The Guardian by Benjamin Lee

It’s a heartbreaking, troubling film about men whose lives were cruelly deprioritised and whose families remain ever altered as a result. It ends on a note of melancholy but the burning anger also remains, the final scenes tinged with a painful awareness of wounds that may never heal.

Los Angeles Times by Noel Murray

This is a solidly gripping and at times heartbreaking study of ordinary guys, out on the water trying to support their families, while knowing deep down — just from the shoddy condition of their sub’s equipment — that any given voyage is likely to be their last.

The New York Times by Bilge Ebiri

The fine cast keeps us engaged, even if the film sometimes loses the narrative thread.

CineVue by Christopher Machell

While Kursk doesn’t have the sufficient depth required for a truly effective historical drama it certainly works as a well-mounted and occasionally gripping, if somewhat formulaic thriller.

The Hollywood Reporter by Keith Uhlich

It's a competent, by-the-numbers action melodrama.

The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo

It doesn’t help that The Command looks phony right from the outset, being an English-language film involving virtually no actual Russians.

Movie Nation by Roger Moore

It’s not a classic of the genre, not moving enough to truly grip the viewer and pull us to the edge of our seats. But a very good cast and a general respect for the facts makes The Command a worthy-enough entry, one that realizes sometimes there is no happy ending.

Screen Daily by Stephen Whitty

Too much of Kursk revolves around scenes of sodden sailors sitting around wondering why someone doesn’t just hurry up and rescue them. A sentiment likely to be shared by some audiences, as well.

Variety by Jessica Kiang

Vinterberg’s Kursk occasionally lands an emotive blow but only in its more fictionalized stretches, while it pulls its punches with the thorniest and most provocative elements of the real story, an instinct that unduly submerges much of the real horror and lasting consequence of this tragically, enragingly, heartbreakingly bungled incident.

Screen International by Stephen Whitty

Too much of Kursk revolves around scenes of sodden sailors sitting around wondering why someone doesn’t just hurry up and rescue them. A sentiment likely to be shared by some audiences, as well.

The Playlist by Rodrigo Pérez

Meant to appear as some kind of tribute to the victims and families of the Kursk, Vinterberg’s poorly strategized film barely justifies its existence.