SXSW Dark Comedy Heist Film ‘Drag’ Finds its Home at Briarcliff

In an exclusive from Deadline, Briarcliff Entertainment has acquired the domestic distribution rights to Greg Yagolnitzer and Raviv Ullman’s Drag, the thriller comedy that premiered at the 2026 SXSW festival. It stars Lizzy Caplan, Lucy DeVito, John Stamos, and Christine Ko. Briarcliff CEO Tom Ortenberg has set sights on a fall theatrical release.

“There’s no better way to experience the unhinged mayhem of Drag than in a theater, and we have to thank our incredible cast, crew, Jersey Films 2nd Ave., and Briarcliff for making a couple of filmmakers’ very darkly comedic dream come to life,” said directors Ullman and Yagolnitzer, who wrote and directed this film together. It is their feature debut.

Ortenberg called Drag “a brilliantly original film that’s suspenseful, hilarious, and completely unpredictable. The cast led by Lizzy, Lucy, John, and Christine are the magic that makes the concept work. Audiences are in for a huge treat.”

The film follows two estranged sisters (DeVito and Caplan) who attempt to rob a secluded home in rural upstate New York. However, what begins as a simple heist spirals into a nightmare after one sister throws out her back on the second floor of the home. What ensues is a frantic race for the sisters to escape before the homeowner returns.

Drag was, undoubtedly, one of the most underrated gems from this year’s SXSW. It was my highest-reviewed film from the festival, but also the one that I made sure not to discuss in detail. The film best relies on its twist, and spoiling it would be a disservice to everybody who has not seen it yet.

If you love familial conflict, then Drag is your movie

With a very small cast, Caplan and DeVito have only themselves to rely on in most of the scenes. Their chemistry works in building out the fraught relationship between the two sisters, often being the thing that props up the scene itself. Drag is a story about how the bonds that bind us can also be our downfall. Its series of misfortunes are all easily avoidable–if only the sisters had communicated better.

For a time, I was worried Drag would not get a theatrical release. Ullman and Yagolnitzer have penned something truly uniquely painful and chaotic, and it isn’t something that you’d expect to see at your local AMC. It seems, though, that with the success of horror films like Obsession and Hokum that maybe there are more of us than we think.

See Drag this fall when it hits theaters. And make sure you don’t spoil yourself before then.

(Featured image: Briarcliff)

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