Roofman (Photo – Davi Russo/Paramount Pictures)
Reality, which some claim is stranger than fiction, shows its own strangeness in Roofman, a new film about a prison escapee who hides out in the attic of a Toys “R” Us store.
Roofman
Directed by Derek Cianfrance – 2025
Reviewed by Garrett Rowlan
The real-life individual, one Jeffrey Manchester, is an ex-military civilian who can’t find his niche despite his intelligence and powers of observation. Cash-strapped, he gives his daughter his old Erector set on her birthday when she wanted a bicycle. He robs a McDonalds and buys a bike with the proceeds. His robbery eventually lands him in prison where he escapes, which is the point where the movie really begins.
The cast is excellent. Kristen Dunst plays the divorcee with two daughters that the escapee meets at a church revival; Ben Mendelsohn (who’s played a few criminals himself) is the pastor; and Peter Dinklage plays the inflexible store manager under whose roof Manchester hides for months. LaKeith Stanfield is the old military buddy who knows who Manchester really is.
He is plays by Channing Tatum, the heartthrob who has aged into a reasonable facsimile of the real-life criminal. I never fully bought the film’s depiction of a nice guy who just happened to be a con, and there’s something both needy and faintly sleazy in Tatum’s excellent performance to anchor my suspicions.
Filmed in the South around Charlottesville, the movie is a variable parade of brand names, Red Lobster; McDonalds, Toys “R” Us, the M&M’s he steals from the store after hours to feed himself; and even an Elmo doll whose coy neediness sends Manchester into a rage. And there’s even a Blockbuster store, the go-to logo for movies time-stamped around the nineties.
An entertaining and even thoughtful portrait of a complex, flawed man.
> Playing at Regal Paseo, Regal Edwards Alhambra Renaissance, Landmark Pasadena Playhouse, AMC Santa Anita 16, LOOK Dine-In Cinemas Glendale, AMC The Americana at Brand 18.
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