J.J. Abrams – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

THE END OF OAK STREET – Review by T.J.. Callahan

August 13, 2026 T. J. Callahan Anne Hathaway, David Robert Mitchell, Ewan McGregor, J.J. Abrams, The End of Oak Street

The End of Oak Street is Land of the Lost meets Jurassic Park with a premise not unlike an episode of the 1960’s television show Outer Limits. Director David Robert Mitchell, along with producer J.J. Abrams, brings the jump scares and the giggles, an extreme attention to detail, a pounding soundtrack, special effects, a committed cast and dinosaurs galore elevating the film’s retro feel from old school fright to a sci-fi summer scream. Not that there aren’t plot holes in the worm holes that send the Pratts and their neighbors into the middle of an extinct world, but the Twilight Zone type story keeps moving and keeps surprising at only an hour and 40 minutes.

Reviews

DUSTER – Review by Lynn Venhaus

May 29, 2025June 2, 2025 Lynn Venhaus Asivak Koostachin, Duster, hbo max, J.J. Abrams, Josh Holloway, LaToya Morgan, Rachel Hilson, series, Warner Brothers Television

This snappy original eight episode ‘70s throwback crime drama series from Warner Brothers Television has a playful Smokey and the Bandit and Starsky and Hutch vibe, not to mention sitcom-y character quirks, which add to its madcap charm. Yet, it is serious about the crimes being investigated and there’s an abundance of grit and gruesome, although this is far from a standard procedural. It’s testosterone-heavy, but has a female beacon of light that shines bright. Rachel Hilson is sensational as FBI agent Nina Hayes, a smart young Black woman in a (mostly) white man’s criminal underworld, more specifically the 1972 labor force that featured many uncool fashions, porn mustaches and provincial sexist thinking. You’ve come a long way, baby, is right.