Take 84: The End of Oak Street
As I sit down to write this, I am still a little bit out of sorts. We just found out a few hours ago that we have lot one of the literal legends our time, Ms. Dolly Parton and I am still wrapping my head around it. A movie was much needed distraction.
Upon seeing the trailer, I was intrigued by The End of Oak Street. I knew nothing about it, I just knew that it looked like a lot of fun. Dinosaurs chasing a family down the street in a residential neighborhood. Did I really need more than that?
Well, for this sake of this review, I guess I should provide more. The End of Oak Street is a sci-fi movie set in the summer of 1982. It’s 80s setting adds a lot of to the story and it is in fact reminiscent of an 80s sci-fi/horror flick. It’s the story of the Pratt family. The father Greg (Ewan McGregor) seems to going through a rough patch- he is delivering pizzas and doing odd jobs to provide for his family. His wife Denise (Anne Hathaway) is an aspiring author and fantasize about leaving her husband and her two children, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery) It doesn’t help when they walk up to find their neighborhood has apparently been terriformed into a Jurassic wonderland which includes more predatory dinosaurs than you could shake a stick at. It turns out that what has really happened is even more fantastical. The family must find a way to the survive their dangerous new reality.
This is fun. The 80s nostalgia continues. This feels very much like the type of movie that would have come out then but with much better effects and minus the corny humor. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the silliness of thise 80s movies, but I appreciated the much straighter tone here. There was a handful of minor jokes, but overall, this movie was closer to horror than lighthearted family film. We see some pretty gruesome death that aren’t played for laughs at all. It has the imagination and thrill of the 80s but a more cynical sensibility.
The acting is really good here. Ewan McGregor is now playing at the pointin his careeer where he can believably play father and it works here. It’s an earnest performance. He's a little goofy and far from perfect, but he clearly loves his family. Anne Hathaway in action role was a pleasant surprise and she is kinda bad@$$! The two young actors playing the kids are really good too. Christian Convery as Brian really plays a likable, flawed kid you need for this type of role and Maisy Stella as Audrey is the perfect loving, protective big sister with some slightly rough edges that ar eall for show. They ARE the perfect family for this. And special shout out to Starbucks the dog who was a bit of a sene stealer.
I have very few notes for this one. It’s 99 minutes and they have a LOT of ground to cover so I get the need to get some crucial bits of information to the audience, but it’s clunky. Us librarians are great, no doubt, but the fact that the one here can identify a plant thar has been extinct for 200,000 years at a glance? Kinda took me out for a second. There is also a but when things start getting weird and Audrey, who sure, a bright girl, is able to figure out EXACTLY what is going on and offer up and explanation for her family (and the audience) just felt a little ridiculous.
My gripes are small. I really enjoyed this one. There were some legitimately intense moments and some nice surprises. Even the ending was a bit of a surprise. Would absolutely watch it again and highly recommend it.
My Score: 8.8
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