood)--addicted girl played by the wonderfully talented, pretty, and charismatic Lizzy Caplan (current Showtime Masters of Sex lead). In another of many hapless efforts to find himself, Jason is drawn to the military wing of the Soldiers of God where he excels at training, is irresistible with his shirt off, and takes much too long to figure out he's on the wrong side of peace and justice.The Soldiers of God have plenty of vamp-hating company. Led by Bon Temps retired police chief now 'grand dragon', a group of thugs ride out at night wearing rubber Obama masks in search of vamps and shifters to murder.

Daily life in Bon Temps focuses on two establishments -- Merlotte's, run by main character, Sam Merlotte, everywoman's ideal, compassionate boyfriend and boss and shape shifter (usually to a dog but not only -- a rat or a bug if needed for a tight spot) played by NY stage actor Sam Trammell (above).  FANGTASIA is the local vampire hangout. (Vampire motto: "We suck like everybody else".) The club is owned by handsome main character Eric Northman, a Norseman turned vampire 1000 years ago to save his life following mortal wounding on a battlefield in Britannia, played with ruthless calculation and seductive insoucience by Alexander Skarsgard (below).

The backstory of Eric's 'maker', Godric, (young Danish actor/singer Allan Hyde) is too fascinating to be relegated to on line background material. Godric, born First Century, BC in Gaul and tortured by Roman soldiers, deserved more screen time to flesh out his evolution from violence to peace maker/savior. Meanwhile he's taught Eric to be ruthless, and now Eric could care less about appearances. Hence Fangtasia is a hopping joint with a dungeon managed by Pam, Eric's vampire offspring who was his former lover (an elegant prostitute/madam, she convinced Eric in 1902 San Francisco to turn her, thus halting her aging out of her profession). Eric persistently and deviously inserts himself between Sookie and Bill and eventually wins over Sookie for a time.

Two brilliant black Juilliard graduates are series regulars -- Rutina Wesley is Tara, (above, left) whose comic talent rivals comedian Wanda Sykes, and Nelsan Ellis (above, right) is Lafayette, a vampy queer played with such nuance and charisma that actor Ellis must be gay -- but isn't. Ball errs in gradually easing Tara and her gifted wit out of later seasons leaving a hole as big as that left by Joan Rivers -- gone too soon. (Both Wesley and Ellis deserve brilliant acting careers.) Lafayette is a busy entrepreneur -- his job as Merlotte's short-order cook leaves him time to run a gay porn site, service the sexual needs of the gay mucky-mucks in Louisiana-politics, and deal black-market drugs featuring V -- vampire blood -- the highly addictive, illegal drug of choice on which the Bon Temps police chief, among others, is hooked.

A number of terrific star-turns appear throughout, headlined by Denis O'Hare (above) as Russell Edgington, a 3000-year-old vampire said to be the most powerful and craziest in existence, a chancellor of the Authority and master of chaos. Russell's thinking goes: "Why would we seek equal rights? You humans are not our equals." (During WWII, he helped Hitler put a dent in the human population.) His singular and fateful weakness is that he killed Eric Northman's family in 900 AD and now has an extremely dangerous enemy in Eric.

Alfre Woodard plays Lafayette's schizohrenic mother, Evan Rachel Wood is a Vampire Queen, Lucy Griffiths (Maid Marion in BBC's 2006 Robin Hood series) plays Nora, who become's Eric's vampire sister when Godric turns her to stave off death. (Nora got infected by the plague while caring for victims in the 1600's.) Rutger Hauer appears too briefly as Sookie and Jason's Fairie grandpa. Currently enhancing his ripped-ness for upcoming 'Magic Mike 2', hunk Joe Manganiello (above, right) plays werewolf Alcide and brief love interest for Sookie with little charisma, although his build (and rumored affair with Sofia Vergara) speaks for itself. Renowned stage actress Fiona Shaw commands season 4 as a Wiccan possessed by a healer burned at the stake in the 1400's. No wonder her name appears almost nowhere in the credits, as a story line that could have sizzled with the politics of witch burning and woman shaming, or more currently, big pharma vs natural healing, fizzled into nonsense.

A lively digression offers up British actor James Frain as a manic, psychopathic vampire who kidnaps, chains, and obsesses hysterically over Tara, desperate to turn her so they can live in perpetuity. (I'd only seen Frain in sober British fare such as the 'Tudors' and 'The White Queen' -- he is wildly exciting with so much craziness to chew on.) Arliss Howard plays Louisiana Governor, Truman Burrell, whose vampire-obsessed regime is Nazi-esque, including 'vamp camps' where vampires are studied, psychoanalyzed, experimented on and eventually poisoned by the contrived adulteration of Tru Blood with Hep V, (evoking the AIDS epidemic).

TrueBlood's winning formula suffers from too many forgettable sideshows that weaken the whole, and a failure to leverage the talents of some of the best actors. (Lizzy Caplan's Amy should have resurfaced as Jason's eventual love.) Edited down, TrueBlood could have left a legacy as brilliant and durabled as the original Star Trek. Instead, the political and moral impact got sabotaged. But once the decision was made to conclude with Season 7, the writers did a fair job of bringing together disparate story lines in which at least some humans and non-humans have evolved normal family relationships together.

This pleasantness does not include Eric and Pam, who go out with a bang of the opening bell on Wall Street. They have now become corporate masters of giant company, Nu Blood, which sells a canned beverage that staves off death for Hep-V sufferers -- if, for financial gain, it does not cure them entirely. A poignant denouement for Sookie and Bill evokes tears but was only a half-way acceptable outcome of all that had gone before, given the devotion of viewers who plodded through 7 seasons needing them blissed out together at the end. For all its disappointments, though, the viewer develops real attachments to characters, making TrueBlood worth a go for them, its rich Southern redneck texture, and the tornado of ribald satire of politics in present-day USA.

If Alan Ball's eyes or others on his team should fall on this review, they should consider that the TrueBlood series could be redeemed entirely with a big screen production. It would require choosing a moment in time that can involve its best characters, more juicy politics, and Sookie and Bill having some romance their fans crave. Meanwhile, the complete TrueBlood is available on HBO and in several forms at Amazon.

The above post is written by our regular 

guest reviewer, Lee Liberman