Nate At The Movies

With summer blockbuster season in the rear view mirror, my priorities have shifted to the numerous original films coming out in the next couple months. While there are bigger fish for me to fry in that time (Coyote vs. Acme has to be my most anticipated one of the bunch), I’ve been really excited for The End of Oak Street as well. I love that we’re getting an original, non-Jurassic Park dino movie in 2026! The reviews on Letterboxd weren’t terribly hopeful, but I believed this movie could cut through the noise (and it did!).

The End of Oak Street was the most 80s movie I’ve seen in a while, and not just because it was set in 1982. From the story and tropes to the camera work and the music, this film was clearly inspired by Steven Spielberg’s work, especially E.T. and Jurassic Park (duh). The film featured that unique earnestness and hopefulness so often found in not just Spielberg’s movies, but countless 80s movies, like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and a personal favorite of mine, Gremlins. The dinosaur story paid plenty of homage to Jurassic Park (including a funny nod to the film in the epilogue) while also paving its own way. There was some interesting speculative science and worldbuilding (expanded upon nicely in the epilogue), but when it was time to crowdplease, the filmmakers knew what had to be done.

The dino action in The End of Oak Street sat somewhere in the middle of the dino-action spectrum established by the Jurassic Park movies—not as liberal and unrealistic as the Jurassic World movies, but not as restrained and scary as the original Jurassic Park. I appreciated that the film wasn’t afraid to do the unconventional thing in the genre (for example, giving the main characters unreasonable immunity), and some of the attacks and kills were really fun. I enjoyed most of the cinematography, too, though I can admit those split diopter shots—as cool as they can look—were occasionally kind of silly. There was one great tracking shot in the middle of this movie that switched subjects two or three times; whoever came up with that deserves an award. I also enjoyed the performances, even if it was more of a team effort than a one-man or woman show, and Michael Giacchino’s score was solid, if a little reminiscent of his Marvel and Jurassic World work.

The End of Oak Street was the original punch that I think the movie industry has needed, and fortunately, it looks to be the opening swing in a great months-long slug fest for original movies. This movie was fun and scary and funny when it wanted to be (the first earnest joke of the whole film came out of nowhere and absolutely killed me), and I think the only thing it was really missing was an engaging emotional story. They teased this “family on the edge of divorce” thing a few times, but it never really materialized into anything. Maybe the dinosaurs were a metaphor for family? Who knows. It doesn’t matter; at the end of the day, I’m watching The End of Oak Street for the dinosaurs, not the family drama (and the dinosaurs were great!).