Origin
Neon | Release Date: December 8, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMar 10, 2024
The compelling Ellis-Taylor goes some way towards tying together the disparate elements. She is a magnetic, dignified presence, persuasive in both the more melodramatic elements of the story and in the academic journey. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeMar 7, 2024
For all its flaws, however, Origin does have power as both didactic treatise and drama of recovery. There is something reassuring being said here about the restorative power of work. Read full review
60
Screen RantAlex HarrisonOct 9, 2023
I do not regret having seen it, and with all there is to recommend it, I feel comfortable suggesting you seek it out upon release. But do so with tempered expectations. Read full review
60
Total FilmJane CrowtherSep 7, 2023
DuVernay captures the universal experience of loss: the regrets, the suffocating sorrow. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 6, 2023
The result is a film with urgency and heartfelt sympathy, but one which I couldn’t help thinking may have been better served as a documentary to focus more directly on the issues involved. Read full review
58
ColliderRoss BonaimeSep 11, 2023
DuVernay took a big swing with Origin, and that’s certainly to be commended, but the film sadly doesn’t work more often than it does. The impact of the end makes the journey worthwhile, but it’s a rocky road to that conclusion. Read full review
57
PolygonOli WelshJan 18, 2024
The movie, which chronicles the personal tragedies of Wilkerson’s life as she conceives and researches the book, is an awkward hybrid of these two approaches, neither of which fully succeeds. It’s a drama that wants to be a documentary, and it’s at its best when it’s just reeling off Wilkerson’s fascinating ideas at full flow. Read full review
55
SlashfilmMarshall ShafferDec 7, 2023
Origin lacks both a center of gravity and a sense of scale. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJan 16, 2024
The movie starts to fray once we realize that DuVernay is not going to make a case for Wilkerson’s ideas. Rather, she plans to serve them up as undeniable truths. Read full review
50
Screen DailyJonathan RomneySep 7, 2023
This docudrama, recounting the background to Isabel Wilkerson’s acclaimed 2020 study ’Caste’, is an unwieldy, fragmented hybrid that comes across very much as an educational project, never quite gelling as narrative. Read full review
42
IndieWireLeila LatifSep 7, 2023
DuVernay’s film is unable to fuse melodrama and academia into a single narrative, even with such rich source material and as fascinating a subject as Isabel Wilkerson. The only possible conclusion it invites is every film critic’s least favorite sentence: Just read the book. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJan 18, 2024
Even those who find Ms. Wilkerson’s thesis convincing are likely to concede that it is more at home in the library than at the multiplex. Many others will find Origin confusing and dry. Read full review
40
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackJan 18, 2024
While Ellis-Taylor is, as always, magnetic onscreen, Origin fails her talents, as well as both its characters and story, by reproducing the flaws of Wilkerson’s book with a stoic conviction. Read full review
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