‘The End of Oak Street’ Review: End-of-the-Summer Trash That’s Like a Loopier (and in Some Ways Better) ‘Jurassic’ Movie

Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are the parents in a 1982 suburb overrun by dinosaurs in David Robert Mitchell's shamelessly fun thriller.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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“The End of Oak Street” belongs to the genre I call the last-gasp-of-summer movie. A movie in this category has several characteristics, starting with the fact that it has to be released in the middle of August or later. Beyond that, a last-gasp-of-summer movie is trashy and obvious, it’s usually ripped off from other movies, and it wears a shameless grin on its face about all of that. At the same time, it demands a certain size and scale — a straggling pretense of popcorn lavishness that marks it as a genuine final entry in the blockbuster season. (If it’s any smaller, you know that the summer is already over.)

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