The End Of Oak Street Review: A Wild, Ridiculous Dinosaur Ride
In the year of Anne Hathaway movies, dinos are making a comeback!
It’s the summer of 1982 and the Platt family are miserable. Denise (Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor) are struggling through their marriage, while their teenage children Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery) are wrestling with their own fears about the future. But when their suburban town is suddenly transported into prehistoric times in The End of Oak Street, those problems are pushed aside to focus on staying alive.
Wild, chaotic, and thrilling, the stakes are sky high in The End Of Oak Street! There are dinosaurs around every corner and every member of the family gets their own terrifying encounter with them. There were plenty of moments that had our whole theater screaming and jaws dropped in shock. Especially a specific scene with Greg. If you know, you know.
It’s been eight years since David Robert Mitchell’s last film, but it’s clear the It Follows director had fun playing with the visual language of 1980s cinema. The use of retro filming techniques like split-diopter shots gives the movie a nostalgic feel, even if some of the actors feel more noticeably modern.
The movie also goes through quite a few tonal shifts. It begins as a family drama, goes full-on horror comedy, then takes a turn into something more sentimental. Not all of the humor lands and some of the story beats don’t completely make sense, but the film has a Spielbergian charm that reminds you of the big adventure movies Hollywood used to make.
The dinosaur designs were very cool. The decision to give them feathers was a fun detail, making them feel different from dinosaurs we’ve seen on screen before while also tying into the real-life evolutionary connection between birds and dinosaurs.
My biggest lingering question though is, why did this happen? The idea behind what happens to Oak Street is so interesting that I wish the movie explored it further. It feels like there’s a bigger story we never got to see. Perhaps they’ll tackle it in a sequel.
All in all, The End of Oak Street is original, ridiculous, surprisingly heartfelt, and undeniably entertaining. After all, a family that slays dinosaurs together, stays together.
The End of Oak Street is playing in theaters.
