“The new Netflix comedy”roommates” wastes no time before immersing the audience in the drama of campus cohabitation. We see a girl running across the quad before helplessly looking up to see her angry roommate throwing her underwear and used sanitary products out the window. A shouting match ensues, and we immediately wonder how they got here and how the dispute will be resolved.
Except they’re not the eponymous roommates we’re supposed to care about. Chandler Levack it’s new movie is structured like a Russian doll of roommate stories, as the two girls confront a guidance counselor who decides to tell them other Story of freshman roommates who didn’t get along at first. Aside from the occasional “How I Met Your Mother”-style reaction cut, that’s the last we see of those initial enemies.
The real story is about Devon (Sadie Sandler), a soon-to-be freshman who is going through the universal experience of hoping everything fits together for her in college after failing to find the right friends in middle and high school. She’s cautiously optimistic when Celeste (Chloe East) agrees to be her roommate after a chance encounter at orientation, hoping the party-loving free spirit will help break her out of her shell and separate her from the nerdy image she maintained in high school.
But Devon has to quickly learn the lesson that affects many of us sitcom and rom-com enthusiasts in early adulthood: The notion that opposites attract is complete nonsense, and trying to merge your everyday life with someone dramatically different is way more trouble than it’s worth. The two girls instantly clash, and Celeste remains a constant thorn in Devon’s side as she tries to navigate all the familiar first-year story beats (parties, boys, missed assignments, Thanksgiving, etc.).
Levack, a promising independent filmmaker with credits such as “I like movies” and “Kicks at the end of the mile” To his name, he does a useful job in what is clearly a director-for-hire job. There’s a lot of visual wiggle room when working with Netflix’s familiar sitcom aesthetic, but she gets distinct and compelling performances from her two leads, executing the “Odd Couple” gimmick without descending into caricature. Jimmie Fowlie and Ceara O’Sullivan’s script builds on formulaic coming-of-age beats before veering unexpectedly into absurdity in the third act. The film would have been stronger and more consistent if it had adopted that stranger tone from the beginning, but we’ll take what we can get.
While “Roommates” features many familiar faces in supporting roles of varying importance (Nick Kroll runs through all the “liberal dad” clichés, while Natasha Lyonne appears as Devon’s endlessly supportive mother in a role that makes little use of her myriad talents), it is primarily a star vehicle for its two leads. The film was produced through Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production label, and it’s fair to assume it exists to showcase Sadie’s talent as a performer. (Fittingly, parts of the movie deal with the idea that being a nepo baby isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.) The young actress demonstrates a wide range of comedic and light dramatic chops, suggesting she could be just as successful playing accessible, everyday women as her father.
While the comedy is hit or miss, “Roommates” does its best work when showing how discouraging teenage friendships can be. Anyone who has ever defined themselves by an arbitrary social order designed by the cruelest and stupidest people on the planet (i.e., anyone who has ever been a freshman in college) should be able to relate to some of Devon’s struggles, and the film treats his struggles with an admirable amount of empathy.
The film won’t be remembered as a college classic, or even in the top half of college movies, but it’s also not hard to see a world where someone sees it at exactly the right time in their lives and cherishes it forever. “Roommates” has a real chance of being a formative experience for someone, which is more than many films can say. But those of us who have already been sufficiently trained? We can find better things to stream this weekend.
Grade: C+
“Roommates” is now streaming on Netflix.
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