Roommates
Two college freshmen from different backgrounds struggle to muddle along in a crude and routine sitcom.
Human zoo: Sadie Sandler and Billy Bryk
Courtesy of Netflix.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
It’s no coincidence that Sadie Sandler’s previous movie credits, all twenty-three of them, were either produced by or featured Adam Sandler. He is her father. And now Adam Sandler’s production company, Happy Madison Productions, launches her solo starring career. Good luck to her. She is by no means the worst thing in this terrible movie. There is a strong whiff of the Sandleresque about it (Adam Sandler is the producer), in so much that every character is a foul-mouthed grotesque barfing out his or her dialogue, rather than thinking of what they’re saying on the spot. And if the line fails to land, there is always the reliable cut to a reaction shot to push the moment home. Sandler and his Happy gang obviously have a following, which might explain his massive $275 million contract with Netflix (for four movies). But there’s also a slapdash, mechanical air to these comedies, films that seem to believe the cruder they are the funnier.
Sadie Sandler plays Devon Weisz, a teenage female facsimile of her father, the odd one out in a world of high achievers. She is apparently friendless and confides in her brother Alex (Aidan Langford) over a joint: “I’m about to go to college, and I’ve never had a best friend.” On the whole, Alex seems like quite an insightful kid, so it seems odd that his sister has to explain this to him. But, of course, Devon is explaining it to us. “I just really want, like, a best friend, you know?” Before she becomes a freshman at Walton Uni, Devon is enrolled in an orienteering course as a kind of bonding exercise before her real studies begin.
It’s not a good fit, as Devon proves to be as dyspraxic as she is inhibited and insecure. Nonetheless, another new girl, Celeste Durand (Chloe East, from Heretic), takes a shine to her and agrees to be Devon’s roommate at Walton. Celeste is the polar opposite of Devon, being confident, outgoing, tactile, gregarious, athletic, slim and pretty, who seems to get on in life because, in her own words, “I don’t give a fuck.” Thereby hangs a tale. Of course, Devon cannot believe her luck in that she’s landed the hottest roommate in college along with the only room on campus with its own bathroom. Suddenly, she’s in the eye of the in-crowd. What could go wrong?
For viewers who like their guffaws served up for them in pre-packaged processed dishes, this celluloid effluence might past muster on a drunken Saturday night. But there is an abhorrent cruelty beneath the humour that might have worked better in a horror film. And yet Ryan and Hays Holladay’s enthusiastic score is at pains to remind us that this is a college comedy in the tradition of National Lampoon’s Animal House and its string of pale imitators – with all the bad behaviour, drug taking, practical jokes and vomiting you could possibly want. The two female leads are by no means bad, leaving the worst gurning to the supporting cast, although Aidan Langford as Devon’s younger brother shows the most promise as a real actor.
Cast: Sadie Sandler, Chloe East, Billy Bryk, Sarah Sherman, Martin Herlihy, Josh Segarra, Carol Kane, Natasha Lyonne, Nick Kroll, Janeane Garofalo, Aidan Langford, Bella Murphy, Jaya Harper, Storm Reid, Ivy Wolk, Bailee Madison, Steve Buscemi.
Dir Chandler Levack, Pro Adam Sandler, Tim Herlihy and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Screenplay Jimmy Fowlie and Ceara O'Sullivan, Ph Maria Rusche, Pro Des Perry Andelin Blake, Ed Tom Costain and Brian Robinson, Music Ryan Holladay and Hays Holladay, Costumes Sarah Mae Burton, Acting coach Noëlle Gentile.
Happy Madison Productions/Range Media Partners-Netflix.
107 mins. USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 17 April 2026. Cert. 15.
