Okay so I just watched The End of Oak Street and I loved it. Loved it in the way where I walked out already rearranging my week so I could watch it again before writing anything real about it. But here’s my problem: everything I actually want to say about this movie is a spoiler. The whole thing lives and dies on things I am not going to type in this post. I’m doing the full spoiler-heavy breakdown tomorrow, the kind of piece this site usually runs, where we get into what it’s actually doing and why.
So instead of sitting on my hands for a day, I wanted to put something up today that captures the energy around this movie, because it deserves it. Rather than dance around spoilers trying to describe scenes I can’t fully describe, I went and pulled together some of the most enthusiastic reactions from critics who got to it before I did. Six reviews, six pull quotes, all cited below so you can go read the full pieces yourself. Consider this the hype post. Tomorrow we get weird with it.
For anyone who somehow hasn’t seen a trailer: David Robert Mitchell, the guy who made It Follows and Under the Silver Lake, has a new movie about a suburban family in the summer of 1982 whose entire neighborhood gets swallowed into a prehistoric landscape overnight. Dinosaurs. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor are the parents. JJ Abrams produced it. That’s genuinely all you need going in, and I’d argue it’s all you should have going in.
Here’s what the critics are saying.
Zachary Lee at RogerEbert.com opened his review by zeroing in on exactly what makes this more than a monster movie:
“The world was already ending before the dinosaurs arrived. That’s nifty shorthand for the headspace of the Platt family in David Robert Mitchell’s ‘The End of Oak Street,’ the unfortunate protagonists who one night see their entire suburb warped back to a time when creatures like the Spinosaurus and Stegosaurus reigned supreme. Mitchell’s film features all of the Cretaceous carnage you’d expect and want, but it’s the type of ambitious blockbuster that excites not just due to the blood it draws on-screen (of which there’s copious amounts) but for how it cuts deep into the interior lives of its characters, contextualizing its thrills in life’s relatable doldrums. This isn’t a film that sees the problems of its characters as something to speed-run past to get to the dino munching, but instead anchors its vicious spectacle in earnest human drama.” [1]
Swaroop Kodur at The Federal landed on something I noticed too, how restrained the film is with its own effects budget:
“It is refreshing to watch a film that doesn’t wish to outwit its audience by trying to consistently dazzle them with a CGI onslaught (the visual effects, too, aren’t in your face but effective nevertheless). Instead, The End of Oak Street treads assuredly and stays tethered to its natural personality all along. It’s sentimental, but not cloyingly. It’s fun and adventurous, but not cacophonous. There are plenty of thrills and some bone-chilling violence too, and the ensemble cast is solid all along; for all we know, this least-expected outing might be Hathaway’s best thus far in her rather eventful 2026.” [2]
Max Weiss at Baltimore Magazine just came right out and said the thing everyone’s been circling around:
“It’s only slight hyperbole to say that The End of Oak Street is the greatest film Steven Spielberg never made. This is not just because it’s set in 1982 and features remarkably life-like dinosaurs chasing around a nuclear family. It’s because writer-director David Robert Mitchell takes the time, but not too much time, to allow us to get to know this family.” [3]
Sam Adams at Slate got at something structural that I think is the whole reason this movie works, the patience it has with its own characters:
“Mitchell’s take on the family adventure is leisurely and sincere, lavishing a third of its length on the slow build to a revelation that the posters give away in an instant, and taking the possibility that Audrey’s brother Brian (Christian Convery) might get his ass kicked by a neighborhood bully as seriously as it does any dino attack. It’s also, at times, brutally blunt and darkly funny, serving up some of its grisliest deaths with tongue savagely in cheek.” [4]
Jake Coyle at the Associated Press opened his review with an image from the film itself that doubles as a description of the whole experience:
“At the end of the block in David Robert Mitchell’s ‘The End of Oak Street,’ is a cul-de-sac with a telephone pole in the middle and wires radiating out like the cables of a big top. It’s a fitting touch for a breakneck, carnivalesque movie made with throwback showmanship. Summer movies, of course, are not known for lacking in circus-like mayhem. But much of the pastiche delight of the 1980s-set ‘The End of Oak Street,’ a mid-August surprise, is how it absorbs an Amblin-style blockbuster spirit and conjures, without winking irony or belabored homage, a summer thrill ride seemingly designed for the drive-in.” [5]
And Joseph A. Wulfsohn at Fox News kept it simple with a verdict that I think undersells it slightly, but I get the instinct:
“The End of Oak Street is a fun, crowd-pleasing wild ride that is full of laughs and suspense that feels like a throwback to the kinds of movies that Hollywood used to make. If you’re going to squeeze in one more movie with the family before the kids go back to school, consider this one.” Three and a half stars, see it now. [6]
That’s six critics, six different outlets, and about as close to consensus enthusiasm as you get for a movie with a plot description this absurd on paper. Currently the critic Rotten Tomato score is 86%?!? And I’m with all of them. I’m just not ready to tell you the specific reasons yet, because the specific reasons are the whole point.
Go see it. I’ll be here when you get back.
Here are the sources if you want to read more…
[1] Zachary Lee, “The End of Oak Street review: The end of the world has never been more fun,” RogerEbert.com, August 2026. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-end-of-oak-street-anne-hathaway-ewan-mcgregor-film-review-2026
[2] Swaroop Kodur, “The End of Oak Street review: Anne Hathaway leads a delicious, utterly original dinosaur movie,” The Federal, August 14, 2026. https://thefederal.com/film-reviews/film-review-hollywood-the-end-of-oak-street-anne-hathaway-dinosaurs-prehistoric-253542
[3] Max Weiss, “Movie Review: The End of Oak Street,” Baltimore Magazine, August 15, 2026. https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/artsentertainment/movie-review-the-end-of-oak-street/
[4] Sam Adams, “The Best Spielberg Movie of the Year Is Here, and It’s The End of Oak Street,” Slate, August 13, 2026. https://slate.com/culture/2026/08/the-end-of-oak-street-anne-hathaway-movie-horror-review.html
[5] Jake Coyle, “Movie Review: ‘The End of Oak Street’ is a gonzo good time,” Associated Press, August 12, 2026. https://apnews.com/article/end-of-oak-street-movie-review-580777f9f45d34c2775cffb1316fad6b
[6] Joseph A. Wulfsohn, “‘The End of Oak Street’ Review: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor fight dinosaurs in surprisingly fun movie,” Fox News, August 15, 2026. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/the-end-oak-street-review-anne-hathaway-ewan-mcgregor-fight-dinosaurs-surprisingly-fun-movie
