A heart-wrenching and haunting post-apocalyptic survival film about climate change refugees.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 9, 2025

It’s a deceptively potent performance in a simple but well-judged and beautifully shot survival tale.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 11, 2024

The film is rarely dull in its sub-two-hour run time, sustaining our curiosity as mother Comer travels across Britain seeking refuge... There are glimmers of a bright future ahead for debut feature director Mahalia Belo.

| Oct 1, 2024

The film’s quiet strength, in step with Comer’s character, lies in its familiarity.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 1, 2024

If the film ends up somewhere a little too neat, Comer makes the journey always worthwhile.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 1, 2024

A film that doesn’t feel highly original yet has an urgency about it, manifested into a story of devotion and endurance.

| Original Score: B | Jul 23, 2024

Embodying horror and anxiety, yet wearing a dauntless resolve that only a mother fearing for her child’s life can muster, Comer’s performance alone makes the film worth the price of admission.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 19, 2024

Evoking memories of everything from Children of Men and Spielberg’s War of the Worlds to the 1980s BBC version of The Day of the Triffids, this nightmarish and brilliant near-future-set British drama deserved a far better fate than as an online rental.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 25, 2024

Comer is exceptional throughout and there are some especially great scenes after her character bonds with a kindred soul, spiritedly played by Katherine Waterston.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 2, 2024

Jodie Comer's riveting performance is the main reason to watch The End We Start From, an occasionally vague but well-acted survival story about a new mother trying to survive with her baby during an environmental crisis.

| Mar 3, 2024

Destruction spectacle is scarce, yet the cumulative emotional impact is considerable, making this an unusually touching piece of near-future fiction.

| Feb 15, 2024

The ending feels a bit rushed, otherwise, Mahalia Belo’s feature debut manages to stay afloat with memorable performances and a message that motherhood can be way more frightening than Mother Nature.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 9, 2024

The film’s budget undermines its attempts to depict the rain-lashed country, but ultimately, The End We Start From is about so much more than the disaster; it’s about living through it and prevailing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 8, 2024

It's a really strong film. Perhaps a little repetitious... But nevertheless the thoughts and the notions going on here are very moving.

| Feb 1, 2024

Belo's understated approach to the narrative expresses the gift of motherhood and the importance of humanity and unity amidst crisis, led by Comer's immaculate, nuanced performance.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 29, 2024

This isn’t a movie you just watch, it’s one you feel in your bones.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 23, 2024

Alice Birch's script uses long stretches of silence without the need for words, while Mahalia Belo's direction maintains a singular point of view to pull the viewer into the central character's odyssey. The result is moving and strongly involving.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 23, 2024

A very confident piece of direction from Mahalia Belo.

| Jan 23, 2024

Mahalia Belo’s drama is aimless. But as a tactile, vivid portrait of a new mother facing challenges, it might speak to anyone who has been there, whether or not your experiences happened alongside a wider cataclysm.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 22, 2024

When the script becomes choppy, especially in the second half, the performances keep the film from getting stuck in the mud.

| Jan 20, 2024