ROOFMAN, written and directed by Derek Cianfrance, is one of my favorite movies so far this year and one of the best films I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival. Based on a stranger-than-fiction true story, the film follows Jeff (Channing Tatum), a down on his luck military veteran who turns to a life of crime to make ends meet. He robs stores by entering through their roofs. But the gig doesn’t last for long, and when he is finally captured and imprisoned, the ever-resourceful Jeff finds a way to escape. Now on the run, Jeff takes refuge in a Toys-R-Us after hours, using the store’s inventory, especially its candy aisle, to stay alive.
During the day, Jeff hides out in the store, monitoring the goings on through baby monitors. He quickly becomes smitten by Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), a single mom with a heart of gold, who constantly gets scolded by her jerk of a boss (Peter Dinklage). When Jeff finds a way to meet Leigh on the outside, the two hit it off immediately. Though, of course, Leigh doesn’t know Jeff’s real identity (or his daytime activities hiding out in the store). Jeff begins living more openly in the real world, risking his freedom to be with Leigh and her daughters. But when he starts needing money to have a normal lifestyle, his life of crime comes calling again.
Cianfrance’s phenomenal script does a great job of balancing humor, drama, and heart. The film never excuses Jeff’s criminal activities, but does provide context to how a very smart man got involved in such destructive decision-making. Cianfrance explores the multi-layered human elements in a story that could so easily have been a one-note crime thriller.
I have been a fan of Cianfrance’s work since I first saw BLUE VALENTINE, and ROOFMAN is my favorite film of his yet. I had the pleasure of sitting down with him to discuss the film. We talked about the difficulty of bringing the story to life, both in navigating the film’s difficult tone and in deciding what true elements of Jeff’s story may be too unbelievable to include in the final cut. I could have spoken to Cianfrance for hours about the film, and I can’t wait for audiences to see the final product on October 10!
ROOFMAN is one of the best films I have seen so far this year. What really jumped out at me was the way you were able to master the tone of the film. It has its funny moments, it has its heartfelt moments, and it has its sad moments. I also appreciated that while Jeff is the “hero” of the movie, you didn’t shy away from showing his criminal moments. Was that hard to maneuver and balance during the writing process?
Cianfrance: Yes, it embraces the tragedy that he’s made of his life. The tone was confronting for me, for sure, because my natural instinct is to go into tragedy.
[Laughs] From your other films, that makes sense.
Cianfrance: I have a very…my imagination goes dark. I have catastrophic thinking. I’m an optimistic person. With this film, my practice was to try to use that optimism and my consciousness as the guiding principle, because the dark imagination is almost like a neurosis. It’s easy to go into it and be embraced by it. But then pretty soon it becomes like a boa constrictor that just swallows you up. And so I wanted to embrace my conscious walking around person. My wife is a comedian. And I was thinking how close comedy and tragedy actually are, it’s a flip side of a coin, and if you flip the coin, you see both sides at once. I was thinking of the comedy and tragedy faces. I always looked at that smiling one as the tragedy face, because I always thought about when someone falls on a banana peel, that hurts, and you laugh. It’s pain and humor at the same time. So, it was a very, very challenging tone to have and to confront. Because it’s kind of easy to go one way or the other. I couldn’t go all the way in the funny way, because there’s too much tragedy in this guy’s life. But the character of Jeff is really interesting in that I think one of the reasons I related to him is he is eternally optimistic. Even after being in prison for as long as he has, even after the events of this film…they’ve put him in nine years of solitary confinement. So, that’s like 23 and a half hours alone, a day, in a room, no sunlight.
Wow, that is incredibly tough.
Cianfrance: And so he has to have incredible mental capacity, and focus, and optimism to be able to deal with that and he still does. And so that became kind of a guiding principle, too. And honestly, then I was also thinking of my last film, I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, which I felt was a complete movie and a complete self-expression. It came out during the pandemic, and I had so many friends tell me that they had to shut it off when Mark Ruffalo cut off his hand. And that happened, like, a minute into the film. So, I realized how tough it is out there. And I’ve never been interested in escapism. I don’t want to escape. I like humanism. And I was thinking a lot about the movies that I fell in love with, movies of the ’80s and ’90s that felt less like escapism to me, and more like human stories. Even if you’re talking about movies like DIE HARD or MRS. DOUBTFIRE, here’s a crazy adventure but you feel like everything is plausible. There’s real people, and there’s real stories, and heart, and family, and relationships, and tragedies, and adventure. I kinda wanted to make a film that reminded me of those films.
I want to talk about the real Jeff. Obviously he is still in prison. Were you able to meet up with him? How much did you want him to be involved in the film?
Cianfrance: I spoke with him probably over 400 hours in 15-minute increments when he calls me. I did go and visit him. I spent one day with him, in person, which was a very intense experience for me to visit a man who’s in a cage, basically, and to be visiting him while other family members were visiting their other family members who were also in cages…riding the elevator with these mothers, and fathers, and brothers, and sisters who were visiting people that were locked up…I didn’t take it lightly. Every family member that I talked to still loved those people behind bars. They didn’t dismiss the mistakes they made, but they still saw them as human beings and worthy of grace. I was really inspired by that. Jeff was a huge part of the movie. He told me early on, “Derek, this is my story, but it’s your movie. I want you to make your version of my movie.” He was like, “I trust that. And you have my blessing to do whatever you want.” And so, for the most part, I just told his story. I didn’t only interview him, I interviewed the people in his life too, who could validate the crazy stories that he lived. And even as the movie is done now, Jeff hasn’t seen it.
I am glad you brought up your validation process, because this story, at times, seems so wild. And I know a lot of it is true. When you were envisioning what this story would look like, were there any real moments that you wanted to include in the script but that you thought may be too outlandish and unbelievable for audiences?
Cianfrance: Well, there was a scene that I actually shot… that I didn’t put in the movie because it was too outlandish. It was a scene during Halloween when Jeff was trick-or-treating with one of Leigh’s kids. And her kid didn’t have pockets in her costume and her hands were getting cold. Jeff was dressed up like a giant bunny and he said, “Well, we just need scissors.” And the daughter said, “They probably have scissors,” and she pointed to a police station. And Jeff and the daughter went into this police station and asked the police officer behind the glass if they could have a pair of scissors.
What!?
Cianfrance: It was too much. It actually happened, but it was too much to believe. It was silly and too stupid even for Jeff to do. And probably the reason it didn’t work is I could never believe it… even when I was shooting it. Even setting it up, I was like, “This is so stupid, Jeff. Why are you doing this? Don’t do this.”
Did you ask him about it?
Cianfrance: You know, he’s the smartest dumb guy you know… as Lakeith Stanfield says.
I mean, even if you don’t agree with the crimes that he did, you kinda have to respect it based on the innovation and thoughtfulness behind it.
Cianfrance: Yes, and then gutsy. Everyone can have a smart idea, but who’s got the guts to go do it. He can come up with a breakout plan, which is a brilliant breakout plan. But then who’s gonna have the courage to do that?
Totally agree. Well, Derek, thank you so much for your time. Like I said, I loved the movie and I appreciate you talking to me today.