The latest

A suburban family’s fracturing home life collides with prehistoric chaos in “The End of Oak Street,” a breakneck adventure that transports an entire neighborhood through time. Writer-director David Robert Mitchell embraces the premise with carnivalesque showmanship, bringing dinosaurs onto porches and shag carpets while preserving a sincere emotional center. The result is a darker, increasingly outlandish spin on the old-school family thrill ride, delivered without winking irony or laborious homage.

Details

• Mysterious arrival: The disruption begins with a flash of light, an exotic flower in a neighbor’s yard and an enormous mound of feces elsewhere. The Platts discover jungle surrounding their street and primordial creatures roaming between houses, leaving Oak Street isolated in a prehistoric world. At the cul-de-sac, a telephone pole and radiating wires evoke a big top, matching the movie’s circus-like momentum.
• Family fault lines: Anne Hathaway plays Denise opposite Ewan McGregor as Greg, with Maisy Stella as teenage daughter Audrey and Christian Convery as younger son Brian. Their household includes a dog named Starbuck. Beneath their conventional San Fernando Valley existence, the children suspect their parents are nearing divorce, while Greg and Denise appear to share that fear.
• Private ambitions: Greg works a side job delivering pizzas, while Denise secretly types a possibly aspirational novel about a woman dreaming of leaving her family. The children carry secrets of their own. The catastrophe tests those strained relationships, showing each family member can endure more than the others assumed. Hathaway is especially effective at grounding the emotional stakes amid the effects-driven disorder.
• Escalating spectacle: Mitchell gradually reveals the creatures before staging encounters with raptors, a giant snake inside the Platts’ home and other dangerous beasts. The action builds anticipation around crowd-pleasing payoffs, including a timely sledgehammer swing. Despite the deliberately ridiculous plotting, bloody peril, domestic comedy and family reconciliation keep the 99-minute film moving at a near-continuous sprint.
• Throwback style: The movie draws on the blockbuster spirit associated with Amblin and Steven Spielberg, then detours into Mitchell’s darker blend of horror, absurdism and silliness. Michael Giacchino’s score echoes John Williams. One eccentric interlude finds a terrified Audrey entering a car, inserting a cassette and listening to Steve Winwood’s “Valerie” while chaos unfolds.
• Release details: Warner Bros. releases the film in theaters Thursday. The Motion Picture Association rated it PG-13 for strong violent content, bloody images, some strong language and suggestive material. The review awards “The End of Oak Street” three stars out of four.

Background

Mitchell broke through with the 2014 horror film “It Follows” before making the ambitious Los Angeles neo-noir “Under the Silver Lake.” His latest feature returns to suburbia, transforming familiar streets into a gonzo family adventure.

What’s next

“The End of Oak Street” begins its theatrical run Thursday, when Warner Bros. brings the 99-minute summer adventure to cinemas.