JJ Abrams being attached to anything that isn’t Star Wars comes with a certain kind of “mystery box” expectation. Probably, a lot of people assumed when they saw the trailer for The End of Oak Street that they would be in for some undercover Cloverfield sequel. I’m not going to confirm or deny anything in that regard, because in truth, it doesn’t really matter. Abrams, and more notably, director David Robert Mitchell, have delivered a wildly entertaining genre mash-up that does something loads of Jurassic World movies have been unable to do, and that’s give us the most terrifying dinosaurs since the original Jurassic Park.
Mitchell, in a stark departure from his 2014 breakout horror It Follows, but showing some of the same eccentric quirk as his Under the Silver Lake, takes us back to 1982 with a film that is many things at once. We’re introduced to the troubled Platt family; patriarch Greg, played by Ewan McGregor, is working so hard at delivering pizzas that he leaves the neighborhood cookout to do it. Anne Hathaway is mama bear Denise, who just wants her family to spend more time together, but she’s also secretly writing a book about her unhappy life. Maisy Stella and Christian Convery play their kids, Audrey and Brian, who have the typical kid problems; boys, bullies, and their rambunctious dog Starbuck pissing off the neighbor.
A freak storm and a flash of light change everything. The neighborhood is changing; a weird plant growing in a neighbor’s yard, mounds of unidentified poop in another, geysers of steaming hot water shooting up from the street. Mitchell, working from a script he wrote, teases out the full extent of the mystery. It’s clear that the neighborhood has been transported to prehistoric times, the stomping brontosauruses and flying pterodactyls are a dead giveaway, but we have no understanding why.
The End of Oak Street isn’t going to waste its time getting bogged down in the details, anyway. This is a fight for survival that the Platts must face while also dealing with all of their family strife. One of the things I admire most is that this film doesn’t do what the Spielberg dinosaur movies do, which is romanticize the prehistoric beasts. Those films spend more time gawking at them and being astonished by them that it’s impossible to fear them. But the dinos here are purely out to kill, and pretty soon the entire neighborhood is getting devoured, ripped apart to shreds, or worse. The Platts don’t sit around wondering what breed of dino is on their ass trying to eat them; they’re either fighting to kill or fighting to get the Hell away.
When the dinosaurs are on the rampage, the film is genuinely scary and looks great. Even some of the less intimidating creatures, like a giant snake-like thing that almost looks like it’s smiling, are impressively realized. I could make some complaints about the live-action stuff not being totally in sync with the CGI creations; sometimes the actors seem to be looking in the wrong direction, but this is a minor gripe and doesn’t happen too often. Also, this movie is really funny, too. Yes, it’s mostly dark, gallows humor seen in some of the more over-the-top deaths. But there’s another scene, involving a photograph and an unexpected sexual act, that is downright hilarious because it happens in the midst of such a dire situation.
This is shaping up to be not only one of the busiest years for Hathaway, but also one of the most lucrative. It’s also been something of a mixed bag, with Mother Mary, The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey, and Verity on the horizon. As Denise, she’s the strong-willed heart of The End of Oak Street, a protective matriarch who engages and encourages her family while also harboring bigger dreams of her own. We also see that she won’t take anybody’s crap, either, and knows her way around a shotgun.
Mitchell takes his foot off the gas in the disappointing final act. After a shocking tragedy that will genuinely shake up audiences, Mitchell introduces a flimsy time travel conceit, think Back to the Future mumbo jumbo, to deliver a conclusion that undercuts so much well-earned credibility. Still, I had a great time with The End of Oak Street, and it’s the kind of film that benefits from being a shared experience in a theater.
Warner Bros. releases The End of Oak Street in theaters on August 14th.
