The End of Oak Street

Grade: A

The End of Oak Street takes its time world-building and establishing. The opening scenes are so rich, compelling, and wonderful that it could have continued exploring only what it had set up and been a perfectly great comedy/drama about family dynamics and suburban life. Once the sci-fi plot point comes into play, it’s equally as exciting. The action never gets in the way of the storytelling. The gas in the tank from the promising first act carries it all the way through.

It’s one of the best Steven Spielberg movies that he had nothing to do with. You will think of Jurassic Park and Back to the Future. We eventually do get an explanation for WHAT is happening, but are refreshingly spared the WHY. It’s just “Here’s the thing, and here’s what we have to do.” It opens with a block party. It’s July 11, 1982 – back in the days when everyone in the neighborhood knew each other. Nobody disappeared into their houses right after coming home from work/school and became hermits on their phones. People parked outside, got to know each other in person, and had get-togethers like this.

The main family of four that we follow is the Platts: Greg (Ewan McGregor), Denise (Anne Hathaway), Audrey (an awesome Maisy Stella, who starred opposite Aubrey Plaza in My Old Ass), and Brian (Christian Convery, from Cocaine Bear, The Monkey, and Frankenstein). A vicious storm kills the power in the neighborhood. A bright light flashes in the middle of the night. Their next door neighbor awakes to find a massive pile of animal droppings in his backyard. It’s almost as tall as a human, and he assumes the Platt kids did it as a prank.

All roads out of the neighborhood now dead end into prehistoric forest area. The neighborhood has been physically moved. This is where the title’s double meaning emerges. They reach the end of Oak Street to find the horrific realization that this may be the end of Oak Street as they know it. Dinosaurs are involved, first seen by Greg and Denise as they go out to inspect. There is great comedy involved in this absolutely random phenomenon, as Greg and Denise reach their home and plead to the kids to unlock the door and let them in, in the nick of time. It reminded me of the climactic fight in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Leonardo DiCaprio is floating in his pool with noise-canceling headphones on, going over lines from a screenplay. He has no idea what’s been transpiring in the house, until suddenly, he’s snapped back into reality as a mortally wounded intruder stumbles into his pool. The kids didn’t know about the dinosaurs, and DiCaprio was blissfully unaware of the massacre in his house. That’s why it’s so funny.

The sets, locations, and score never cease to give us a lived-in feeling. The dialogue and the way the characters act after being injured are all consistent with how real people would behave in this situation. Laughs appear in unexpected places, like when two dinosaurs are found participating in every mammal’s favorite basic instinct, with one of them bending over the back of a house. When the movie makes a bold choice with one character, the aftermath feels true to life and is never brushed off.

The ending is earned, without feeling like it happened too easily or was tacked on. It’s not just “we made it through a dinosaur attack,” it’s “we learned something.” The End of Oak Street does so many different things, and triumphantly succeeds at all of them with sometimes literal flying colors. Somehow, dinosaurs and time travel are never the point; they’re just the things that force these people to reveal who they are. And that’s what makes this a terrific movie that had me giddy and with them every step of the way.

Grade: A