It feels really special when some of your favorite actors go from playing teenagers to parents. It’s one of the few signs that I embrace about getting older.
Take, for example, filmmaker Chandler Levack’s upcoming “Roommates” from Netflix — in which Nick Kroll and Natasha Lyonne play the parents of the movie’s heroine, Sadie Sandler’s Devon. I personally can’t think of a better movie mom and dad duo (or really, a real life parenting duo, just imagine growing up in a house with these two Jewish geniuses!). Although I suppose, in Sadie’s case, having Adam Sandler and Jackie Sandler as a parents is just as incredible.
The movie’s trailer was released this week, and it’s all about Devon’s college journey and her relationship with her roommate, Celeste (Chloe East), which starts out (somewhat toxically) loving and ends up with major drama — possibly because Celeste gave Devon’s younger brother MDMA.
Kroll’s Brian hands Devon a credit card for “emergencies,” clarifying that “booze is not an emergency; neither are edibles,” while her mom, Lyonne’s Hannah, tries to abate her anxiety about college with a loving, “Honey, you’re spiraling. It’s going to be amazing, you’ll see.”
Again, these two seem like pretty great parents.
And if that wasn’t enough, it appears that Devon’s grandmother is played by none other than Carol Kane. We’re not 100% sure if this is true, but her character is named Gigi, and these two Jewish acting mavens were basically meant to play a mother/daughter duo — with their unique voices, indie sensibilities and scene-stealing wavy hair. It honestly feels very plausible that they are, in some way, distantly related (paging Henry Louis Gates Jr. for confirmation!).
The magnetic duo previously acted together in Lyonne’s excellent “Poker Face,” where Carol Kane plays Lucille Lubinski, the owner of a fictional minor league baseball stadium called Velvety Canned Cheese Park. (If this sentence doesn’t make you want to watch “Poker Face,” I don’t know what will!)
Sandler, Lyonne, Kroll and Kane aren’t the only famous Jewish actors in this upcoming movie. “Saturday Night Live” star Sarah Sherman plays Devon’s college dean. In the trailer, Devon asks her what the process for switching roommates is, as Dr. Schilling nervously plays with a fidget toy, dreading replying to a question she’s probably been asked ad nauseam just that very day.
Up-and-coming Jewish actress Ivy Wolk also stars and is particularly hilarious in the trailer.
The scene definitely gives me flashbacks to Sherman’s Rabbi Rebecca and her office walking pad in “You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah,” in which Sadie starred with her real-life sister Sunny, who played bat mitzvah girl Stacy. Sadie also recently starred opposite her father in “Happy Gilmore 2.”
“Roommates” will start streaming on Netflix on April 17, 2026. We can’t wait for this Jewish star-studded post-Passover treat.
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