What’s the last even good dinosaur movie since Jurassic Park? Admit it, you also took longer than you thought with that answer too right? None of the Jurassic sequels are that great. I would argue the answer is either the animatronic dino sequences in Kontinental ’25 or of course, The VelociPastor, pure B Movie magic. The End of Oak Street didn’t have a high bar to hurdle, but not only does it go way over, it’s the closest dinosaur movie we have to the 1993 Steven Spielberg masterpiece. Bravo David Robert Mitchell! You deliver again!
Welcome to Oak St., in Flowervale, 1982. There we’re at a BBQ block party with the Platt family. Kids Brian (Christian Convery) and Audrey (Maisy Stella) look like Anytown USA suburban teens, getting into mischief and hoping to find love and their future. Dad Greg (Ewan McGregor) buries his problems in hopes things will get better. But mom Denise (Anne Hathaway) knows the writing is on the wall, and maybe it’s time to get a divorce. That sounds like the worst thing to happen to the Platts…except that night, blinding lights flash and poof! Oak Street, um, isn’t really in Flowervale anymore. I should rephrase: it isn’t in MODERN Flowervale anymore.
The End of Oak Street is another example why David Robert Mitchell deserves more attention as one of our great filmmakers. All the things I’ve been begging a dinosaur movie to do, apparently he’s been stewing on the same things. Except, you know, he’s a talented director who does something about it. He says enough with the GD theme parks…let’s get dinosaurs in, you know, modern times (sorta). That means stegosauruses plopped like dangerous turtles on a street, or terrifying chases across lawns and inside cars, even into houses and pools. Mitchell makes Oak Street look almost artifically stereotypicall suburban, with long driveways and benign two story houses to pop unnaturally against giant beasts of prey feasting on humans, now lower on the food chain. While we’re at it, let’s watch these dinosaurs actually do stuff we’ve never seen them do before, like, say, taking a dump? The greatest sight gag I won’t spoil but it’s incredible. Inside this swirl of new Mitchell builds a standard dino story though to ease us in. He uses classic film techniques like a split diopter shot to period set us, and classic Spielberg technique, withholding the dinosaurs to let the dread sink in for everyone. We also go small to big, as each new encounter with a dinosaur gets a little bigger and harrowing, not relying on cheap CGI theme park shots of the jungle to feel big: The End of Oak Street works better the more intimate the story gets. The movie feels like getting back to basics, and making some fun new wrinkles, to feel familiar and fresh at the same time.
But Mitchell has bigger fish to fry, going after a host of sci-fi disaster tropes. He wrongfoots us at the beginning, using silly plot dumps, flashing lights, and a barking dog to have the audience start to eyeroll. But then little great choices start happening: what if a crappy character carrying a cheap looking bow and arrow wasn’t actually immediately a crack shot who could take down a predator? Watching them miss key shots with themself/others in peril just gets funnier and funnier as the gag goes on. The love interest character is a classic, but who that is takes an amusing turn we don’t see coming. Near death experiences get characters a little hornier than they thought. There’s two big hero moments, but they’re David Robert Mitchell hero moments. That means one ends with a blindsiding the audience will gasp about, and the other is a slow motion shot of the last character we expected to see, but should erupt the crowd into raucous cheers. Even something as simple as a character sitting on the steps leading to a dark pool of water in the basement NOT foreshadow really anything. We’re in the hands of a master manipulator, intent to set the genre right again by rewriting scifi’s fun but tired and silly rules into his own more human image.
Even the last scene is pure Mitchell, with something really clever just uncommented on until you say “Wait, what?” as the credits start to roll. Let’s keep this genre hopping game going David! How about your take a video game or superhero film? Those have had long recent rises and are long overdue for a big fun takedown and rebuild that you’re so good at. Start with Super Mario; those films should be burned to the ground.