Review: Roofman

Posted by: Andrew Lizotte  •  October 12, 2025 @ 7:26pm

Filed under: Reviews

Roofman is my favorite thing that I've gotten to review in a long time. No disrespect to the film industry, but the last 10 years have been pretty heavy on watching franchise material. Things that are heavy on IP and have catchphrases; movies where the main character at some point says the title of the film.

That said, Roofman does say "Roofman" a lot, but it's based on a true story of a guy whose criminal name was "Roofman". At a certain point, what are you gonna do? I'm fine with it.

Please go see this movie. This is a movie that should be seen and deserves more attention than it's probably going to get. That's because it's actually about grounded relationships and not a big budget. That's not a dig at the film. It didn't need a bigger budget to be a good film, because this is such a solid script, based on an already crazy true story.

When I say grounded, that is not code for boring. Roofman literally has almost everything in it. This is a heist movie. It's an escape thriller. It has John Hughes-style comedy in it. It's one of the best rom-coms I've seen in a long time. It's about second chances and raising a family.

The story is very relevant to right now, without being preachy or political. Good scripts usually make great dinner conversation, and it has the classic, "What would you do for a second chance in an impossible situation?" It also pulls off another of my favourite things, in that there are no bad guys in this story. Everyone is just trying to survive and be loved. It even has Christians that actually act like Christians!

What I'm trying to say is that this film cracked open my cold dead heart. It could have done the safe thing and played into any of the many relevant genres to be a fun popcorn movie, but instead it's honest. The stakes and the outcomes are real. Nothing is overdone or over the top. It makes you face the reality of the hard things but also fills you with hope and gratitude for kind people.

Since the story is so good, there is no need to overact. With clear stakes, the actors just need to respond sincerely. This results in an amazing ensemble performance. Genuinely no one stands out in the best way, because they're all so in it with their scene partners. This is another way you can tell the script is so good, because all the side parts are respected character actors who clearly took a pay cut to be in this production.

In closing, I wanna give 3 special shout outs.

Every side character's arch gets wrapped up nicely in a way that doesn't feel rushed at all. This movie has a lot of balls in the air and still manages a runtime of 2 hours. That's really hard. That would be hard if it were only a basic rom-com.
This works as a great thriller. It has so many tense misdirects. I genuinely had no idea how this story was going to end.
It's my favorite Channing Tatum performance. The character is described as an amazing thief but a terrible criminal. He nails it. He is somehow a genius and a naive everyman that believes the best in people. That's really hard to pull off you guys!

Please go see Roofman so I can take a break from talking about catchphrase machines in 3D. I'm begging you.

Tags: Roofman, Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Lakeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Peter Dinklage, Derek Cianfrance, thriller, romantic comedy, true story

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