“The End Of Oak Street” Is Dino-mite (With Matt Singer)

Dinosaurs are back in business this week, with The End of Oak Street, an original blockbuster about shooting dinos in the face while getting chomped by various raptors, dactyls, and giant primordial snakes.  We’re joined by Indiewire’s Matt Singer, host of Filmspotting: SVU, and author of the upcoming book Funny Business, to discuss the film, its blend of Amblin-influenced family filmmaking with director David Robert Mitchell’s acidic bite. The movie uses its familiar tropes to lull the audience into a lull before ripping those tropes apart, making the film stranger and darker than the marketing let on. Still, it’s been a hit with critics, if not with audiences at large.  We discuss how the story unfolds, Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway’s performances, the joys of shooting raptors in the face, sad giant snake monsters, The Last House, and break down the ending and what the movie is really about—Climate change, maybe? We also get into JJ Abrams’ trajectory as the head of Bad Robot, which produced the film, the state of puzzle box film and TV, and finally do our recommendations.  Next week, it’s lobster roll season, with the Anthony Bourdain biographical picture, Tony.  Email us: criticaldarlingsmailbag@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices