The End Of Oak Street (2026)

I think it's fair to say that a large amount of pop culture over the past half century has been shaped and dominated by two Steves. There's Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. I mention both here because The End Of Oak Street, the latest film from writer-director David Robert Mitchell, takes samples from both of those icons. Maybe that would have happened anyway, I don't know Mitchell well enough to know all of his preferences, but it's hard to think that it's not a sign of J. J. Abrams doing a lot of work in his producer role.

It’s 1982. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are Denise and Greg Platt, a couple who seem to be struggling to remain in a pretty unsatisfying marriage. They have two teenage children, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery), and a loyal family dog named Starbuck. Life may not be great, but it's fairly normal. Until they wake up one morning to find that the neighbourhood has been transformed into a prehistoric area, complete with ancient vegetation and a number of dinosaurs. So begins an adventure to find their way home again, or . . . to get their home back home again. 

Other titles I considered as viable options for this movie were Jurassic Shrug and Jurassic World: Inconsequence. It's not a bad film while it's on, there are a number of very enjoyable little set-pieces throughout, but it's in line with pretty much every other David Robert Mitchell movie in how there's ultimately no proper feeling of resolution.

The cast all do well, Hathaway is having herself a hell of a year, but they're only present to be surprised and terrorised by the dinosaurs. Any other character development feels clumsy and trite, whether they're plucked from the fields planted by Spielberg or the fields planted by King. Both Stella and Convery have to be more reckless than the adults, and they're eventually joined by Jordan Alexa Davis, who does good work alongside them. P. J. Byrne is an annoying neighbour, Anne Gee Byrd and Emily Kuroda are nicer neighbours, and Hudson Meek plays the kind of bully who seems capable of killing one of his victims (which is VERY much in line with every bully written by Stephen King).

A basic screenplay isn't a huge problem when it comes to something aiming to sell itself as mainstream blockbuster fare. While it's not great, Mitchell does enough here to give us identifiable relationships and moments of dino tension. He just doesn't do much more, and most of the better moments will have you wondering what movie is being homaged (hint, it's usually a Spielberg one, hence the unnecessary early-1980s setting).

The special effects are as good as they need to be, although I think that the best creature designs feature in a fun moment that hints at other directions the film could have gone in before something threatens our leads once again, the score from Michael Giacchino doesn't make much of an impression, and the 99-minute runtime at least shows an attempt to stop the film from overstaying its welcome. It's a failed attempt, but an attempt nonetheless.

Take 10 minutes off this, figure out whether you want to write a better explanation for the strange events or just leave things completely mysterious, and throw in a few more species of predators and this could have been a winner. As it stands, it's just a pale cross-pollination of those two big Steves. And we have lots of them to choose from already. 

5/10

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Prime Time: My Old Ass (2024)

Here's the thing about My Old Ass, and I'll refrain from making any jokes that confuse the title with what I view as my actual old ass. It's a cute film. There's some nice comedy. There's also some decent emotional weight throughout. It's good stuff. But writer-director Megan Park set herself a very high bar with her debut feature, The Fallout. I would recommend My Old Ass to people after an enjoyable distraction for an hour and a half, but I would recommend The Fallout to anyone wanting to explore strong and intelligent cinema that ranks up there with the best films from the last decade.

Maisy Stella plays Elliott, a young woman looking forward to the time when she can soon leave home and start what her adult life. Before that time comes, however, she decides to have some fun time with her friends (Ruthie, played by Maddie Ziegler, and Ro, played by Kerrice Brooks) and has some magic mushrooms. That doesn't just lead to the usual strange and trippy experience. It leads to Elliott having a meeting with her older self (Aubrey Plaza). Older Elliott tries to get her younger self to start appreciating the time with her family more, and also warns her against spending time with a young man named Chad. That's okay, Elliott doesn't know anyone named Chad. And then, inevitably, Elliott meets Chad (Percy Hynes White).

It's worth noting here that Megan Park is 38 years old. So she may have been a bit younger than that when she wrote this screenplay, and she was even younger when she gave us The Fallout. You wouldn't know that from the final product though, with both films displaying a maturity and thoughtfulness that make both much better than they otherwise would have been. The fact that My Old Ass wasn't more focused on the potential comedy of the premise was a pleasant surprise to me, as was a finale that had equal respect for the wisdom that comes with older age and the fearlessness that can often be found in the young.

Stella, making her feature acting debut, is excellent in the lead role, just the right amount of energy and carefree spirit tempered with a good nature that stops her from being irritating. Plaza works well as her older incarnation, and she gives another solid turn, another in a growing list of performances that allows her to move a step away from the eye-rolling and morbid snark that looked in danger of becoming her entire range for a few years. White is very sweet, although viewers are wary of him throughout most of the runtime, simply due to him being named Chad, and Ziegler and Brooks are well-cast as the friends, with the latter having a bit more screentime, and always brightening up the screen whenever she's around. Elliott's family are played by Maria Dizzia (mother), Alain Goulem (father), Seth Isaac Johnson (brother), and Carter Trozzolo (younger brother), and all four do well as they loiter at the edge of the central narrative, eventually moving more towards the centre as our lead starts to appreciate them more and consider how she can still value what is around her while looking forward to her future.

There's nothing here that really stands out. The technique on display, the look and sound of everything, it's all just perfectly fine, working in service of a script that uses a cute idea at the heart of it without making things extra complicated. But Park writes with a great knack of being able to blend emotion and intelligence in a way that is satisfying for film fans without ever feeling too patronising. She also brings great performances out of her leads, perhaps due to her own time spent in front of the camera for projects that range from a Romero zombie movie to standard Christmas TV movie fluff. Cinema can take us to previously-unimagined worlds and show us great marvels, but it's equally enjoyable when it gives people a group of actors all working with quality writing. Park is two for two when it comes to features that she has directed. I hope she soon makes it three for three, whether staying in this kind of film or taking us on a tour of some more fantastical sights.

7/10

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