Roommates (dir. Chandler Levack)

by Jack Martin | Apr 17, 2026

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 107 mins

UK Distributor: Netflix

UK Release Date: 17 April 2026

WHO’S IN ROOMMATES?

Sadie Sandler, Chloe East, Aidan Langford, Sarah Sherman, Natasha Lyonne, Nick Kroll, Storm Reid, Billy Byrk, Ivy Wolk, Janeane Garofolo, Carol Kane, Josh Segarra, Bailee Madison, Martin Herlihy, Francesca Scorsese, Zahra Rock

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Chandler Levack (director), Jimmy Fowlie and Ceara O’Sullivan (writers), Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler (producers), Hays Holladay and Ryan Holladay (composers), Maria Rusche (cinematographer), Sydney Shircliff and Mary Vernieu (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A college freshman (S. Sandler) gets into a heated rivalry with her roommate (East)…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ROOMMATES?

Finally, after years of starring in and producing hordes of juvenile comedies through his production company Happy Madison, it appears that Adam Sandler is finally growing up. It’s not too surprising that he appears more than ready to move on from his usual schtick, especially with his more dramatic turns in Uncut Gems and Jay Kelly earning him greater recognition as an actor to take seriously. But by giving the next generation of Sandlers their time in the spotlight in coming-of-age films like You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah and now Roommates, he has effectively left Happy Madison in the capable hands of daughters Sunny and Sadie Sandler who, in a greater twist, have a much wiser and more mature screen presence than their own father in his heyday.

Sadie, in particular, proves to be a formidable comedic talent in director Chandler Levack’s film, in which she gains laughs not from the kind of crass and idiotic humour of Happy Madison movies past, but from the sheer relatability of navigating adolescent awkwardness in ways that can still make audiences care while still laughing along with their pain. Like her sister Sunny did in You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, Sadie leads Roommates with enough genuine charm and likeability to overcome some shaggy storytelling by screenwriters Jimmy Fowlie and Ceara O’Sullivan.

The writers open the movie with sparring college roommates Luna (Storm Reid) and Auguste (Ivy Wolk) being pulled aside by lecturer Dr. Schilling (Sarah Sherman), who becomes the narrator as she recounts to them a tale of far worse roommates from when she was a student. Her story begins with Devon (Sadie), a shy and socially awkward freshman who, in an eager attempt to secure friends after several failed attempts in high school, crosses paths with the far more confident and outgoing Celeste (Chloe East) and asks her to be her roommate after bonding with her during pre-college orientation. But soon after moving into halls together, Celeste begins displaying a much colder personality, armed to the gills with backhanded compliments that allow her to proudly show off her black belt in passive-aggression, quickly pushing Devon to her breaking point and forcing her to step up her game as her roommate’s behaviour becomes much crueller.

Unlike a lot of Happy Madison comedies, Roommates refrains from going too far over the top, which helps make the few outlandishly comedic moments land a lot harder. Fowlie and O’Sullivan’s script maintains a breezy tone where the humour comes far more naturally into the situation rather than being crowbarred in, allowing space for the main characters to feel like authentic people who aren’t perfect but still have their fair share of strong qualities that make it easier to root for or even against them. So, when things do take a turn into absurd comedic territory, including one running gag involving food deliverers in two separate time periods, the laughs feel more earned because you’re engaged with these characters and the world they live in to a point where it becomes easier to accept such overt silliness.

There are still one or two moments where it displays some of the usual Happy Madison nonsense, such as a frisbee being chucked at someone’s head or a Thanksgiving garden explosion or a climax that gets surprisingly destructive, but Levack keeps it all under control with firm and sometimes understated direction which highlights the heart of the story more than the mindless slapstick. Levack’s filmmaking is far from groundbreaking, for some of the cinematography can be blandly static while it could have used a slightly faster pace to keep things moving, though like the writers he clearly understands the importance of making these characters palatable and empathetic while still making the situations they’re in as humorous as they are identifiable. You’ll therefore have some rather sweet scenes between Devon and her younger brother Alex (Aidan Langford) between moments of Please Don’t Destroy’s Martin Herlihy getting high on mushrooms while wearing a Funyuns costume, yet rarely feel as though there’s a sense of tonal whiplash since it’s all in keeping with the same tone of this script.

As for Sadie, she comfortably carries the film with a warm and empathetic performance that brings to life a protagonist you can easily get behind, even when her Devon is stooping to the level of their adversary by engaging in an escalating war of pettiness. It’s also easy to buy how quickly someone like her can be caught under Celeste’s spell, as East exhumes an extortionate amount of charisma that makes it believable as to why a social wallflower like Devon would be drawn to her mere magnetism, as well as how devastating it feels to find she’s something else entirely. That said, the film falls short on overall motivation; it’s unclear as to what Celeste’s problem with Devon truly is, with any brief explanation being immediately picked apart through their many holes, and it just makes her seem like a villain for no real reason other than to fill that narrative gap.

This is one of many ways that the film can feel a bit loose in how it approaches this particular story, but Roommates just about gets away with it because, in contrast to many other Happy Madison movies in existence, it manages to be funny and endearing without feeling forced in either area. The Sandler legacy, as it turns out, is in good hands.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Roommates is a sweet and charming teen comedy that avoids usual Happy Madison pitfalls by emphasising the characters over the juvenile slapstick while giving Sadie Sandler a chance to shine in a likeable lead performance, though its shaggy storytelling can sometimes keep it from reaching its full potential.