OVERVIEW
Set over a single night in a remote house in upstate New York, Drag focuses on two very unlucky estranged sisters doing their first robbery together. Lizzy Caplan plays the older sister, who convinced the younger one, played by Lucy DeVito (yes, Danny DeVito’s daughter), to stay in the car looking out while she goes inside to rob a man she has a past connection with. She falls, throws out her back, forcing the younger sister to carry her out. Meanwhile, the homeowner (John Stamos) arrives, hours before he was supposed to.
BACKGROUND
Drag is the feature debut of both Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer, who decided to collaborate when their two individual projects stalled. Inspired by a friend who made a microbudget film during the pandemic, they wrote the script in a self-contained way so they could go ahead independently of the budget. Lucy DeVito was the first person they called, and after she said yes, her father, Danny, came on as producer, turning their small self-financed plan into the first independent feature from Jersey Films 2nd Avenue. They shot it over 21 nights in Albany in the winter, storyboarding every frame beforehand. It premiered at SXSW in March, played Fantasia in July, and opens in theaters early in 2027.
THE REVIEW
At 86 minutes, Drag has no business working as well as it does. It doesn’t offer great characters, the dialogue can be very rough, and for much of it to work, it requires you to buy into a lot of conveniences, coincidences, and character stupidity. Of course, the internet and the phone signal stop working exactly when the characters need them. Of course, they go back inside when the logical answer is to escape, call for help, and come back later. And of course the homeowner needs to go poo at precisely the right moment, giving the sisters a few minutes to plan their next steps.
Much of the film falls apart if you overthink it (like how one character has somehow never been caught for their crimes despite making a series of impulsive decisions that would easily point back to them). However, this doesn’t ruin the movie; in fact, Ullmann and Yagolnitzer excel at creating suspense, even with simple ideas. They storyboarded the entire film beforehand, and it pays off. New obstacles constantly emerge to keep the sisters’ simple goal out of reach, and the house itself becomes an antagonist with its stairs, carpets, and a floor with a concealed sharp object (you know where this is heading). The film shifts between comedy, thriller, and a darker tone, yet it’s all delightfully absurd fluff that’s very entertaining.
Their journey through that house has you holding your breath while the sisters almost get caught, then frustrated when a plan fails at the very last second. At each step you feel their pain and struggle, while never being entirely sure where things are heading. The film unfortunately avoids showing the older sister fall and throw her back, but Caplan nevertheless convincingly sells the injury throughout, even if we simply have to take her word for it. Things only get better once the homeowner returns, and later receives a guest, leading to even more close calls. The best one involves a search for duct tape, ending on a great, satisfying payoff.
John Stamos is appropriately menacing and has a lot of fun in the role. Caplan and DeVito share good sibling chemistry, the I hate you, but I also love you type. They have a few sweet moments but also some frustrating ones due to the director’s intent of avoiding any kind of convention, which robs a few emotional moments of their impact. While it is good to keep it unpredictable, there are multiple times that feel like the directors are trying too hard to subvert expectation for surprise’s sake, sacrificing a few character arcs on the way.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Drag is a simple and unpolished thriller that works despite itself. A lot of it does not make sense, and the characters can be annoying, yet the setpieces are so much fun, and the nail-biting scenes so many, that you largely forget the faults and go along with it. Ullman and Yagolnitzer will need better scripts in future movies, though with Drag, they prove a real talent for keeping everything dynamic and unpredictable. For an 86-minute thriller with such a straightforward premise, that is more than enough.