REVIEW: Family Tensions Meet Prehistoric Terror in ‘The End of Oak Street’
There has been a long list of dinosaur movies over the last forty years: the multiple Jurassic Park films, The Land Before Time, Dinosaur, and The Good Dinosaur, to name a few. Now, writer-director David Robert Mitchell looks to add to that list with his own creation, The End of Oak Street.
The film opens in the summer of 1982, introducing the seemingly perfect Platt family as they attend the Oak Street block party. Stay-at-home mom Denise (Anne Hathaway), working father Greg (Ewan McGregor), academically successful daughter Audrey (Maisie Stella), and newly preteen son Brian (Christian Convery) appear, on the surface, to be the ideal everyday American family. But within the first twenty to thirty minutes, viewers learn that the Platts are far from perfect. Denise feels trapped in what she believes is a loveless marriage; Greg spends his nights taking secret sips of whiskey before heading out to deliver pizza. Brian is rebelling in any way his naïve heart knows how, while Audrey tries to keep the family together and reassure her brother that their parents are not going to divorce.
As if the family’s unraveling weren’t enough, mysterious flashes of light begin cutting through the night, sending the Platt family dog, Starbuck, into a frenzy and leaving the neighborhood to wonder what they could possibly mean. When the family wakes to a powerless house and screams echoing from down the street, they discover the truth behind the flashes: dinosaurs have arrived on Oak Street, and they do not plan to let any human survive.
As previously mentioned, this is not the first dinosaur movie to be created, and it won’t be the last. So how does Mitchell make this version different from the ones that came before? In Mitchell’s version, the answer is to take the focus off the dinosaurs and turn it directly toward to the family. The idea of family, and how a family becomes a family again, is the main driving force behind this film. Each member of the Platt family is struggling, but they don’t know how to communicate their feelings and thoughts to one another. As a viewer, there were moments when I forgot dinosaurs were even included in the film because of the strong scenes between the family members. But as great as those moments were, Mitchell doesn’t let us forget for too long, which makes for some truly shocking scenes, specifically one toward the latter half of the film. That moment reminded me why people see movies in the theater. The audience reaction, including my own, did not disappoint.
Mitchell also never shies away from letting the audience know that this film is an homage to the films of the 1980s. He leans into it with shots of Brian riding his bike through neighborhood streets with no parent in sight, or Audrey sitting in a car listening to a Steve Winwood cassette while the world slowly falls apart around her. These moments, paired with cheeky humor, bring an air of freedom to the film that those who grew up during that period will relish.
However, don’t go looking for in-depth character development or a deep explanation of the how or why behind the appearance of the dinosaurs. Mitchell keeps things at a surface level. He never explains the science behind how the dinosaurs are here, what kinds of dinosaurs are terrorizing the neighborhood, or whether there is a way to send them back. This is where I found my biggest issue with the film: the ending. Not the way the film ended, per se, but how neatly everything was wrapped up, as if the prior events held no repercussions for the future. It felt too clean for a film that, in no way, was clean. But maybe that decision was Mitchell’s final ode to the films of the 1980s.
The End of Oak Street may be mindless entertainment that pays homage to the 1980s, but it is worth seeing in theaters. Whether you walk out of the film liking it or not, this is a movie meant to be experienced with an audience, purely to witness the reactions of those around you.
Grade: B-