{"id":2648152,"date":"2026-08-22T05:53:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T09:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/skip-the-summers-woke-dinosaur-movie-the-end-of-oak-street\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T05:59:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T09:59:23","slug":"skip-the-summers-woke-dinosaur-movie-the-end-of-oak-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/skip-the-summers-woke-dinosaur-movie-the-end-of-oak-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Skip the summer&#8217;s woke dinosaur movie, &#8216;The End of Oak Street&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fskip-the-summers-woke-dinosaur-movie-the-end-of-oak-street%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2648152&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>&#8220;The End of Oak Street&#8221; appears to be a nostalgic film set in the early 1980s, aiming to evoke the era&#8217;s ambiance through period-accurate costumes, decor, and music. Though, the critic argues that while the movie successfully captures the visual vibe of the time, it lacks genuine affection for the period&#8217;s values and manners. Rather, the film introduces a dystopian twist with dinosaurs invading a suburban neighborhood, which incorporates themes of wokeness. The character dynamics, especially the roles of Greg and Denise, are heavily influenced by modern feminist and social justice perspectives, portraying Denise as a trailblazing action hero and Greg as ineffectual, which the reviewer finds unrealistic for the era. the film&#8217;s digital dinosaurs are poorly rendered, and the plot is riddled with inconsistencies and questionable character behaviors. Ultimately, the critic suggests that rather of celebrating the 1980s, the film tarnishes its nostalgic appeal by infusing it with contemporary woke narratives, marking a cynical reinterpretation of the nostalgic genre.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The End of Oak Street<\/em> may seem like a harmless, companionable, feel-good potpourri made up of parts from<em> E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial <\/em>(1982),<em> Jurassic Park<\/em> (1993), and <em>Jumanji <\/em>(1995), but it is, without question, one of the most cynical <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/movies-and-films\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"744\">movies<\/a> of the year.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4696159\/beatty-emergency-order-trump-kennedy-center\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Joyce Beatty files emergency order stopping Trump\u2019s name from going back on Kennedy Center<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4696050\/swalwell-fang-fang-girl-next-door-joe-concha\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Swalwell believed \u2018Fang Fang was just a girl next door that you brought home to mom\u2019: Joe Concha<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/entertainment\/4694825\/hillary-clinton-host-karaoke-night-progressives-nyc\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Hillary Clinton to host karaoke night for progressives in NYC<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The movie tells of a time warp that admits dinosaurs to a suburban enclave in the early 1980s, and writer-director David Robert Mitchell means to lure audiences into the theater with the promise that it will traffic in nostalgia for that terrific time and milieu. After all, the popularity of 1980s-set movies and shows proves that a significant portion of the population wishes to live in a world in which Walkman cassette players were in wide use and Pizza Hut restaurants everywhere were outfitted with buffets.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The End of Oak Street<\/em> wants to capture this demographic. But recreating an era, as the movie does reasonably well, is not the same thing as expressing real affection for it. Despite embellishing his movie with period-accurate clothes, decor, and <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/music\/\">music<\/a>, Mitchell has no deep attachment to the period at all. He means to sell tickets by putting Pat Benatar\u2019s \u201cHit Me With Your Best Shot\u201d on the soundtrack, but he has no intention of ratifying the actual manners and mores that governed the 1980s, which was, after all, \u201cmorning in America\u201d \u2014 not the sort of era likely to be commemorated by <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hollywood\/\">Hollywood<\/a>, and it isn\u2019t here.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\">Ewan McGregor, Christian Convery, Maisy Stella, and Anne Hathaway in \u201cThe End of Oak Street.\u201d (Courtesy of Warner Bros.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2026\/08\/localimages\/LA.Film_.Wokeness.082626.jpg?w=696&#8243; height=&#8221;658&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; &#8220;https:><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ewan McGregor, Christian Convery, Maisy Stella, and Anne Hathaway in \u201cThe End of Oak Street.\u201d (Courtesy of Warner Bros.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The film stars Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway as Greg and Denise Platt, who, along with their children Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery), are among the inhabitants of Oak Street. One thing the film cannot be faulted for is its picture-perfect evocation of the ranch and split-level houses whose low rooflines remain an ideal visual signifier of the time. Equally resonant is the end-of-summer neighborhood block party that kicks off the movie: potato sack races, Formica tables with food spreads, the constant din of rock music and locusts \u2014 it feels downright cozy, as well it should.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet, having lulled us into a state of reminiscence, Mitchell \u2014 best known for the faddish, overpraised genre movies <em>It Follows<\/em> (2014) and <em>Under the Silver Lake<\/em> (2018) \u2014 wants to complicate, if not annihilate, our yearning. He accomplishes this not by dinosaurs, though, but by wokeness. For starters, Greg and Denise are discontent in their marriage \u2014 or, to put it more sharply, Denise is discontent in <em>her <\/em>marriage. McGregor plays Greg \u2014 a laid-off, evidently middle-class worker who has turned to pizza delivery driving \u2014 as a human doormat who absorbs his wife\u2019s frequent, feminist-tinged expressions of annoyance and dissatisfaction. Thoroughly unimpressed by her suburban idyll, and evidently unmoved by her responsibilities as wife and mother, Denise labors in her basement on a novel whose protagonist wishes to forsake her family for a life in New York. (These were the days when New York was a publishing capital, not the chief example of electoral success by a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.)<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is objectionable is not that the film portrays a strained family unit \u2014 after all, the mother in <em>E.T.<\/em> had been through a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/divorce\/\">divorce<\/a>, though she was plainly the victim in the split \u2014 but that it presents Denise\u2019s frustrations through a kind of \u201cwomen\u2019s lib\u201d lens as completely at odds with the family values ethos of the era. One might assume that once the dinosaurs make their presence known, the family unit would reset along traditional lines, but no: in the film\u2019s woke terms, Denise, not Greg, is the one who takes command of the brood and does most of the battling with the dinos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Admittedly, Mitchell is fairly creative in sketching the run-up to the dinosaur takeover, which includes ominous signs such as long-extinct plant life taking root overnight. And the filmmaker wrings some genuine thrills when he deposits the creatures among fenced, Radio Flyer-strewn backyards and such. Although when seen up close or for prolonged periods, the digital dinos are remarkably bland and unimpressive \u2014 I was reminded of the notoriously bad CGI in the woeful Ray Bradbury movie <em>A Sound of Thunder<\/em> (2005).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet, in contending with the invading species, Denise is fashioned into a female action hero more in keeping with the epoch of director Quentin Tarantino than with that of President Ronald Reagan. \u201cI can handle anything you can handle \u2014 maybe more,\u201d she tells her husband, pointedly. Note that Denise is the parent who arms herself with a rifle and first shoots a dinosaur while Greg ambles around with a baseball bat. Note, too, that Denise is the parent behind the wheel of their car as the family fruitlessly tries to flee their street. And further note (spoiler alert) that Greg is the parent who is apparently maimed and killed. This is <em>Jurassic Park<\/em> gone woke.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking as someone born in 1983 \u2014 the year after the film is set \u2014 I simply do not believe that a majority of American fathers at the time were as feeble as Greg, nor that a majority of American mothers were itching to become reptile-slaying mercenaries like Denise. To top it off, Mitchell is not content to let the defeat of the dinosaurs close the film but must also show the fulfillment of Denise\u2019s writerly ambitions: she has managed to get a book about the experience published. Greg, presumably, is living off the royalties. This is not a story about vanquishing the T. Rex; it\u2019s a study in how Denise became a girl boss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine\/4685106\/spider-man-brand-new-day-marvel-movie-review-slog-uninitiated\/\">REVIEW \u2014 \u2018SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY\u2019 IS A SLOG FOR THE UNINITIATED<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because the film is so anachronistic on a deep level, its surface anachronisms start to merit attention. For example, my ears hurt when Greg\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/2638510\/a-jumbo-slice-of-the-swamps-favorite-pizza\/\">pizza delivery job<\/a> was referred to as a \u201cside gig,\u201d a term I am certain I never heard during my six years of living in the 1980s. Speaking of which: When Greg is seen delivering a pizza in the pouring rain (a portent of the dinosaurs\u2019 arrival), why is he not wearing a jacket? And why is the pie he is delivering not being kept in one of those insulated pizza delivery bags? Is he really that dumb? When the power goes out at night, why does Denise emerge from the basement (where, of course, she has been typing) with a gigantic lit candle? Is it her practice to keep candles and matches with her in the basement \u2014 you know, in the event of a mass, dinosaur-induced power failure? But as far as inexplicable character behavior, this has nothing on the scene in which Denise cajoles Greg into letting her take his picture in front of mating dinosaurs. It is difficult to know whether the movie is meant to be scary (which it sometimes is) or is intended as camp (at which it fails).<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The real end of Oak Street comes not from the feet and chompers of the dinosaurs but from a moviemaker who revives the idyllic 1980s only to desecrate them with wokeness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Peter Tonguette is the Life &#038; Arts editor of the <\/em>Washington Examiner <em>magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-26\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-5\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The End of Oak Street appears nostalgic but is deeply cynical<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2691,"featured_media":2648153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LA.Film_.Wokeness.082626.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[84525,84522,84524,84523],"class_list":["post-2648152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-dinosaur-films","tag-summer-movies","tag-the-end-of-oak-street","tag-woke-dinosaurs"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/LA.Film_.Wokeness.082626.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2691"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2648152"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2648156,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648152\/revisions\/2648156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2648153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2648152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2648152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2648152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}