The End of Oak Street WITH SPOILERS(2026)

Watched 8/15/26 (theater)

FULL SPOILERS BELOW

A few years ago, I watched writer/director David Robert Mitchell's Under the Silver Lake for the first time after revisiting his acclaimed breakout, It Follows. And earlier this year, after diving back into Silver Lake, I ran through his debut feature, The Myth of the American Sleepover, for the first time. It's been tough sledding to wait for years and years for the new DRM movie, one of the only moviemakers out there celebrating Michigan, and one of the only moviemakers out there trying on a brand new hat every time gets a new opportunity. When Flowervale Street, as it was then known, was announced a few years ago, we all wondered how a rumored dinosaur movie from the creator of a horror movie, a talky indie movie, and an erotic, very audience-unfriendly mystery movie would possibly tackle the prehistoric, especially with a 1980s twist. All three of his previous features had been so rooted in the present, with the exception of It Follows' entertainingly anachronistic, peripheral details. Not to mention that all three had been so far from commercial bankability.

And so, it was discouraging when Flowervale was delayed a year. Reading the trades, it was big news. Produced by JJ Abrams, Pam Abdy, and Mike DeLuca, there were a variety of ways to read the news in the trades. I, for one, thought that Warner Brothers’ chief, David Zaslav, may have come in to "right the ship." I was worried that perhaps Mitchell was struggling (or was perceived as struggling) with a dinosaur-sized budget, or that significant rewrites and reshoots were taking place to shave some risk off of the reported "event movie." And now it's here, retitled as The End of Oak Street. And I am happy to report that despite some clear script strips, the strange smorgasbord that you'd expect from Mitchell getting the reins to a Jurassic Park spiritual successor is still very much intact. It’s my favorite movie of the year so far.

The top factors to keep in mind if you're trying to decide whether or not to see Oak Street is that this is a fast, loose, and gross ride. There are tons of details I want to praise Mitchell for, but overall I just think it's worth clapping for the fact that he was able to get this much weirdness and bloodlust into a PG-13 major studio summer blockbuster. Unfortunately, it probably won't bust many blocks (box office ain't looking good), but bloody kills and dinosaur sex rule in this movie. Go see it if that's even remotely interesting to you--it's such a creative shot in the arm to the limp-dicked Jurassic Park sequels of yesteryear. I mean they should have given DRM the keys to the castle a while ago instead of putting out the hack jobs they've been scamming the general public on for the last thirty years. Spielberg has gotta be happy that a guy like Mitchell just came in, picked up the torch, and pissed all over it to come out with something so much more chaotic and thrilling than the recent Jurassic slew of shit.

This is a movie that made no attempt to hide its giddily silly premise. The marketing sold it as Jurassic Suburb from the start, and with that, it came with some expectations from me. Marry that with the fact that it showed hints at Spielbergian family drama and kid-forward action, and it was done: I circled this one in big red ink on my calendar as someone who worships Spielberg’s ‘70s and ‘80s (and ‘90s through today, but that’s beside the point).

Oak Street was sold accurately. It opens with a block party in Everytown, Michigan, quickly building a balance of familial humor rooted in sarcastic teens with parental drama on the edge of divorce. Some would probably say this is a bit too much of a Spielberg rip, but I’d argue it nails its casting so well that it transcends that criticism.

Christian Convery plays Brian Platt, the ne’er do well 13-year-old son, while Maisy Stella plays Audrey, his older sister on the precipice of maturity, college, and greater ambitions. They’re the least developed characters (definitely a lot left on the cutting room floor), they have pretty generic personalities, and yet they feel so natural as parts of the family that I was more than willing to roll with it. Convery’s Brian in particular strikes this perfect push-and-pull between good intentions and pathetically bad breaks that left me genuinely laughing hard and on his side throughout. Ewan McGregor plays the father, Greg, in a performance that’s so spot-on as the father to his son that when shit goes wrong later in the movie, I really felt the punches. McGregor has always been so likeable, from everything to what could have been a boring character in prequel Obi-Wan to what could have been a completely disgusting heroin addict in Mark Renton. He has always had this offbeat charisma that I think makes him that much easier to connect with in his role here, where he plays a recently-laid-off father trying to provide for and protect his crumbling family. (More to come on him later).

Then there’s mother Denise Platt, played by Anne Hathaway, who gives such a winning performance, one of my favorites of the year, after being stunningly wasted in The Odyssey. After having nothing to do but sit and complain about her husband in her Ithaca castle in Nolan’s movie that I have nothing but calm feelings about, she finally gets the agency she deserves on Oak Street. Channeling her inner action-hero while having plenty of very real confrontations with her simple but well-meaning husband, Hathaway imbues Denise with extremely believable courage, resolve, and anger. She even gets opportunities for humor in what is surely the most dynamic opportunity I have seen her get. She really takes advantage of it and makes the movie for me. Between pumping rifle rounds into dinosaurs, being mom to her kids, and dealing with a few key losses, Hathaway wins this movie, full-stop.

After a first act that sets the family dynamic, family drama, and general unease of the Platt family’s suburb, we’re thrown into the Twilight Zone. Strange plants, giant dino shits, and late-night, bright lights thrust the Platts into a prehistoric dystopia fraught with dinosaurs, eels, and giant tortoises that quickly establish a very dangerous new world that immediately reveals itself as built for audience fun and awe. Early on we’re treated to this incredible shot where they reveal from a bird’s eye view the full extent to which the neighborhood of Flowervale has moved, and it’s an electric shot that promises mayhem that is wholeheartedly fulfilled.

But before that, we get what might have been my favorite sequence of the flick if not for a later showstopper. Anne Hathaway has this whole subplot of writing a possibly autobiographical novel that she’s reviewing with a kind neighbor, only to go check on the neighbor after the town’s transformation. As she wanders into the elderly woman’s home, she sees blood and signs of a struggle before finding the woman dead as a doornail, and without missing a beat, grabs the dropped rifle off of the neighbor’s floor and wanders outside to go reunite with her husband.

There’s terrific suspense during this exploratory sequence where we haven’t yet seen a dinosaur. Michael Giacchino provides this brilliant orchestral score that I could talk all day about—it echoes everything from Jurassic Park to Planet of the Apes and has a ton of fun from beginning to end. I LOVED it. And it builds and builds during this sequence where Hathaway and McGregor leave the kids at home to go investigate why the neighborhood has seemingly become desolate overnight. They split up, and Hathaway finds that rifle and the dead neighbor, while McGregor stumbles into a backyard with a seemingly tiny creature rooting around behind a shed, making innocent-enough noises and casting a small, unalarming shadow. When the noises become more sinister and McGregor finally sees something still offscreen to the audience, his panic takes hold as he cowers behind cover with nothing but a baseball bat. His eyes tell the whole story in full, Spielberg-wonder-face mode.

He scampers through neighbor’s yards while we see playsets rattle and fences creak as the unknown force follows him in this excellent, almost innocent chase, as if a ghost is following him. It’ll put a big grin on your face just watching director David Robert Mitchell build to the reveal. Finally Mitchell’s camera follow’s McGregor’s eyes as he sneaks another peek, and we’re served our first look at the chicken-like dino. And as McGregor continues to gawk, the monstrosity notices him and charges. You quickly confirm that this movie isn’t going to play nice—these dinosaurs mean to kill everything and anything they see. As McGregor sprints back toward his house, his pursuer nearly catches him before being knocked off his feet by a loud, shocking gunshot. It’s Denise, reacting quickly and saving her husband. They grab hands and bolt, full survival mode, back to their home, and dinosaurs give chase. Mitchell’s camera follows with few cuts and much precision, featuring the exact clarity and precision you want with a scene like this to feel like you’re really there with the characters. It’s scary, white-knuckled, and loads of fun as everything from an oblivious kid singing The Flintstones’ theme song to a clueless neighbor getting her head chomped build the background entertainment. In lesser hands, it’s just two people being chased, but Mitchell really succeeds in building the world and the tension as the couple sprints for safety.

After they barely make it back home, the full family attempts escape and goes for the aforementioned car ride that shows that big wide shot of the neighborhood’s transportation while continuing to impress upon us the current state of the terrorized neighborhood. Other families are shown in the midst of disaster, with bloody human bodies and creatures everywhere.

Before you know it, the four Platts are back home building their house into a fortress, nailing extra protection to the walls and windows while debating what their next move will be, and what the rest of their lives will be. The humor and drama both come back here, with one of my favorite lines of the movie being, and I’m paraphrasing, “Greg, you go to church once a year. And now you’re telling our kids God is not going to let us die?!” That’s Hathaway to McGregor, and underlines the really strong work by both actors and writer on the two-hander of making this feel like a real, complicated family and a provider of audience entertainment. It’s a tough stability that I think a lot of writer/directors lesser than Mitchell might struggle with. But it’s spot-on here.

Then the movie goes off the rails for a bit. After a really funny, really nasty middle-of-the-knight pterodactyl kill of an annoying next-door-neighbor, replete with a hard-cut-to-rooftop-bloodstain gag, we witness what I thought was a really affecting parental fight behind closed doors (that the kids can totally still here), further building the relationship between Greg and Denise. And then Brian goes out the window to look for his dog. Audrey gives chase by herself, and the parents eventually go out together, too, and the group is split up for a while.

I was a bit disappointed in this section of the movie the first time I watched it, and still think it’s the weakest and most affected by studio edits (what the hell is the bully fight sequence thrown in here?), but it culminates in this stomach-drop of a revelation where a very large dinosaur steps out of the bushes to attack Greg and Denise, driving in their car, looking for their kids. Barely escaping a pretty finely-tuned, clearly-shot near-chomping by the dinosaur, the Platt parents accidentally start a fire that becomes a ticking time bomb as they get closer to escaping the prehistoric era later in the movie.

Finally, after the kids make a friend with this really boring character named Jeanette, the parents find them and all seems well. In one of the funniest moments of the movie, Greg and Denise have the kids hide while they investigate the road back home, only to find two dinosaurs having sex. This is one of those moments where I can’t believe the studio let them keep it in. It’s super weird and kind of in poor taste for a PG-13 dino movie you thought you could maybe take your kids to. But it’s also really awkwardly funny and you can’t help but guffaw at the oddity onscreen as Hathaway’s Denise has her husband take a picture next to the mid-coital beasts. And honestly, I would argue that this is a really important capper on a few scenes of the couple reconnecting after their big fight, some of which I mentioned, some of which I didn’t (see the movie for yourself and decide if the reconciliation works for you like it did for me—I thought it was earned). And that’s important for the next scene, that real showstopper I hinted at earlier.

The allosaurus: I was not familiar with its game. I am now and I must admit, I’d been missing out. These things are nuts. Part of that is just the “movie magic” here. As the Platt family nears home, formulating a plan in a random Backyard, we witness in the background this allosaurus somehow sneaking up on them up until the last possible second. This is a large monster of an animal, much like the t-rexes in the Jurassic movies that shake water cups in the original before being mutated and getting decreasingly scary in each subsequent film in that dying franchise. This giant allosaurus somehow sneaks up on the family when, at the last second, Brian yells, “run” and everyone takes off. Mitchell has a gift for the peripheral, with lots of good split diopter shots being deployed in Oak Street for emotional effect while background detail like this hunting allosaurus ramp up the audience chair-grabbing tenfold.

The hunt begins as Brian runs into a one-car garage that the predator tries to sneak his big snout in. Brian continues to take L’s as he tries to use this useless bow and arrow he has been carrying around for the second or third time (loved this running joke), missing point-blank and barely escaping through the window as Audrey calls for him to get out of there. He escapes the garage, but the allosaurus begins chasing him and Audrey before a sledgehammer-toting McGregor draws it off in a moment of courage, or perhaps stupidity… Only one-upped by Hathaway with her rifle shooting and luring the dinosaur back toward her and away from her family. It has all culminates to this—the parents finally getting along and working together to uphold their family unit. In the movie’s most heart-racing moment, Denise gets trapped on a porch with the dinosaur chomping her rifle and getting ready to eat her. Just before it can do Denise in, McGregor sneaks behind the allosaurus, whacks it on the leg with his sledgehammer, and somehow bops it on the head as it lurches for him in a real feat of dad strength, avoiding a chomp and putting the dinosaur down into the dirt. The Giacchino score crescendos as Greg reins triumphant, immediately going to check on his wife as the dinosaur is seemingly KO’d. But as soon as he gets there, we see the dinosaur wake back up behind him and grab his leg between its teeth.

The allosaurus pulls McGregor into the air and throws him down. Is he somehow okay? This is a PG-13 movie after all. They’re not gonna kill dad, are they? It’s a famous actor who was all over the poster and a character who was just making amends with his wife, keeping the heartbeat of the drama alive. Nope—McGregor is tossed to the ground and his leg is fucking gone, bloody stump is all that is left where the leg is supposed to be. With terrified screams and awe right out of the B-est of B-movies, McGregor watches in horror as the dinosaur comes down on him one more time and eats him. Hathaway and the kids go into shock and hurry away.

It’s a jaw-dropping finale to the best chase in the movie, a chase that had such great buildup, so many suspenseful, creative shots, with my personal favorite being a tracking shot through an empty house that showed the dinosaur running through the windows. You’ve seen the Jurassic movies over the last ten years and all of the good guys in that make it out okay, no matter how implausible. I was equally upset and elated here. It is genuinely stomach-churning to watch a really fun actor meet this kind of end, a gross and dirty and kind of funny end. It’s offputting and strange—and the family’s reaction really sells how fucked up it is. The first time I watched it, the theater’s reaction was priceless, and I said, “Oh my God!” aloud. The second time, when watching with my family, my dad said the same thing. For my money, it’s one of the best blockbuster movie moments I’ve been privy to in the last few years. With so much studio garbage playing into audience-tested formula, this subversion of expectations was the biggest WTF in a movie that already features dinosaurs, sci-fi portals, and time travel. That’s an accomplishment in my book. I loved it.

What we get from there is a desperate attempt by Denise and the kids to survive not only the world they’ve been transported to, but the loss of dad, as well. They make it home and the action takes a break, even as an impending neighborhood fire inches closer toward their location. It’s not looking good, everyone’s at their worst dealing with the horror of the events that just unfolded, and the trials they have still yet to take on. And just when you think everyone will take some time to debrief after grieving in their own separate ways, Mitchell brings back this disgusting, amorphous blob of a giant eel that was briefly seen earlier, slithering out of a backyard pool. It’s a great, mean move by Mitchell, who refuses to relinquish his screenwriting hold on torturing this family. Just when you thought you might get a breather, you’re back on the edge of your seat, asking, “Holy shit—are you serious?” Like a giant pink turd, it slithers in through an upstairs window and past various kids’ rooms, all too wrapped up in their sorrow to notice the silent monster.

Denise is downstairs, doing her best to pack up supplies for a coming trip to what they hope is a portal that will transport them back home. But before she can finish that task, we see the eel sneak up behind her. In another money shot, the eel reveals these horrendous rows of gigantic teeth, ready to eat mom in one bite. But just when all seems lost, Brian saves the day by finally hitting his target with his till-now useless bow and arrow. Right into the side of the eel goes an arrow, and as it recoils in pain, Denise finally notices it’s right behind her. The thing charges back upstairs to find its attacker, and while Denise quickly searches the kitchen for a weapon, Brian’s forced to lock his door and put all 120 pounds of himself up against that door to block out certain death. Denise finally finds a knife and gives a great horror movie yell as she takes to the tail of the eel and stabs it probably 30 times. Hathaway knows exactly what kind of movie she’s in, and the blend of campy B-movie insanity mixed with a very justified pain of just losing her husband/fear of losing more family feels just right. The eel flees and everyone remains uneaten.

The final journey to the portal I discussed is one of the most entertaining climaxes of the year in movies, replete with a literal haunted mansion full of komodo-dragon-like animals, shotgun-wielding librarians, and rooftop-dwelling pterodactyls. When the splintered family and Jeanette finally reach that roof, the portal is ready for them, just as they hoped. They now need to make a perilous jump into the unknown—the portal is hovering just within jumping range. And missing that jump means a potentially broken leg, or worse: an attack from the encroaching pterodactyls.

Jeanette goes first and makes it through. Brian, Denise, and Audrey are next. As they try to time up the jump, the pterodactyls get closer. Brian goes first and counts the seconds while the portal disappears and reapoears over and over, trying to time it up just right. It’s a lot of buildup that makes what happens next so darn good. He takes a leap of faith and the portal closes. Brian falls all the way off the roof and breaks an ankle. These guys just can’t win, especially Brian, now being picked at on the ground by pterodactyls. Just as one begins pulling him up into the sky by a foot, a character I have yet to mention returns to save him. Starbuck the family dog.

Honestly, Starbuck isn’t in much of the movie. It seems like there was supposed to be more of a subplot with him and the annoying neighbor, Mel, that was probably cut for time. But oh well, when he comes charging out of the bushes to save Brian from the pterodactyl, it’s one of those perfect setup and payoff moments as Brian has been looking for his dog all movie. It’s ultra-satisfying as he chomps the pterodactyl and rescues his owner. A cause for audience cheering in my theater, and rightfully so. After seeing Brian dragged through the shit all movie, he deserved a break.

But then they have to go back through the house to get onto the roof again. Denise and Audrey came down the stairs to help, and they go back up with Brian’s arms over their shoulders. When they reach the top floor, they find these giant komodo dragons waiting, and they can’t get past them, trying everything from hurtling potted plants at their heads to giving one a firepoker through the neck. It’s messy and bleak and they’re surrounded. Anne Hathaway’s character quickly verbalizes a plan to sacrifice herself and save the kids before a shotgun-toting librarian from the beginning of the movie runs out of her bedroom, shoots one komodo, and then gets mauled by another as the Platts have no choice but to use the distraction to escape back onto the roof. And finally, FINALLY, they jump through that portal and disappear.

The section I just finished running through over the last few paragraphs is bloody, engaging, and displays so much more chaos than so many other blockbusters. You need chaos in a movie about dinosaurs, just like Goldblum’s character once said (I’m paraphrasing) in Jurassic Park. And director David Robert Mitchell really understands the power of that and how it will keep an audience glued. He clearly made it his mission to rob the Platt family of each victory he gives them until the end—an old favorite Shane Black writing trick of mine. A movie is so much more immersive when it puts you closer to the characters, and between’s Mitchell’s tight, idiosynchratic shot selections and willingness to inject every scene with an overserving of unpredictable, jolting death and destruction, he creates such an unpredictable, jagged set of action scenes that make you root for the characters more because they keep having things taken away from them. The more you feel the danger and that chaos inherent to it, the more you’re on the heroes’ side.

I don’t have much to say on the end of the movie—I’m in the camp of feeling like it may have had some studio-mandated reshoots. But it’s all so quickly done that it didn’t leave enough time for me to be annoyed upon either of my watches. I would have loved a good, dark, Twilight Zone-esque twist, but instead we’re left with a few nind-bending questions and some reneging on a certain earlier statement death. Not my favorite, but it feels so awkward and corporate that honestly I wouldn’t dock more than half of a point for mt enjoyment—I don’t chalk it up to Mitchell’s fault.

All in, this was almost exactly what I had been hoping for, and in some cases, more. Mitchell being able to trojan horse even SOME really adult subversion into a PG-13 summer blockbuster is cause for celebration. After going in wondering how a dinosaur movie would be the next step for Mitchell, I now see how the talky, suburban angst of American Sleepover cross-pollinates with the very sudden, gory horror of It Follows and the refined eeriness of Silver Lake. Oak Street not only put a big smile on my face for premise-related, pure childhood wish fulfillment, but was able to reach so much more detailed, complex heights than I had hoped for. And most importantly, it affirmed my continued commitment to following Mitchell’s career with great excitement, ready for what’s hopefully a continuation of genre-jumping as he moves forward. Is this kind of a dumb B-movie? Yeah, but those are some of my favorite kinds of movies, and this was pretty much my favorite possible version of what it could be.

They Follow is filming right now, set to be a very different kind of sequel from the rumors I’ve read. I’m pretty sure Mitchell will continue to level up and surprise in new ways—I can’t wait.

9.25/10