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

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

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

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

| Feb 19, 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

“Drift,” a patient character study set on a craggy Greek island, proves a mesmerizing showcase for the actress Cynthia Erivo’s talents.

| Feb 8, 2024

Drift is measured, sensitive and devastating, and works just the way it is.

| Aug 21, 2023

A languid tour through Greece punctuated by violent interludes to Jacqueline’s life in Liberia don’t constitute quite a compelling enough narrative. Nor does this story say anything persuasive about the refugee experience.

| Feb 11, 2023

It’s so hard up for an example of kindness and connection that it goes to extremes to make its point while hardly filling in characters in its place. One could call the movie self-indulgent, but it does not feel manipulative so much as misguided.

| Feb 3, 2023

Not only has Singapore director Anthony Chen set himself a tough task in this ambitious adaptation, he has also notably succeeded in making viewers see the world through very different eyes.

| Jan 28, 2023

Though beautifully rendered and sensitive to the muzzling grip of trauma, Drift leaves too much unsaid.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 25, 2023

Erivo is such an intuitive and understated performer, and Chen so nuanced in his own approach, that “Drift” never feels didactic.

| Jan 23, 2023

The moment Alia Shawkat’s friendly American tour guide Callie appears, we realize the filmmakers will be less Claire Denis–esque with the churning energies about place, culture, and interiority, and more geared toward something conventionally therapeutic.

| Jan 23, 2023

Erivo’s full-bodied commitment to the role, capturing how even the worst experiences can become a part of you, results in a performance so powerful that it’s occasionally too difficult to watch.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 23, 2023

Solemn and stirring.

| Jan 23, 2023