Jay Rohr
The End of Oak Street captures the glorious thrills and chills only dinosaurs can deliver. This rousing popcorn romp offers a nonstop rollercoaster of captivating action-adventure. All the while, it maintains a certain degree of silliness that keeps things from ever being too haunting or horrific. The result is a kind of throwback to when family-friendly films didn’t mind risking a few nightmares. It’s a movie so clearly intentional with what it offers; one wonders if any imperfections may be purposeful as well.
Set in (what I would guess to be) a Michigan suburb in the early 1980s, audiences are introduced to the Platt family. Their idyllic outward appearance is hiding some simmering problems which seem destined to tear the family apart. A strange cosmic phenomenon soon rips this 2-mile section of suburbia into the distant past. Suddenly surrounded by dangerous dinosaurs, the Platts must set aside their dysfunction to survive the hostile environment.
The End of Oak Street provides the delightful dinosaur mayhem the Jurassic Park franchise has been failing to produce for years. It’s safe to say that the bizarre intellectual monopoly, wherein Hollywood can’t seem to conceive of films featuring the Dinosauria clade that aren’t set there, is hopefully over. Granted, fun flicks like Primitive War (2025) and The Velocipastor (2015) made entertaining offerings of their own, but it’s safe to say writer- director David Robert Mitchell (It Follows) may have cracked the dam better than them. With any luck, some fresh ideas will flow through now.
There’s a marvelous sense of buildup throughout The End of Oak Street. Mitchell often teases the arrival of danger, producing tension that explodes in thrilling reveals. Occasionally, he chooses to imply the presence of a predator rather than put it on screen. It makes finally being able to see something all the more satisfying as well as astounding.
Adding to that awesomeness is a plethora of dinosaurs on display. The End of Oak Street doesn’t skimp on the assortment of terrible thunder lizards threatening its central characters. Furthermore, there’s a uniqueness to them that escapes from the Jurassic Park conception in exquisite ways. They look like proper monstrous beasts with unsettling skin tones. Some seem slimy, others feathery, and a few even diseased. Most importantly, when it comes to predators, there isn’t one that doesn’t come across as dangerous.
These fanged menaces aren’t meant to be the only issues plaguing the Platt family. Parents Denise and Greg, played by Anne Hathaway (The Odyssey) and Ewan McGregor (Bleeding Love), are implied to be on a glide path to divorce. And that pretty much makes up the bulk of the film’s major themes, a failing marriage resurrected by shared danger. Some clichéd ideas pop up regarding the teenage children played by Maisy Stella (My Old Ass) and Christian Convery (Frankenstein). However, The End of Oak Street isn’t interested in anything other than action-adventure.
Whatever deeper notions it might have explored in the first act are essentially trivialized. The resolution for the main characters is that the mundane complications of human existence seem pointless and petty after fighting off hungry dinosaurs. It’s hard to argue with that logic, but the consequence narratively is that by story’s end the family is largely exactly the same as they were at the beginning. Perhaps that’s the point, an implication suggesting people’s problems may not be as serious as they think.
Any emotions the movie does stir come from some potent performances. Anne Hathaway is especially captivating as an intense mother furiously fending off dinosaurs. However, she also sells the notion of a woman drowning in the banality of her era, desperate for another life. Ewan McGregor does a fine job playing a flawed husband doing his best, who finds a second gear when it comes time to be heroic. The teenagers, Audrey and Brian, are fine, but despite solid acting, the roles are never fully realized. Their purpose seems mainly to give the parents something to save in addition to their marriage.
Surrounding them is a supporting cast that is a similarly mixed bag. Roles like P. J. Byrne (The Boys) as a contentious neighbor and Anne Gee Byrd (8MM) are well played. Their dialogue helps flesh out characters and situations without resorting to exposition dumps. However, parts like Jeanette (Jordan Alex Davis) could be removed from the story entirely without losing anything.
Still, it’s very easy to feel the revival of a childlike wonder watching The End of Oak Street. This is a movie that absolutely captures the sense of being young and marveling at the unreal present on the silver screen. Even knowing where certain storylines may lead doesn’t diminish the impact of their outcome. That’s because there’s a certain relief, if not joy, in seeing these situations play out. It doesn’t hurt that there are some unexpected outcomes as well.
David Robert Mitchell skillfully captures every moment with superb cinematic stylization. Each major incident is filmed differently in ways that accentuate events. One chase, for instance, is mostly a long tracking shot without a break, while in another scene, a creeping terror is shown slithering into position around unaware individuals. There’s also been time taken to create a sense that this sci-fi calamity is afflicting the whole neighborhood, not just the central family, a fact evidenced by peripheral views of people being attacked and dead bodies devoured.
Add the amazing soundtrack courtesy of award-winning composer Michael Giacchino, and The End of Oak Street becomes a wonderfully dark adventure full of Spielbergian optimism. The dinosaurs are the main attraction, and writer-director David Robert Mitchell delivers them superbly. Whatever depth the movie may lack, it more than makes up for it with pure thrills as the central characters are relentlessly afflicted with one grim scenario after another. Yet, the pacing perfectly keeps an audience engaged on the edge of their seats. Just enough time to relax before another snap. Plus, some laugh-out-loud situations audiences are unlikely to ever forget. The End of Oak Street is an ideal blockbuster to close the summer.
