Movies I saw in August: The End of Oak Street, Tony, The Dog Stars

All of the movies I saw in the theater in August were about endings: The first an end to life on Earth as we know it; the second an end of teen-age freedom as the wave of adulthood threatens to drown all hope; and the third an end of wishing for something that might be just beyond reach instead of embracing what you can touch right now.

The End of Oak Street (In the theater, 8/15/2026) Grade: B.

This movie felt like Jurassic Park blended with Stranger Things, a mix that turned two great originals into one pretty OK smoothie.

Because it was a dinosaur movie with too little time spent with the prehistoric creatures and too much on the all-too-typical dysfunctions of a typical suburban family on a typical street in America, though I did enjoy watching Ewan MacGregor playing a middle-aged dad forced to deliver pizzas to pay the bills.

And while I also appreciated watching his teen daughter slipping away to listen to Steve Winwood on a cassette tape in the family car, I couldn’t help feeling that the scene’s purpose was only to have that “analog” technology used so effectively and naturally in Stranger Things. (Cue the kids on bikes!)

Plus, who the heck turns to Steve Winwood when they need to release angst? I sure didn't when I was that teenage girl, because no one in my house ever purchased any Steve Winwood music.

Tony (In theater 8/23/2026) Grade: A.

I loved Anthony Bourdain, and I loved this movie. The perfect portrait of an icon in the making, and a perfect portrayal of teen-age arrogance being sliced and diced by the knives of adulthood that eventually cut us all.

Dominic Sessa was wonderful as the loutish-but-lovable Bourdain, and Antonio Banderas was surprisingly sublime as the boss we all need when we're young — the one we don't even realize is squeezing out the best of us while stamping out the worst.

And while its claustrophobic kitchen scenes did not make me miss my time in food service, which also gave me arms full of burn scars from slinging pizzas, they did bring back fond memories of my restaurant mentor, a small but mighty woman named Betty. 

I never had to sleep on her hammock, but I was an orphan she took under her wing, giving me extra bonuses at Christmas so I could pay my phone bill when she demanded I keep my landline.

And while I had to convince her that a girl could run the ovens — and not just on a sleepy Wednesday afternoon, but on the super busy Friday and Saturday nights — the respect and trust I eventually earned from her still means the world to me.

This movie reminds us that often the best lessons in life are learned by being thrown into the deep end and told to swim, and the best people we meet are the ones  willing to throw a bucket of cold water on us, both on our face and our fantasies, when we need it the most. 

The Dog Stars (In theater 8/29/2026) Grade: B-/C+.

There was a lot to like about this movie. As Joey from “Friends” declares when eating Rachel's mistake trifle, I declare: Josh Brolin? Good. Guy Pearce and Margaret Qualley? Good. Quiet moments of people surviving the collapse of civilization under expansive skies? Very good.

But like that mistake trifle, which was created from two recipe pages getting stuck together, this movie turned into a Frankenstein’s monster: a bunch of random parts sewn together that never quite meshed. Especially the video-game like scene that melted The Last of the Mohicans, Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, and the even more weird and unsettling David Lynch take on Texas Chain Saw Massacre. 

I’m not sure if director Ridley Scott was encouraged to add all the random chaos to keep the interest of younger viewers, or if all the weirdness was in the novel the film was based upon, but I would have much preferred a much quieter exploration of a man finally being able to leave the guilt of his wife's death behind and accept his current surroundings.

So instead, I recommend watching my favorite Ridley Scott movie, which just happens to be one of my favorite movies of all time, Thelma and Louise.

Movies I saw in July: Obsession, The Odyssey