BRB
A sister road trip to meet an internet crush. February 2026. 93 minutes. Two performances that actually land.
What you need to know before hitting play
BRB is a coming-of-age road trip about Sam, a 15-year-old who's been typing her life into AOL chatrooms, chasing a boy named Eric she's never met. When her parents leave for a cruise, her older sister Dylan—in that impulsive move only siblings make—decides they're driving from Illinois to find him. No map. No guarantee he's real. No adults around.
What actually happens over those 93 minutes isn't about Eric at all. It's about two sisters remembering how to exist in the same space, set against the specific loneliness of being a girl on the dial-up internet in the early 2000s. The film premiered at Slamdance on February 20, 2026—not the side circuit, the main lineup—which meant it arrived with real momentum for an indie title.
Here's what matters: if you watched Eighth Grade or PEN15 and thought "there's a specific way young girls actually talk and move and hide"—this hits that same nerve.
The cast carrying the film
Autumn Best plays Sam, and she doesn't announce herself. She's got a hand disability that the script treats as just part of who she is, not a plot point to milk for tension. She escapes into her camcorder the way quiet kids escape into whatever makes the world manageable. There's a scene early on where she's filming Dylan from the backseat of the car—not saying anything, just watching—and it tells you everything about how Sam processes the world.
Zoe Colletti plays Dylan. She's built a solid indie filmography flying under the radar, and she matches Best scene for scene. Dylan could've been the reckless-older-sister cliché—easy trap. Instead, Colletti finds the specific worry underneath the recklessness. The chemistry between them is what the film actually is.
Supporting cast includes Richard David, Dan Holler, Beth Lacke, and Keith Kupferer, each adding texture to the road trip's various disasters. The thing that strikes me is how much the film trusts its leads to carry weight without plot mechanics doing the heavy lifting—no manufactured conflict, no manufactured tension.
Directors, writers, and where it premiered
Kate Cobb directed, with Sydney Blackburn and Michael Waller writing. It's a production of In the Rye Productions and Chicago Media Angels, with Kevin Bigley producing. The Slamdance premiere in Park City on February 20, 2026 matters because Slamdance, unlike the marketplace sidebars, actually runs genuine scrappy independent work—and getting into the main festival lineup is harder than it sounds.
Film Threat called it "the rare coming-of-age film that is both fun and realistic," which means something when a publication reviews hundreds of festival titles a year. Early Letterboxd reactions from Slamdance audiences have been warm—recurring praise for the chemistry and the film's refusal to treat the internet-crush premise as either a cautionary tale or a punchline.
Critics are calling it a "love letter to early internet girlhood," and that's not wrong. But it undersells how grounded the thing actually feels. The AOL-era setting gives the story specific texture: Sam's relationship with Eric exists entirely in text, that intensity mixed with fragility, the way those connections felt more real than anything happening in her actual life. The film understands that.
Where to watch BRB right now
As of now, BRB is still circulating the festival circuit — it's appeared at Revelation Perth International Film Festival and continues to play at regional festivals. Wide theatrical release hasn't been announced, and streaming availability is limited while the film makes the rounds.
Movie OTT tracks where independent titles land once distribution gets locked in. When BRB does move to streaming platforms like Netflix or Prime Video, Movie OTT's where-to-watch widget will update in real time—festival titles like this one typically find a home relatively fast after a strong debut. Check back in the coming weeks. If you're in a city with independent cinemas or a festival venue, though, that's your best bet right now to actually see it on a screen.
Should you watch it?
Yeah. Especially if you grew up typing feelings into a screen and wondering if the person on the other end was real. If you've seen Eighth Grade and wanted more of that specificity. If you trust small, honest independent films that don't mistake sentimentality for emotion.
It's not perfect. But it's real.
Hard to say what happens next with distribution—depends on whether a major platform wants to take a swing. But Slamdance's main lineup play gives it the kind of word-of-mouth that sustains a long festival run. Keep an eye on Movie OTT for streaming updates, and if you catch wind of a festival screening near you, go. Ninety-three minutes is nothing. Worth it.
