Roofman
Derek Cianfrance, the writer-director behind Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines, returns from his long-standing directorial hiatus with Roofman: a riotous, laugh-out-loud but undeniably human comedy of errors that follows the true-crime actions of the notorious North Carolina “Roofman”.
Based upon the larger-than-life but unbelievably true story of “the Roofman” Jeffrey Manchester, a charismatic, loving but discontented Afghan war veteran who commits absurd crimes to provide the unessentials for his family by robbing over 40 McDonald’s restaurants to cover the costs of flatscreen TVs and birthday Piñatas. Jeffrey, played by a never-better Channing Tatum in a career-defining performance, is a father of three and husband to an understandably ready-to-pack-her-bags wife. He likes to define himself as a “nice guy” but struggles to look beyond the reach of his actions towards the inevitable end result that he so often fails to see coming – in Jeffrey’s words, “It’s about trying your best, right?”
Soon the law catches up with him. Sentenced to 45 years for armed robbery, Jeffrey is shipped off to state prison where, relying on his “superpower”, an innate ability to see things others cannot, which made him an effective soldier and fast-food chain burglar, he soon escapes and hides out in a branch of Toys R Us where he sets up camp in an alcove behind the bike display and he spies on the stores employees using stolen baby monitors. In this purgatory of sorts, stuck between one slip-up from returning to prison and hovering just outside of the lives of the stores employees, he begins to fall for Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), a religious single mother with whom Jeffrey can’t help but begin to form a romantic relationship (under the alias “John Zorin”) and adopt a role as the surrogate father of her two daughters.
Tatum excels in this role as the goofy yet surprisingly capable Manchester, who is so often at odds with who he wants to be. The same could be said for the film itself: it’s equal parts crime drama, family drama, romantic comedy, all the while staying true to its source material – it’s here that its humour and overt lightness occasionally come at odds with its violent subject matter. Bolstered by a cast that includes LaKeith Stanfield, Place Beyond the Pines alumni Ben Mendehlson and Emory Cohen, and a note-perfect Peter Dinklage who provides the role of the suitably jobsworth store manager “Mitch”, at its best Roofman is defined by its chemistry between its leads Tatum and Dunst who propel us through fleeting but powerful romance through to catastrophic but not-unexpected tragedy as things begin to excel in the final act where, in a moment of inescapable realisation, the two share a powerful yet feeling look in the midst of a violent crime that is utterly heartbreaking and world-shattering for Leigh and Jeffrey.
A heartwarming tale of a loving but ultimately manipulative criminal, Roofman is a feature film you would expect from a director such as Sean Baker (Anora), with its charming oddball lead and themes of life lived on the fringes of society, rather than Cianfrance, a filmmaker whose oeuvre lies on the darker, self-aware and serious side of filmmaking. But underneath its comedic veneer is a work that is undoubtedly Cianfrance: a family drama at its core that explores struggling fathers, broken families and the misguided actions that can emerge in the alchemy of desperation, fragile egos and the human need to love and be loved.
Ronan Fawsitt
Roofman is released on 17th October 2025.
Read more reviews from our London Film Festival coverage here.
For further information about the event visit the London Film Festival website here.
Watch the trailer for Roofman here:
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