This is a film that lives in the uncomfortable, recognizing that some people won’t ever be able to find happiness.

| Original Score: B+ | Jul 23, 2024

There's an important message about community being telegraphed here, but the story doesn't spare enough time for it to really land.

| Jul 12, 2024

Not everything in Drift works. Chen’s narrow approach to the themes hinders it at times and the lack of plot tests your patience, but there is hope to be found in this gentle, caring film.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 12, 2024

A deceptively simple tale with a lot to say, Drift lingers long, thanks largely to a mesmerising performance from Cynthia Erivo.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2024

But it is mostly the gentle lapping of the sea that you hear more than dialogue in this deeply sensitive film, where a little too much is left unsaid.

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

Captivatingly played by Cynthia Erivo, Jacqueline is in almost every frame of this small but haunting English-language debut by the Singaporean director Anthony Chen...

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

This portrait of lost souls connecting is unassuming, but quietly powerful.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2024

Scripted by Susanne Farrell and Alexander Maksik from the latter's novel A Marker to Measure Drift, the film is directed with calm control — if a slight lack of stylistic verve — by Singaporean director Anthony Chen.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 28, 2024

The film attempts to shock, but without the aspect of surprise.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 28, 2024

Anthony Chen's slow-burn character study is essentially a showcase for its star Cynthia Erivo.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 27, 2024

It’s [Cynthia] Erivo who pulls us in. Her performance is weighty with empathy, sensitive to the nuances of Jacqueline’s pain, so much of it unspoken, only understood.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 25, 2024

Well acted but very slow paced. The whole movie just drifts.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Mar 5, 2024

I think it's probably best performance we've had from Cynthia Erivo.

| Mar 4, 2024

The interesting angle into this film is that this is a refugee crisis film about a refugee who has a lot in common with most people, where you can't think of her as different from you.

| Mar 4, 2024

Erivo and Shawkat are wonderful on-screen together; even before Callie knows the full truth about what Jacqueline has been through, she seems to see and understand her in a way no one else does.

| Feb 21, 2024

It feels a bit more like an outline than a fully fleshed-out drama, but in some ways the small, soft strokes of this drama—along with two nuanced performances—work their own kind of magic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 20, 2024

Erivo is not the only reason to see Drift. But the actor most certainly is the reason to see it ASAP.

| Feb 19, 2024

A powerfully understated portrayal by Erivo drives a film that suffers from some heavy-handed calculations yet conveys a hopeful resonance that’s both culturally specific and emotionally universal.

| Feb 17, 2024

Drift is a slow moving, beautifully portrayed film about the necessity of women’s friendships when the world they know is shattered by violence and the toxic masculine.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 14, 2024

Perhaps with less questions left unanswered, “Drift” would permit a more sympathetic lead, but the flatness and flippance of its context leaves everything on the surface.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 12, 2024