The End of Oak Street

Brian (Christian Convery) and Audrey (Maisy Stella) run for their lives in The End of Oak Street (Distributed by Warner Bros.)

The End of Oak Street is a mood as much as it is a big summer movie. It generates the feeling I had as a kid of watching late 80s/early 90s adventure thrillers, something like Gremlins crossed with Jurassic Park. It is a soothing throwback, tense, entertaining and uncomplicated. We meet a family, learn about their personal issues, then see them forced into an insane situation where they must work together in order to survive. It is tight, cleverly brutal in a PG-13 way and doesn’t waste its audience’s time attempting to explain a premise that defies explanation. There is drama, action, suspense and a splash of humor.

It is summer entertainment as it used to be; grounded spectacle, with basic, small-scale stakes, likable heroes and a high-concept plot that is easy to follow. It is the exact type of movie that caused some of us to fall in love with the medium in the first place. It may not be on the level of the classics it brings to mind, but it isn’t a pale imitation either. It is pretty good.

It is 1982 and the Platt family lives in a pleasant suburban neighborhood. Parents Denise and Greg are quietly unhappy. Teenagers Audrey and Brian have their own troubles and are quite aware of the buried tensions in their household. One day, there is a bright light and the next thing they know there are dinosaurs roaming their street, eating everyone in sight. Now the Platts have to put aside their problems if they are going to stay alive.

The End of Oak Street (92 minutes, without the end credits) is the fourth feature from writer/director David Robert Mitchell. First came 2010’s The Myth of the American Sleepover, a sweet teen dramedy. Then was 2014’s It Follows, a creepy, brilliant, horror movie that put him on the map. Then he made 2018’s Under the Silver Lake, a strange, fascinating, LA murder mystery. That last one was not well received. It has now taken another eight years for his follow-up.

Greg (Ewan McGregor) and Denise (Anne Hathaway) search for a way out

I list his filmography because nothing Mitchell has done suggests he would be a likely choice to make a studio blockbuster. Yet Warner Bros. gave him a reported $80 million budget for an original monster movie. It is almost sure to get swallowed up in the craziness of the massive box-offices for The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, though that says nothing about its quality.

Mitchell is a skilled filmmaker who clearly understands how productions like this should look and feel. He doesn’t spend too much time on setup, then gives his audience the dinosaur action we’re expecting. This isn’t a non-stop thrill ride. There are breaks in the action to observe the beauty and the carnage. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are talented actors capable of conveying an entire shared history in a couple of despairing looks. That means only a bare minimum of exposition is necessary.

We don’t come to a movie like The End of Oak Street for interpersonal drama. We come for the spectacle. I try to judge a movie on how successful it is at what it is trying to do. There are some bumpy spots in the first act, and the conclusion is both satisfying and a bit too contrived. Otherwise, The End of Oak Street is precisely what I want out of a summer movie. If it seems quaint next to all the heavily marketed epics surrounding it, well, that doesn’t have to be a negative. It is good fun and I hope people discover it.

3½ out of 5

Cast:

Anne Hathaway as Denise Platt

Ewan McGregor as Greg Platt

Maisy Stella as Audrey Platt

Christian Convery as Brian Platt

Directed/Written by David Robert Mitchell