SPOILER-FREE PLOT SUMMARY
When socially-awkward high school senior Devon (played by Sadie Sandler) graduates, she’s eager to get to college so she can start fresh. The naive teenager is desperate for a best friend that’s not her younger brother Alex (Aidan Langford) and figures Walton University will provide a big pool of classmates to chose from. Before she actually gets to Walton, however, she attends an incoming freshmen camp where she meets the free-spirited Celeste (Chloe East). In deep admiration for her carefree attitude — and just thrilled that she’s giving her the time of day — Devon gets up the courage to ask her if she wants to room together on campus. The two agree and Devon’s plan is working much faster than she thought! But, when the two young women move into their dorm together, liberties start to be taken, things start to go missing and very little consideration is being given. Determined to make it work, Devon allows Chloe to take advantage of her — going so far as even doing her homework — before the enabler has finally had enough.
SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Directed by Chandler Levack, this is a welcome return to the 90’s comedy era where writers would duct tape a fun idea together and rely on situations and throw-away lines to produce an enjoyable story. Luckily, ROOMMATES has more than just laughs. You feel for Devon’s emotional search, you feel for Alex’s privacy and you feel for Celeste’s journey. Anytime you can combine those two elements, it’s a recipe for success.
Performance-wise, we know from projects like GENERA+ION and the criminally underrated HERETIC that East has serious chops. It’s easy to get “lost in the shadow” playing alongside an actor of that caliber but Sandler holds her own, doing everything the role of Sadie calls for.
The majority of the humor comes from one-liners by supporting characters. Sure, the two leads have material to work with but when Gigi (Carol Kane) gets blown up, Alex declares chivalry isn’t dead or Brian (Nick Kroll) tries to relate to his daughter, hilarity ensues. And then there are the nameless characters who get their moment, reminiscent of the the golf course hecklers in HAPPY GILMORE or the klepto kid in CAN’T HARDLY WAIT. They take up just enough screen time to deliver a punchline or a zinger and then, boom, they’re gone. As funny as those moments are, that tactic can feel cheap. Almost like somebody went through the finished edit and said “We need a joke here and here and then here.” For better or worse, ROOMMATES has a healthy dose of that ingredient in its formula.
While we here at Untitled typically lobby for movies to go into theaters first, ROOMMATES is a great example of one that doesn’t need to. This is perfect for streaming and should get a lot of play on that platform. Is it going to change the world? No. But Netflix has a comedy-for-comedy’s-sake movie on it’s hands that’s relatable and will be played in every college dorm room from coast to coast for years to come. Throw in the coming-of-age messaging and Netflix has a winner.
JKG SCORE: 6.5
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