You could certainly do way worse when it comes to straight-to-streaming teenage comedies than Happy Madison’s latest Netflix release Roommates, Sadie Sandler’s first turn as a starring actress in a feature film following smaller roles and cameos in a handful of her father Adam Sandler’s movies over the last few years. Both Sadie and Sunny Sandler have had their shots at Netflix projects in recent years, and the results, while still leaning into cameos and low-hanging jokes that I usually roll my eyes at in both Netflix and Happy Madison movies, have been rather promising.
In part because both Sadie and Sunny carry the strongarmed humor of their dad while understandably dispensing of the dumb-humored masculinity of Adam Sandler’s breakthrough hits like Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, Big Daddy, and the rest of that canon. Sunny’s movie in 2023, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, is the kind of teen comedy I don’t like about 90% of the time, but it picks its pocket in jokes at just the right moments and hits at a surprising clip. Roommates does about the same.
The film follows Devon (Sadie Sandler) through her freshman year of college, where she meets her new roommate Celeste (Chloe East), who befriends her before slowly making her life a living hell through gaslighting and using Devon’s idyllic family life against her. It’s a familiar setup, but the film earns its keep in the specifics of how it plays the friendship-turned-nightmare dynamic, largely because East is genuinely great and convincing in the role. Celeste is the kind of character you can’t quite pin down the motivations of, even when it’s obvious something is going on behind the curtain. It’s a more nuanced performance than this kind of movie usually asks for or receives.
It also helps that the supporting cast either gets worthy storylines and real screentime, or lands great jokes. Sarah Sherman, Martin Herlihy, Nick Kroll, Natasha Lyonne, and Billy Bryk all make do with what they’re given, and while the cameos still stick out the way they tend to in the Sandler family’s movies, they’re not nearly as self-serving or stale as they felt in Happy Gilmore 2 or even at times in Hustle.
I’m sure I’m grading this on something of a curve, because I never really venture to watch this kind of movie on Netflix given how low the batting average is. But there’s real juice to both of the Sandler daughters, and I think their movies are genuinely solid, even if they are kind of the same movie again and again. Teen and young adult drama that’s a bit formulaic, never too self-serious, fun in the moment and light on its feet. Roommates is no exception. The awkwardness and cringy humor comes and goes, and you’re almost always four steps ahead of where the story is heading. But there have been far worse uses of everyone’s talents involved here, and I can’t get too worked up about it.
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The film is directed by Chandler Levack, who made the sublimely introspective I Like Movies and has another film out this year, Mile End Kicks, that garnered quite a bit of critical acclaim following its TIFF debut. She’s on a winning streak, and her sensibility is a good match for material like this. She knows when to let a joke breathe and when to keep the pace moving so that the film never gets too bogged down in its own formula. The ending in particular nails the sort of carefree tone that Roommates rightfully has throughout, sending you out the door in exactly the right mood for what the movie was always trying to be.
Not the most mind-spinning thing ever. But a good time.
Score: 6/10
Roommates (2026)
- 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, Megan Thee Stallion, Steve Buscemi
- Director: Chandler Levack
- Genre: Comedy
- Runtime: 108 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: April 17, 2026
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