The year is 2026. Iconic things like Cadbury Bytes, chivalry, transferring songs to your friends via Bluetooth, and a film certification board that certifies films instead of cutting kissing scenes… are all dead. Amongst these casualties is also the art of making a film that wears its absurdity as a badge of honour rather than an accident, a film that knows exactly how ridiculous it is, and commits to it anyway with complete sincerity. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor’s The End of Oak Street does its best to try and revive that genre of film and, for the most part, succeeds.
The film’s story is reminiscent of the ones produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment back in the 80s and 90s. It’s 1982. A family consisting of Denise (Hathaway), Greg (McGregor) and their children Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery), accompanied by the family dog, Starbuck (played by Australian cattle dogs Buzz and Brisket) are living a seemingly happy and normal life in an American suburb. Until one day they wake up to realise that they have some new neighbours… that are really old and the only way to survive is to stick together.
The film doesn’t shy away from its Amblin DNA. Multiple shots and scenes are homages to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and of course, Jurassic Park. Michael Giacchino’s score is warm, full of wonder and knowingly nostalgic, which transports you back in time. But that’s about where the homage ends, because The End of Oak Street does things the Amblin films never did.
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