The End of Oak Street

RATING: 2 beers

Out of the myriad movies I have seen this year, The End of Oak Street is the only one that prompted me to actually sit down and write a damned review.

Here's the spoiler-free (and there are a lot of things to spoil here, especially if you haven't seen the trailer).

The End of Oak Street is not a horror movie, though there are horror-ish elements in it. It's not a monster movie, though there are monsters. It's not sci-fi, it's not fantasy. It's about a family falling apart, and then bonding over shared trauma.

And honestly, it's not much of a story either.

But it kept me captivated and was my first two-beer rated movie.

Because the movie is one of a rare breed. The movie is like an ogre. This movie has layers.

It has layers that are textual. It has layers that are sub-textual. And it has layers in the shots as well. You simply cannot just watch the foreground of the screen, because there is stuff happening in the background that gives you context for previous and later scenes.

It's rare to see that kind of thing in movies any more. And I forgot how much I missed it. I forgot that it was possible to have movies where you can forget about the drink in your hand, because you're too busy looking at the screen.

The movie's storyline is pretty basic. Apocalyptic event occurs outside, as a backdrop to the internal family apocalypse. All the things that are happening outside are secondary to the stuff that's going on within.

Of course there are some surprises. One a very in-your-face surprise, and another that is subtler, that you may miss if you're not watching.

But the most awesome thing about the movie is the way it lets you know that you need to pay attention. The cinematography sets it up obviously in the beginning, and then makes it less obvious and more complex as we go on.

This is a movie that I will definitely watch again, if only to see what I missed the first time around. I recommend you watch it at least once.