The End of Oak Street

My View:  The End of Oak Street  (2026)  PG-13  In The End of Oak Street, the Platt family must band together after a mysterious event rips their ordinary street out of its location and transports it back in time. The family must stick together because some enormous animals are roaming the neighborhood, called dinosaurs. This is a movie that I call “just stupid fun.” Now you want to leave your thinking brain at the door, see it with an audience so you can react with the crowd at all the dino kills (and there are a ton of them), and just have a good time. The film is based on an incredibly flimsy plot, a family dynamic that doesn’t always work, and some just God-awful dialogue. However, it has dinosaurs attacking anything that moves and in very brutal ways. It, in the Spielberg tradition, has stupid kids that somehow stay alive against the odds and a cast of supporting characters that you can’t wait to see get chomped by a dinosaur or two. I had to overlook the dynamic of the parents, played by Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor, who fight and bicker through a good two-thirds of the movie. And it has an ending so full of holes you could fit a whole slew of T-Rexes in it. Still, I had fun watching the film, but try to forget about it as soon as you leave the theater, or you might start not to like it. And by the way, watch where you step while on Oak Street; the dinos apparently crap a lot. A bit of a warning for families: the kills are pretty brutal, and there is a scene between two amorous dinosaurs that may take some explaining to young ones.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The End of Oak Street Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide

My View:  Don’t Say Good Luck  (2026)  PG-13   Don’t Say Good Luck follows 15-year-old Sophie Birenbaum (Sunny Sandler), who gets the role of a lifetime, the lead in her high school’s production of the musical Waitress. Just as Sophie has hit the spotlight, she finds out that her mother’s (Melanie Lynskey) cancer has returned. The film gets high marks right off the bat because Sophie’s life revolves around her landing the lead in Waitress, one of my favorite Broadway musicals. Add in the always-fascinating Melanie Lynskey as the loving mother of three whose life is being upended, and you have a movie worth watching. Lynskey portrays a parent who has to weigh the heavy burden of knowing her daughter is not well against the constant teen angst of her daughter, who has a crush on the boy playing her co-lead in the musical and doesn’t have the confidence to handle the role or the crush. Sunny Sandler has worked her way up to become a solid actress and is perfect in the role of a girl who might be a little too young for what she is going through, but will figure out by the end of the film that she can handle it with a little help from her family and friends. And yes, the show-stopping song from the musical, Sara Bareilles' She Used to Be Mine, is left for the end of the film, and Sandler knocks it out of the park for an ending that hits all the right notes. So get out some tissues and get ready for a few tears along the way as we follow Sophie as she navigates a time she will never forget.  My Rating: Full Price   Don't Say Good Luck Website  Now playing on the Netflix platform

Indiefest:  Olmo  (2025)  Olmo follows a 14-year-old boy named Olmo (Aivan Uttapa) who is constantly saddled with caring for his bedridden father, Nestor (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), by his mother and sister. When Olmo is invited to a party by the cute girl in the neighborhood, he has to figure out a way that he can leave his father behind in the house as he attends the party. This is a fine coming-of-age film about a teen who feels overwhelmed by having to take care of a father who he thinks doesn’t care about him, all the while wanting to be next to the girl of his dreams. Olmo is a typical teen who is a little selfish and makes bad decisions, as teens often do. The problem is that he is given the task of taking care of his father, and everything he tries to do to get someone else to take care of his father falls through. Writer/director Fernando Eimbcke does a masterful job of letting us into the family's dynamics, with a mother who must be the breadwinner while relying on her two teenage children to care for their father when she is away. And both kids have issues with their father, who isn’t an easy person to be around, while also depending totally on others even to change his shirt or go to the bathroom. This is a beautiful film about family and how responsibility can be overpowering, especially when you are a teen who is controlled more by his desires than by his brain.  My Rating: Full Price  Olmo Website  Now playing in select theaters

Indiefest:  Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma  (2026)   R  Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma follows Kris (Hannah Eindbinder), an ambitious indie filmmaker who is hired to reboot the long-running slasher franchise Camp Miasma, which features a killer named Little Death. Wanting her film to be authentic, Kris tracks down Billy (Gillian Anderson), an actress from the original 1970s film, who lives at the rustic campsite where Camp Miasma was filmed. Kris does not know what she has gotten herself into. There has been some talk about how films are cutting sex out of their movies because audiences don’t want it. Well, filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun says “hold my beer!” and gives us a film where sex becomes one of the main elements. As with her earlier film I Saw the TV Glow, Teenage Sex and Death starts fairly conventional, but as it goes along, it gets weirder and weirder. Though an early sign of what we are in for is Kris’s navigation system sending her down a road that doesn’t seem to exist, and there are times when the shots of the scenery seem right out of an illustration. This film is a hodgepodge of genres. It’s an homage to the slasher films of the 70s/80s like Friday the 13th, with flashback scenes from the first Camp Miasma film that fit the 70s slasher films look and feel, along with the blatant teen sex scenes where bad things happen when someone gets romantic. But this is also a satire of Hollywood's search for the next big thing, rebooting old film series with new filmmakers. And we get a relationship film between Kris, who admits that she hasn’t enjoyed sex in a long time, and Billy, who forces Kris to investigate why. This film was a bit hit-and-miss for me. I loved the performances of both Hannah Einbinder as the uptight, full-of-herself filmmaker who falls under Billy’s spell and Gillian Anderson, who radiates sexual chemistry with just a look and a quick laugh. I loved all the flashbacks to the 70s films, which capture the absurdity of those slasher films in all their bloody glory. However, the film gets a little too weird for me to fully enjoy the outcome (though I loved the final scene), and it doesn’t quite work at the dramatic level it aspires to. Still, it’s a film worthy of watching, especially for slasher film fans and for the brilliance of Gillian Anderson.   My Rating : Bargain Matinee Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Website Now playing in theaters

Forgotten Film:  In the Mouth of Madness  (1994)  R  A famous horror writer’s books are causing the readers to literally lose their minds, as the best-selling book is causing widespread schizophrenia. The writer, Sutter Cane, has gone missing, and the publisher, needing the next book to satisfy the writer’s crazed fans, hires an investigator, John Trent (Sam Neil), to find the writer. Trent is joined by the writer’s editor (Julie Carmen), and they end up in the New England town where Cane’s books are all set. This is a fun horror film that plays on the Stephen King-like author whose work is far more evil than anyone thought. Directed by horror master John Carpenter, has some truly scary moments, and it’s always fun to watch the late Sam Neil work on screen. Watching this film might make you hesitate to read the next horror book by Mr. King or any of your other horror writers.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  In the Mouth of Madness Info  The film is available on most streaming services

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma: Lead Environment Artist

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Never Stop Chasing  (2026)   Never Stop Chasing is a documentary that follows the career of legendary storm chaser Reed Timmer as he pursues the world’s most dangerous tornadoes with friends and colleagues for the past 20 years. The film is a rollercoaster ride about a job that Timmer loves, but at a price. Reed Timmer was the inspiration for Glen Powell’s character Tyler Owens in the 2024 film Twisters.  Never Stop Chasing Website  The film comes out in select theaters on Friday, August 21, 2026

Until Next Time!