Roofman (dir. Derek Cianfrance)

by Jack Martin | Oct 17, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 126 mins

UK Distributor: Paramount Pictures

UK Release Date: 17 October 2025

WHO’S IN ROOFMAN?

Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, LaKeith Stanfield, Peter Dinklage, Ben Mendelsohn, Uzo Aduba, Juno Temple, Emory Cohen, Melonie Diaz, Molly Price, Lily Collias, Tony Revolori, Jimmy O. Yang

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Derek Cianfrance (director, writer), Kirt Gunn (writer), Lynette Howell Taylor, Duncan Montgomery, Alex Orlovsky, Chris Parker, Jamie Patricof and Dylan Sellers (producers), Christopher Bear (composer), Andrij Parekh (cinematographer), Jim Helton and Ron Patane (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

An escaped criminal (Tatum) hides out in a Toys “R” Us store…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ROOFMAN?

When we first see the words “based on a true story” before any movie that’s based on said true story, it boggles the mind that such weird things could actually happen in real life. That feeling is very much warranted with Roofman, a story about a convicted criminal whose exploits sound like they were made up by an overly creative screenwriter that’s tripping on some form of psychedelic substance, and yet they not only really happened (most of them, anyway) but unfolded in a truly madcap way that almost makes it seem that a movie inspired by it all was inevitable.

But while director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance certainly leans into the absurdity of these events and persons, often scoring big crowd-pleasing laughs out of the utter madness that unfolds (making this the filmmaker’s funniest film to date), he also taps into unexpected emotions that heighten the oft-overlooked dramatic aspects of the story. Much like Cianfrance’s much heavier dramas Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines, Roofman taps into the deep fragility of a society that easily discards what it deems to be trash despite its numerous treasures that are, often in response to dire situations, put to ill-advised use.

Although, neither Blue Valentine nor The Place Beyond the Pines can claim to kick things off with a scene where our anti-hero, Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), breaks in through the roof of a 2004-era McDonald’s during the opening hours and forces the arriving workers into the freezer while he takes everything in the cash register. As we quickly learn, this is just one of 45 McDonald’s locations that army veteran Manchester has successfully broken into and robbed, all to provide for his estranged family when he finds himself unable to bring in enough to support them. Naturally, he’s soon arrested and sentenced to multiple years in prison, but Manchester works out a way to escape and, newly on the run, takes shelter in a Toys “R” Us store where he hides in plain sight during the day and, after figuring out how to disable the security cameras, parties it up at night with his cuddly toy roommates. After a while, he even becomes a member of the local community, striking up a relationship with single mother Leigh (Kirsten Dunst) who also happens to work at the same Toys “R” Us, and stepping up as a father figure to her two daughters, until his double life begins to creep back up on him.

As stated previously, all of these things – and more that there simply isn’t enough room to mention here – did apparently happen in reality, a fact that Cianfrance is having fun with in a film that presents the outlandishness exactly as it is without coming off as irritatingly self-aware. Instead, his and Kirt Gunn’s script keeps finding ways to show just how contradictory a person Jeffrey Manchester can be: exceptionally intelligent, particularly when identifying certain routines that he can use to his advantage, yet far from tactful as his criminal impulsions only create more chaos and damage for himself and those around him. Sometimes it’s played for laughs, such as when he’s dangerously test-driving a new car for Leigh’s moody teenage daughter, but often it shows that for all his blatant smarts, he’s not quite as smart as he perhaps believes himself to be, at least when it comes to making rational spontaneous decisions.

Despite that, you still really, really like this guy. Only an actor like Channing Tatum, who can be exceptionally charming and at the same time profoundly hilarious when playing an utter dunderhead (the Jump Street movies are a perfect example of this), could play a role like Jeffrey Manchester, and this is one of the actor’s best performances in recent years as he nails Manchester’s charisma as well as his almost child-like fascination with how the world around him is a system he can use his skillset to exploit. He has very good chemistry with Dunst, herself a delightful on-screen presence, and develops some form of endearing connection with just about everyone he acts opposite, antagonistic or otherwise, including Peter Dinklage as a despicable Scrooge of a boss who bullies his plus-size employees and denies others some reasonable time off.

Rather than treating this character and his stranger-than-fiction journey as a joke, Cianfrance also takes great care to show the dramatic personal stakes in ways that recall his far less funny earlier work. In tender emotional moments where you can practically feel the loneliness crawling all over Jeffrey’s skin, the filmmaker slows down to show his lingering sense of isolation and despair, particularly when it dawns on him that the people he cares most for are going to be the ones who suffer the most because of his actions, like his young daughter who’s set to grow up without her biological father, and Leigh who along with her own family is at risk of persecution for her mere association with him. Though sometimes such moments can pad out the film a little longer than it perhaps needs to be, they help balance out a tone that could have been played much more as a straightforward comedy, but is wisely given more depth that makes it more engaging in addition to being more entertaining.

When it comes to movies based on actual events, particularly ones that are as bonkers as that of Jeffrey Manchester, Roofman is a delight that gives more than you could bargain for while also being as endlessly entertaining as its unlikely protagonist.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Roofman is a delightfully entertaining film that charts the stranger-than-fiction true story of a convicted criminal, played by an endlessly likeable Channing Tatum, in an appropriately humorous but also unexpectedly emotional storytelling style.