How It Ends
American International Pictures | Release Date: July 20, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
4
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
IndieWireKate ErblandJan 31, 2021
The pandemic spawned plenty of run-and-gun projects. Many of them chart the circumstances that made them possible, but Wein and Lister-Jones’ winsome spin on a well-trod concept is as fresh and funny as anything inspired by the last few wretched months. Read full review
82
TheWrapSteve PondJan 31, 2021
it’s an endearing Sundance bonbon: quirky but not annoying, charming but not cloying, slight but in a good way. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesMichael OrdoñaJul 19, 2021
How It Ends works both as an alternative to the usual, race-against-time or humanity-sucks apocalypse dramas, and as a personal exploration of settling affairs — and it’s a comedy. Read full review
79
PolygonTasha RobinsonJan 31, 2021
It’s a pleasant enough hangout movie, and someday it may be held up as a slanted portrait of what mid-2020 felt like for people privileged enough to ignore politics. But it still feels like a minor movie in the face of a major catastrophe. Read full review
70
Screen RantFerdosa AbdiJul 23, 2021
How It Ends is a quirky and grounded indie feature about facing one's issues head-on when the world is about to be destroyed by an asteroid. Read full review
70
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeJul 22, 2021
The film plays as a series of perfectly enjoyable sketches strung together, an excuse for veteran actors to chew on playful dialogue. Read full review
70
SlashfilmBen PearsonJan 31, 2021
Underneath all the jokes and humorous moments, the movie is fundamentally about how important it is to love yourself – and about how something so seemingly simple can sometimes be incredibly difficult. Read full review
70
Film ThreatMatthew PassantinoJan 31, 2021
Yes, it was made during the pandemic, and the storyline serves as a metaphor for our current feelings and experiences, but it doesn’t use the pandemic as a tool to directly prey on our anxieties. It’s a bit more thoughtful and reflective than that. This drama gives us the green light to sit back and say, no matter when the end might be, perhaps we did just fine with our time here. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 31, 2021
It's more breezy than bittersweet, more about acceptance and forgiveness than a movie made in 2020 has any right to be. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiJan 31, 2021
The film is so economical in its momentum, and its tone of comic wistfulness so uniform, that its string of tableaux rarely feels jerky. Read full review
58
The Film StageJake Kring-SchreifelsJan 31, 2021
You need some urgency and momentum to carry a movie like this. The incoming armageddon, occasionally seen as a small CGI blip in the blue sky, doesn’t have it. But as the day ends, Lister-Jones and Spaeny have enough chemistry to supply the real drama. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleJames ScottJul 22, 2021
For all the wincing indie-film humor, for all the celebs packed in for socially distanced scenes, the film succeeds most in the simplicity of Liza and her younger self as they navigate the tension of finding balance and acceptance of the entire self. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 31, 2021
Lister-Jones gives a heartfelt performance as this unhappy woman coming to terms with her disappointments, and she’s assisted by Cailee Spaeny as her character’s younger self. But the slim story and wobbly execution ultimately undermine some deft observations about depression, forgiveness and the inner child who needs to be heard. Read full review
50
VarietyTomris LafflyJan 31, 2021
Sweet and personal, How It Ends is hardly an entertaining movie, or one that will go down as one of the defining films of these unpredictably strange times. But you can’t really blame the artists for trying to make some therapeutic sense of it all, with a little help from one another. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiJul 20, 2021
While I like the laid-back attitude the filmmakers apply to the theoretically devastating situation, it quickly becomes apparent that attitude is the only thing the film really has to offer to viewers. Although there are a few amusing moments here and there, the comedic situations are too droll for their own good and too often seem to waste potentially interesting ideas. Read full review
33
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJul 20, 2021
The problem dogging the film from the start is the absence of insight. Nothing that Wein and Lister-Jones have to say about facing the past, making peace with yourself and with the people who psychologically and emotionally scarred you over the course of your life, or even their most central concern, death, turns out to be worth hearing. Read full review
25
The PlaylistJessica KiangJan 31, 2021
“How It Ends” is not actually an end-of-the-world film at all; here, the Apocalypse is just a well-shucks excuse for a bunch of yak sessions between goofy (but attractive!) oddballs doing quirky shit and Speaking Their Truths on an accelerated timeframe. With all due apologies to the plants, animals, and 7.5bn other souls about to be incinerated in a doomsday fireball, #teammeteor. Read full review
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