What do you do when you’re a teenager strapped for cash without a real parental figure in your life? Rob a train of course. At least that’s the premise of Deidra & Laney Rob A Train, which is set to have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend before debuting on Netflix in March. Written by Shelby Farrell and directed by Sydney Freeland (Drunktown’s Finest), the film stars Riverdale’s Ashleigh Murray and former X Factor singer Rachel Crow as two teenage sisters who have to fend for themselves after their single mom has an emotional meltdown in an electronics store and winds up in jail.
Despite its train-robbing premise, the film is set in modern day, and it’s got a bit of a Raising Arizona meets Dope vibe. Tim Blake Nelson plays the Pacific Railroad investigator who gets wind of the sisters’ impressively professional operation and tries to track down the “criminal syndicate” he believes must be responsible. Elsewhere, Missi Pyle and SNL’s Sasheer Zamata play teachers at the girls’ school who have no idea that they’re educating two teenage criminal masterminds.
Deidra & Laney Rob A Train pulls into the Netflix station on March 17.