"THE END OF OAK STREET" - REVIEW

It goes without saying, but the modern blockbuster owes a lot to Steven Spielberg.

Summer-2026-proper began with an actual Spielberg outing. Whatever you felt about DISCLOSURE DAY (I was divided), Spielberg started the relay race on June 12—33 years, almost to the day, after JURASSIC PARK. At the end of the summer 2026, J.J. Abrams (whose own Spielberg tribute SUPER 8 was solid but never became its own thing) has taken the baton as producer of THE END OF OAK STREET—but wait: the baton has been violently ripped from Abrams’ hand, and the runner has sprinted well past Spielberg tribute territory as if to say, “this isn’t a Spielberg movie, this is a David Robert Mitchell movie!”

Yes, we owe a debt to Spielberg, and credit where credit is due. AND, thank God.

But first…

For those unfamiliar, writer/director David Robert Mitchell made his feature debut with 2011’s little-seen summer teen movie THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER, which Roger Ebert called “a lovely, gentle, and very true film.” His next film, a take on John Carpenter movies, would really put him on the map: 2015’s IT FOLLOWS is a now iconic film that, er, follows a young woman being pursued by a sexually-transmitted supernatural entity. The indie horror flick was a smash, released the summer before the similarly Carpenterian STRANGER THINGS dominated Netflix, and introduced filmdom to new scream queen Maika Monroe. Mitchell’s third film was about predators of a different sort which, for some folks in Hollywood, may have hit too close to the bone and landed him in director jail: UNDER THE SILVER LAKE is a shaggy-dog noir—a la THE BIG LEBOWSKI meets MULHOLLAND DR.—about unemployed slacker Sam (Andrew Garfield), searching Los Angeles “from Silver Lake to the Hollywood Hills for a young woman (Riley Keough) when she has abruptly vacated her apartment the morning after they met, leading Sam on a conspiracy-theory-laden odyssey about the predatory nature of the entertainment industry. IT FOLLOWS gave Mitchell a blank check, and UNDER THE SILVER LAKE was set to be a big release for summer 2018… except that the Cannes premiere was so disastrous, especially in the wake of the MeToo movement, that even its risk-taking distributor A24 wanted nothing to do with it, delaying its release date twice before dumping it in theaters for one week almost a year after (the film is now somewhat of a minor cult classic, but not for every taste).

Eight years later, Mitchell is back, and this time he serves up a perfect summer blockbuster with back-to-school vibes.

THE END OF OAK STREET, er, follows the Platt family—Denise (Anne Hathaway, in every other release this year that does not feature Zendaya), Greg (Ewan McGregor), Audrey (Maisy Stella, the magnetic star of my #8 favorite of 2024, MY OLD ASS), and Brian (Christian Convery, Guillermo Del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN)—a picture-perfect nuclear family living in an idyllic American suburb circa late summer-early autumn 1982. But of course, each one of them is harboring a personal secret—some that affect how the world may see them, and some that may threaten to unravel the family fabric, either through instability or through dreams unrealized.

And that’s before their ‘burb is quite suddenly and mysteriously cut off from the rest of the world and surrounded by apex predators in the form of dinosaurs.

That’s right: dinosaurs! Hallelujah! The JURASSIC PARK/WORLD franchises no longer hold a monopoly on cinematic dinosaurs!

THE END OF OAK STREET has just enough meat on the bone in terms of recognizable human yearning and A+ conflict, and no fat (running an efficient 99 minutes) as it dishes out relentless B-movie thrills, while also making time for some of Mitchell’s idiosyncratic humor and visual style (cinematographer Mike Gioulakis’ use of wide lenses and split diopters is perfection). While it is rated PG-13, the film pushes the limits of that rating. For instance, we do catch two dinos in the middle of… well, go ask your mother. Mitchell makes the most of his one F-word that PG-13 movies are allowed. The most important way in which the film pushes its rating is in terms of its violence. Some of it—and one scene in particular—is more shocking than one might expect, but it is not gratuitous: it is appropriately shocking, and it is in service to what really matters. The film lifts these moments up beyond the mere trivial thrills of a lesser movie by tying it to what each member of the Platt family wants: to be connected to each other, and to themselves. It makes just enough time to convey, on a primal level, the beauty of being human… especially as that beauty is under constant perilous threat of being ripped to shreds.

Mitchell’s writing and directing achieve this certainly, within the mystery box framework of an Abrams property, but this sprint through the dinosuburbs really takes off when his pitch-perfect cast grabs the baton. This may be the fourth out of five Anne Hathaway movies this year (MOTHER MARY, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2, and THE ODYSSEY, with VERITY on the way in October), but as far as I’m concerned, keep ‘em coming*! Her Denise is fierce and protective, but with desires that spoke to me personally. McGregor is fine as a father and husband who serves his family by keeping the peace and keeping it light, sometimes to a fault. Stella and Convery make a great sister-brother team as Audrey and Brian, especially when sweet, cute new neighbor Jeannette (Jordan Alexa Davis, Apple TV+’s DEFENDING JACOB) is suddenly, tragically entrusted to their care. Also making an impression are the great P.J. Byrne (THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, BABYLON) as the Platt’s grouchy next-door neighbor, Anne Gee Byrd (WILD) as a mentor/sage for Denise, and Emily Kuroda (Mrs. Kim on GILMORE GIRLS), who is pretty damn good with a shotgun for a librarian.

Simply put, THE END OF OAK STREET is a blast, it’s worth a trip to the movie theater, it works in the moment, and it may work on you a bit after it’s over, if you want it to. I’m thrilled to see Mitchell get such a fine showcase to modestly level up, and you will be thrilled.

THE END OF OAK STREET is currently in theaters.

*Also, if you’re reading this, Anne Hathaway, of course, absolutely take a break and enjoy your new baby when he or she arrives. Mazel Tov!

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Zach is a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association (MNFCA). For more info about Zach, the organization, or to read other great reviews from other great Minnesota-based film critics, click here: www.mnfca.com