Director: Chandler Levack
Writers: Jimmy Fowlie, Ceara O’Sullivan
Stars: Sadie Sandler, Chloe East, Aidan Langford
Synopsis: When a hopeful, naive college freshman, Devon, asks the cool and confident Celeste to be her roommate, a blossoming friendship spirals into a war of passive aggression.
If you want to say one thing about Adam Sandler, it’s that when he finds projects for his talented daughters, he produces films that are warm, touching, and always funny—yet also honest and refreshing. The new Netflix film Roommates captures youthful exuberance alongside quirky adult characters who selflessly try to guide the next generation toward making mature, positive decisions.
However, amid all those playfully immature antics, goofy, off-the-wall bits, and oddly charming juvenile humor, a film like Roommates always circles back to what matters most in life—family, connection, and finding your place in the world. Except, inexplicably by the end of the third act, the film takes a turn for the irreverent, sophomoric, and suddenly has a cold heart.
The story follows Devon (You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah’s Sadie Sandler, wonderful here), a girl so unpopular in high school that she has never had a best friend. That prospect is so sad you immediately feel for her, especially when her little brother, Alex (1985’s Aidan Langford), tells her she does have a best friend in him. Yes, cue the Charlie Brown melancholic piano music, and you literally feel your heartstrings being pulled.
Devon is sweet, though, a contrast to a girl she meets during her pre-freshman college orientation, Celeste (A Big Bold Beautiful Journey’s Chloe East). She is a free spirit who lives life on her own terms but is also looking for her own ride-or-die. Devon immediately asks her to be her roommate, a yin to her yang. Devon is so worried about her budding friendship that she won’t let her parents (Nick Kroll and Natasha Lyonne) drop her off at school.
Devon and Celeste form a squad with two girls across the hall (Bella Murphy and Jaya Harper, very funny here). Celeste brings Devon out of her comfort zone, pushing her to a party where she meets a fellow architecture major, Michael (Billy Bryk), who is, for some reason, cooking a bunch of papaya in the middle of a raging kegger (a very 90s “house party,” for you Gen Zers). However, for all the good Celeste does for Devon, she violates boundaries like an Olympian.
That’s where the script from Jimmy Fowlie (English Teacher) and Ceara O’Sullivan (Saturday Night Live) begins to shine. The comedic tension builds while also revealing an incredible amount of heart. That’s a tricky high-wire act to accomplish. Director Chandler Levack (Mile End Kicks) brings out the best in the young performers, balancing comic timing and vulnerability in a way that gives you all the feels before you know it’s coming.
Roommates follows a Gen Z take on a classic comedy structure we have seen in hundreds of films before, from The Odd Couple, What About Bob?, and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Of course, the Netflix film does not come close to those classics, but staying power is always up to the audience. Roommates puts a modern, youthful spin on the “opposites collide” formula, blending it with an irreverent coming-of-age comedy that mostly works.
Other moments, however, seem to falter or come across as filler. The use of a narrator feels unnecessary, even though it comes from the uber-funny and talented Sarah Sherman, who plays Dr. Schilling. The return of Janeane Garofalo is a welcome addition; she plays a mentor to Devon. Funny, sharp, and biting; she brings more mature laughs, a welcome juxtaposition to Happy Madison’s sophomoric brand of humor.
Yet, it all comes falling apart in the film’s last ten minutes. Roommates was never a kitchen sink comedy, throwing too much at your streaming screen to be taken seriously, until the very end, going from well-controlled, structured, and brimming with a healthy dose of resonant heart to unapologetic, ill-advised, and then falls flat into a comedy deadspot where the moment was screaming for a familial scene about kindness that ties it all together.
While Sadie Sandler is funny and pitch-perfect as a young, awkward woman trying to find herself. She stands out beneath all that raucous, unapologetic humor lies in a film that, for most of the film, strikes a sweet spot between chaos and sincerity. Unfortunately, a lack of awareness from the creative team behind Roommates lost their way.
You can stream Roommates exclusively on Netflix starting April 16th!
