Photosensitivity Warning: The primary event occurs during a thunder storm and the end credits feature sporadic white light flashes, each of which may be triggering for photosensitive individuals.
“Love songs fill the night
But they don’t tell it all
Not how lovers cry out
Just like they’re dying…”– “Valerie” by Steve Winwood
Almost nothing hurts like heartbreak. It’s broken expectations, torn dreams, and the loss of what could have been. Steve Winwood’s poppy “Valerie” explores this as the perspective of the vocalist speaks of a lost love they hope to reconnect with. Songs like this one are, of course, entirely one-sided and optimistic, the instrumentation and arrangements making one want to dance despite the sadness of the lyrics. (It’s even become a dance tune, thanks to Eric Prydz). But there are always two sides to every story, at least two perspectives to go with every heartbreak, and that’s where writer/director David Robert Mitchell (It Follows; Under the Silver Lake) begins his new story, the sci-fi adventure thriller The End of Oak Street, as the transposition of a neighborhood represents the forcing of a couple to take stock of their own relationship amid harrowing circumstances. But what begins as a fairly interesting, grounded, interpersonal drama transforms into a typical Land of the Lost (1974-1976) adventure tale that loses its metaphorical weight fast in order to feed the theoretical blockbuster beast.
L-R: Christian Convery as Brian Platt, Anne Hathaway as Denise Platt, Maisy Stella as Audrey Platt, and Ewan McGregor as Greg Platt in THE END OF OAK STREET, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Daniel McFadden. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
It’s the summer of 1982 and the Platt Family is in differing states of disarray. Mother, Denise (Anne Hathaway), is hiding that she’s a novelist; father, Greg (Ewan McGregor), struggles to make time for his family amid odd jobs; daughter, Audrey (Maisy Stella), is getting ready to graduate high school and wishes she could afford Cornell; and son, Brian (Christian Convery), is on the lookout for the sibling of the kid he accidentally hurt, and the kids have noticed the tension between their parents that seems to have no end. But all of this pales in comparison to their real problem: a large swath of their Michigan neighborhood has been teleported to the age of dinosaurs and the beasts are hungry.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug. It confuses the memory, making one think that things were better than they are now when the truth may be far harsher. An argument can be made that that’s the point of Mitchell’s The End of Oak Street by the way the camera frequently chooses to focus on the photos that decorate homes, by placing the film in 1982, and, then, by sending its characters to the far-flung past. Photos represent a moment in time without any context whatsoever. They show children at play, newlyweds smiling on their special day, and other moments frozen thanks to chemicals and photo paper. They are a veneer of the truth, removing interpersonal tensions, abandoned dreams, and countless heartaches that have passed or are yet to be. These captured moments adorning homes convey that the characters are entering a space inhabited by their neighbors (unknown as to whether they are living or dead), something which audiences may be prone to forget amidst the sci-fi action, while also providing, in the case of the Platt family, reminders that who they were is not who they are now and the journey is an endurance test that will determine who they will be.
Then there’s the decision to place the film in 1982. For many audience members of a certain age, this decision will trigger memories of Amblin Entertainment adventures such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Back to the Future (1985), Innerspace (1987), Batteries Not Included (1987), Jurassic Park (1993), and Twister (1996), stories of average, regular characters going on outstanding adventures that will change them forever. In truth, The End of Oak Street, if one were to borrow from the Amblin catalog, shares more in common with Gremlins (1984) as danger lurks around every corner and it is coming for the residents of Oak Street and its surrounding neighborhood with very little warning. Of course, much of the Amblin feeling comes from the costuming and setting as those films very much defined that era of cinema, but there’s something else about this choice. It comes from a period of stillness in the American way of life. 1982 isn’t quite the excess of the ‘80s nor the technological boom of the ‘90s, and certainly doesn’t have the concussive tragedy of the ‘00s; all of which affords the film a sense of safety that is more easily shattered with the transportation from one era to another. Again, it’s about what we remember and, for many, this is a period of general calm in the scope of American life — no cell phones, not even dial-up, just latchkey living from dawn until bed time. But then that gets ripped apart through the sudden upheaval of the neighborhood, requiring each of the families to work out how to survive on the go.
L-R: Ewan McGregor as Greg Platt and Anne Hathaway as Denise Platt in THE END OF OAK STREET, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
In the “present,” however, distractions abound for our characters from the things that ail them. Day jobs and parenting prevent conversations among parents, personal fears prevent children from opening to their siblings, and the requirements of daily life prevent any of them from truly connecting in a meaningful way. Stripping the characters of their lives by sending them to the past requires them to put all the bullshit aside in order to confront their problems. This, however, is where the film is the least interesting and effective as the sort of familial bonds that should strengthen are given no time to do so. It’s not that the audience can’t or doesn’t care for the Platt family, it’s that the resolutions to their problems aren’t addressed in the manner telegraphed by the narrative’s chosen tone and style. Children still remain a mystery, marital issues are declared and glossed over in the wake of near-demise, and a proper feeling of growth is annotated in service of an Amblin ending. It’s the interpersonal that makes any film worth experiencing just as much as the thrills that accompany them, so imagine the frustration one might feel when the central family feels not only distanced from each other, but the audience as well, even at the conclusion. It’s a distance that is never really closed beyond “we’ll get through this as a family” type tropes and the relief of near-misses. Suddenly, the past seems so sweet in a way that the present absolutely does not.
Now, one thing worth noting is that, at the screening I attended, an adult family of about four got up and left the theater roughly two thirds of the way through at the close of a pivotal narrative beat. Due to the timing, one can infer that it may have been what happened within the film. If you read this before going to see it for yourself, please do stick out the film. Yes, it’s a big moment and one that changes the tone of the film, but Mitchell is only partially leaning on his horror roots (It Follows) with this adventure (a clue given early on by the way neighbors are picked off on-screen at a distance and the dead in the street are shown to be fodder for scavengers). I encourage you to stay in your seat and see how it all plays out.
L-R: Christian Convery as Brian Platt and Maisy Stella as Audrey Platt in THE END OF OAK STREET, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
While this reviewer has a few grievances with the film related to its science, if one views The End of Oak Street as a bottle story in the vein of Looper (2012) or Back to the Future wherein the ramifications of the protagonists’ choices are known yet not fully explored, then a good time can be had. It’s got dinosaurs going to town like a Jurassic World (2015) buffet, Hathaway (The Odyssey) drawing down on potential threats, and McGregor (Trainspotting) wielding a sledgehammer on dinos — so those looking for a thrill will find it here. That just may be it because, despite all attempts at something deeper, the absence of connection between theme and character arc results in a struggle to give a damn about whether the characters live or die or whether or not they’ll get home. That we do at all, even for a moment, feels like a miracle.
In theaters and IMAX August 14th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official Warner Bros. Pictures The End of Oak Street webpage.
Final Score: 3 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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