The End of Oak Street review: Suburbia gets a prehistoric makeover
‘The End of Oak Street’ is a new kind of dinosaur movie where science sends humans into the prehistoric wild instead.
Science fiction exists where the impossible begins, though some stories may have inspired real-life advancements. Sometimes an inkling in one imagination can spark an idea in another. Nevertheless, some of the concepts are so improbable, it’s difficult to believe they could ever come to pass. Still, sci-fi has been an entertainment source for more than a century. People enjoy venturing to different worlds because it helps them stop thinking about their current one. But in The End of Oak Street, the distraction is anything but welcome.
Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg Platt (Ewan McGregor) are teetering on the edge of divorce and their kids, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery), can sense it. But they’re trying their best to keep things normal around the house. While Greg is out working odd jobs, Denise is giving creative writing a go. However, strange and impossible things begin popping up in their area following an unexplainable, blinding light. Then one night, it illuminates the whole neighbourhood and cuts off all their utilities. The next morning, they go for a walk to find out what’s going on. The answer seems implausible: their entire community is now in the centre of a prehistoric jungle.
The Platts are the picture-perfect, nuclear family. But their marriage is far from ideal. Greg uses boundless optimism to avoid facing the truth because then it’s easier to believe things will work out. Denise needs him to face reality and acknowledge their issues so they can deal with them. Their contrasting approaches make it especially difficult to talk to the kids about their incredibly terrifying predicament. Of course, their troubled relationship is just one more thing to deal with in the middle of a much larger crisis.
The story is set in 1982, invoking an ‘80s vibe for the film. This choice affects more than just the physical appearances of the characters, costumes and set. Together with the picture techniques and suburban fantasy, it creates a similar effect to watching E.T., The Goonies or other classic Amblin Entertainment films. Yet, it was filmed for IMAX, using the maximum depth and breadth to create distinct backgrounds and foregrounds. This is particularly effective as something is often lurking somewhere behind the characters. It Follows director, David Robert Mitchell, skilfully combines all these elements to bring this unimaginable mingling of two worlds to life.
This movie is Jurassic Park unleashed. Something transports everyone within a two-mile radius to the dinosaurs’ natural habitat. As a result, the reptiles aren’t doing the adapting — they’re just discovering another food source. On the other hand, everything people once relied on is now obsolete or useless. Even their guns have little effect on most of the creatures. Unfortunately, not all the suburbanites’ survival instincts kick in. As a result, the family looks out their windows to see the intuitionless running around, only for dinosaurs to chase them down and eat them.
On the other hand, the kids in the film do very ill-advised things that put everyone in danger. In one instance, they climb out their windows in the middle of the night and wander the streets that are now filled with killer monsters. In another, they fail to alert everyone to a potentially lethal intruder. Of course, the former allows for some forced exploration when they probably wouldn’t have ventured far from the house, so it serves a narrative purpose. But that doesn’t make it any less dumb.
Luckily, there’s an amateur astrologer in the family who is a Carl Sagan enthusiast. They use their knowledge to explain the basics of the phenomenon, resolving the mystery early on. Once they know what happened, they can move forward and deal with their current circumstances — which could become their permanent reality.
In contrast to a dino theme park, there isn’t much time to appreciate the majesty of these extinct creatures. It may be their abundance, but these reptiles also seem more vicious than the ones bred for the park. Nonetheless, audiences can enjoy the variety of herbivores and carnivores the film depicts. In the meantime, the transplanted humans must try to avoid the fantastic, razor-toothed giants, including bird-like lizards, enormous snakes, flying attackers and the powerful Allosaurus.
While the movie conjures ‘80s nostalgia, it wasn’t all positive. Like in this film, some scenes aren’t up to par. The introduction of an orphaned teen makes no sense. It adds nothing to the story except a poorly written exchange and someone to scream helplessly when they’re in danger. Filmmakers likely thought they were filling a gap since the family is too busy bravely fighting off the dinosaurs to express a cliché level of fear.
Even though the script can be a little thin, there’s something about dinosaurs that captivates audiences and this film offers a fresh approach to blending the timelines. Moreover, the conclusion is the unbelievable ending viewers expect from such a fantastic narrative in which sacrifices are remembered, but also nullified.
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor and Maisy Stella
