Screen Test - The End of Oak Street
Shortly after an unexplained astral phenomenon, one particular suburban street in Michigan is suddenly transported back to the prehistoric age.
An ordinary 80's family, the Platts, then have to think on their feet and develop their own survival instincts as their Griswald-styled station wagon comes face to face with a wide variety of dinosaurs.
Directed by David Robert Mitchell (It Follows, Under the Silver Lake), utilising the usual blend of atmospheric filmmaking with horror and coming-of-age elements, with spectacular visualisations of some of the largest ancient animals to ever inhabit the earth. Starring Ewan McGregor (Star Wars, Trainspotting), and Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada, The Odyssey)
Local film-goers can catch every time-travelling twist on the big screen, now showing at Peninsula Cinemas Warragul.
Resident Gazette film buffs, Aidan Knight and Nick Duck, caught the film ahead of time - here are their thoughts...
Aidan Knight: A very entertaining original outing.
Many have praised it as the best dinosaur adventure to hit screens since the original Jurassic trilogy, and I am inclined to agree.
Admittedly a bit touch-and-go in its introduction scenes, putting a tad too much emphasis on the 80's aesthetics, that I worried would give more of a Stranger Things feel than anything else original, but this is quickly dissolved as the plot develops and throws the audience into the deep end - alongside the cast.
Viewers will be quick to notice some of the most 'biblically accurate' dinosaurs to be seen on screen as well, with an adequate feathers-to-scales ratio allowing the visuals to keep up to date with the latest discoveries in prehistoric areas. Believe it or not, this will be a selling point for a variety of fans unsatisfied with the recent run of Chris Pratt-centred Jurassic movies.
Not a horror, and not a comedy, End of Oak Street holds its own as a (mature) family adventure film, balancing an enjoyable amount of humour and graphic violence.
Let's be honest, you aren't interested in a dinosaur film if there isn't at least one limb being chomped off.
Ewan McGregor puzzles initially with a peculiar attempt at an American accent - similar to that of Sam Neill in similar roles - but thankfully it becomes less noticeable as if he requires a 'warm up' period during filming.
Anne Hathaway steals the show, in her fourth feature film released this year, as the mother of two and aspiring novelist, navigating an unbalanced, unhappy marriage, and a hypersensitive paranoid neighbour - all before she has to point a shotgun at a velociraptor.
The kids are realistic in being mostly inadequate in dealing with the situations and requiring saving, and nothing aside from the whole dinosaur thing needs selling to the audience.
It could be summarised as The Walking Dead, if you replaced zombies with dinosaurs, and see a group of ordinary people working to overcome the odds and survive in the same level of suburban desperation.
I also enjoyed how it all tied up nicely in the conclusion, leaving little-to-no room for sequels films, which feels rare these days. I feel as if there is one of these standalone "what if" creature-features hitting cinema each year (Death of a Unicorn, The Meg franchise), and this one will age as one of the best for a while.
Nick Duck: It's nice to know even when you grow up dinosaurs are still pretty cool.
From the get-go the Spielberg influence is very clear on this one as the premise and the 'kind of a kid's film but not really' vibes all echo the Amblin Entertainment classics of the 80s and 90s (think Poltergeist or Gremlins).
Even the score gets in on the action, with composer Michael Giacchino doing his best John Williams impression during the film's more high strung moments.
The numerous dinosaur chase sequences are suitably tense and exciting but it's the film's restraint that was as compelling as anything. You'll often see a tail trailing in the background or a spine poking above a rooftop as the characters move through the neighbourhood and it's these images that tend to stick in my brain more than the running and hiding.
That being said, I would have loved to see a few practical effects in there somewhere. The computer generated imagery is, for the most part, fine, but it's that blend of both the real and fake that really makes effects pop as they did in the original Jurassic Park.
I also was delighted by some of the film's more surprising moments, particularly towards the back half. There was a certain point where I felt I had a real grasp on where things were going only for the narrative to genuinely flip on its head in a manner that had my jaw on the floor.
David Robert Mitchell's direction keeps things nice and taut throughout - a feature shared with his breakthrough 2014 horror flick It Follows, which I'm quite a fan of. In particular his use of the split diopter shot will keep movie nerds very happy.
The film does, however, fall short in the script department for mine. Plotlines and character motivations are brought up and dropped with abandon, giving the sense that some things were left on the cutting room floor.
The ending also will have its detractors - things are wrapped up a little too neatly for my taste given where the story went earlier but I did at least appreciate that the film didn't feel the need to over-explain its more heady concepts.
More than anything it's just nice to see a genuinely original film hitting cinemas. Hollywood has seen a little too much homogeneity for the last two decades through an endless regurgitation of sequels, remakes and everything in between.
Just being able to escape it for a second and see some fun dinosaur action with an original premise and characters made this worth the watch, despite my issues.
Aidan Knight:★★★★☆
Nick Duck: ★★★☆☆
The End of Oak Street is rated M for themes of sustained threat, violence, and coarse language.
