Title: Roommates
Actors: Sadie Sandler, Chloe East, Aidan Langford
Director: Chandler Levack
Writers: Jimmy Fowlie, Ceara O’Sullivan
Producers: Tim Herlihy, Adam Sandler
Genre: Comedy
Length: 1 hour and 47 minutes
My Rating: ❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤
Roommates
Devon has just graduated and is about to start college. She’s hopeful about this new chapter; maybe now she can finally make real friends. Devon has never felt like she truly belonged in a friend group, and she hopes that will change.
At an introduction event to meet other students, she tries really hard to make a new friend, but people think she’s a bit weird. Then she meets Celeste, and they have a good time together. They even decide to become roommates.
But the friendship Devon imagined turns out to be nothing as she expected; it slowly turns into a war of passive aggression.
Review
I’m not even sure how to start this review. I was just bored and wanted to watch a movie, so I picked this one. I had zero expectations, although the trailer looked decent. But I ended up having a lot to say about it.
Let’s start with the positives. I think Roommates definitely had potential. I didn’t hate it, and some of the actors were good. The actress who plays Celeste did a solid job. I mean, the character is terrible, but she portrayed that really well.
However, Celeste isn’t the only main character; there’s also Devon. She’s the shy, “weird” girl who has never really had friends, which was somewhat relatable. But I felt like Sadie Sandler (who plays Devon) was missing something. At first, her facial expressions felt a bit off, like she was in pain or something and for the rest of the movie, her performance was just… meh. I think what was missing was charisma.
And that brings me to my next point. I’m okay with a “nepo baby” if they can actually act, but right now, I’m not convinced Sadie Sandler is a strong actress. Especially when you realize that her father, Adam Sandler, produced this movie, it kind of feels like this project exists because she wants to act, and he’s helping her. That said, I hope she proves me wrong. I usually give actors (and authors) several chances before I completely give up on them. Maybe it was the wrong movie or she just needs a little bit more experience.
Devon also develops a romantic interest in her TA, Michael, but there’s basically zero chemistry between them. Honestly, it felt like she had more chemistry with her brother than with Michael.
Now, about the story. According to IMDb, this is supposed to be a comedy… but where? I didn’t laugh once. I would describe it more as a coming-of-age story. The delivery robots felt completely pointless, and overall, the execution could have been much better.
The movie also has a “story within a story” structure. It follows two roommates who are constantly fighting, while Dr. Schilling tells them a story about Devon and Celeste. In my opinion, it would have been stronger if they had removed that outer storyline entirely. It didn’t add much and just felt unnecessary.
So overall, I’m not the biggest fan of this movie. I’m giving it a 2.5 out of 5. I still think it had a lot of potential, but lately it feels like many movies have great ideas and very poor execution.
I would recommend skipping this one; it was pretty forgettable.