The End of Oak Street (2026)
Directed by: David Robert Mitchell
Premise: A suburban family awakens to find that their neighborhood has been transported into the prehistoric past. They try to find a way back while dinosaurs prey on their neighbors.
What Works: The End of Oak Street is reminiscent of the popcorn adventure stories Steven Spielberg produced in the late 1970s and early 80s, namely Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Goonies, Poltergeist, and the television show Amazing Stories. It has all the hallmarks of those movies. The filmmakers place their story in a suburban neighborhood where children ride around on bicycles and the mundane setting contrasts with wonder and terror. The End of Oak Street recaptures the tone of those early Spielbergian adventure movies in part because the filmmakers are willing to be scary. The dinosaurs are frightening. The fantastic premise is grounded by regarding the dinosaurs as wild animals. The film is chaotic and violent, even a little meanspirited in a way that was mostly taken for granted in the movies of the early 80s. The characters are empathetic. Ewan McGreggor and Anne Hathaway play the parents and these people and their rocky marriage feel credible. The End of Oak Street is made efficiently and skillfully. Unlike a lot of contemporary spectacles, The End of Oak Street does not overstay its welcome. It runs a brisk ninety-nine minutes, spending just enough time on the set up and getting to the action. In one impressively crosscut sequence, the family members simultaneously discover the dinosaurs. It’s good storytelling. The film doesn’t get bogged down in exposition with the characters convincing each other of the premise. The story is able to just move forward.
What Doesn’t: Each of the parents are well defined but the children of The End of Oak Street don’t have distinguishing personality traits. Young actors Maisy Stella, Jordan Alexa Davis, and Christian Convery do a good job in their roles. They’re just not given much to work with aside from running and screaming. Consistent with its Spielbergian pitch, The End of Oak Street concludes with a neat and happy Hollywood ending. It’s too pat and contrary to the chaos and brutality that defines the middle of the movie. That neatness extends to the resolution of the domestic drama. At the start of the picture, the parents are on the verge of divorce. The family goes through hell but the couple never really confronts the problems in the marriage. The End of Oak Street reiterates a common Hollywood canard that surviving a traumatic experience will somehow fix domestic problems. That’s not true and the end of the film feels discordant with the rest of the movie.
Bottom Line: The End of Oak Street is an ideal late summer popcorn adventure. While some of the storytelling details are inconsistent, it’s a thrilling and nimble adventure that’s fun and scary in all the right ways.
Episode: #1113 (August 23, 2026)