Director Derek Cianfrance<\/a> is known for creating emotionally wrenching dramas like \u201cBlue Valentine<\/a>,\u201d \u201cThe Place Beyond the Pines,\u201d and \u201cI Know This Much is True<\/a>,\u201d movies and TV series that are justly praised for their insights into the human condition but that also demand a lot of their viewers \u2014 \u201cfun\u201d doesn\u2019t come to mind as a quality one would associate with Cianfrance.<\/p>\n Which makes his latest film<\/a>, the crime comedy \u201cRoofman<\/a>,\u201d such a pleasant surprise. In telling the true story of Jeff Manchester, a prison escapee who hides out from the law in a toy store where he falls for one of the employees, Cianfrance exhibits his usual strengths \u2014 richly textured cinematography, attention to idiosyncratic nuance in the performances, editing patterns that reflect the rhythms of real life rather than narrative conventions \u2014 but applies them to a lighter piece of entertainment that\u2019s deep without being heavy. <\/p>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It feels like the kind of thing Hal Ashby might have made in the 1970s, a comedy that\u2019s smart and funny and filled with warmth toward its characters. If it feels like a departure from Cianfrance\u2019s usual fare, that\u2019s entirely intentional. <\/p>\n \u201c\u2018I Know This Much is True\u2019 came out right at the beginning of the pandemic, and I had so many friends tell me that they had to turn it off when the guy cut his hand off,\u201d Cianfrance told IndieWire\u2019s Filmmaker Toolkit<\/a> podcast<\/a>. \u201cI was like, \u2018Geez, you only made it one minute!’\u201d<\/p>\n With \u201cRoofman,\u201d Cianfrance opted for a slightly lighter direction while still telling a story with dark crime elements. Part of what makes \u201cRoofman\u201d such a fun ride is the style, as Cianfrance softens the visual edges to make the movie feel not just like a film that takes place in the early 2000s, but that was shot<\/em> in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n \u200a\u201dThat was one of the intentions of the movie,\u201d Cianfrance said. \u201cIt\u2019s a Christmas movie. And to me, Christmas movies are all about nostalgia, and they\u2019re traditionally about a return home. Those were some of the themes I wanted to deal with in the movie.\u201d To that end, Cianfrance chose to return home himself, crewing up with the collaborators he had worked with on \u201cBlue Valentine.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was really feeling reflective in my life,\u201d Cianfrance said. \u201cI was feeling like I needed to have a bit of a reunion with the people I loved the most.\u201d That meant reuniting with the production designer, costume designer, cinematographer, producers, still photographer, and many more who had brought Cianfrance\u2019s breakthrough feature to life. \u201cIrrespective of what the conversations were, I just wanted to bring the band back together.\u201d<\/p>\n Because \u201cBlue Valentine had been made in 2009, just a few years after the events of \u201cRoofman,\u201d Cianfrance thought a reunion would generate the right kind of vibe onscreen. \u201cI thought we needed our collective energies and the scrappy spirit of all of us kids who wanted to be on Broadway,\u201d Cianfrance said. \u201cWe were like a bunch of Off-off-Broadway kids who were just trying to make it, and we had this movie, and we all made it to Broadway.\u201d<\/p>\n While Cianfrance initially saw \u201cRoofman\u201d as an opportunity for him and his \u201coff-Broadway\u201d friends to get together for a Broadway production, he found that \u201cRoofman\u201d ended up being a bit of a hybrid because of how the film business had changed. \u201cI kept hearing from a lot of financiers and studios that they didn\u2019t make this kind of movie anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it was an interesting opportunity for us all. We expected that we were going to make a Broadway production of \u2018Roofman,\u2019 but as it turned out, we had to make the off-Broadway production of \u2018Roofman.’\u201d<\/p>\n That meant putting every dime on screen, and spending money where it was most important. For Cianfrance, one key place where he put a lot of his resources was the Toys \u201cR\u201d Us store where Jeff (Channing Tatum) spends most of his time. \u201cWe found this old Toys \u2018R\u2019 Us that was completely gutted, and one tile at a time [production designer] Inbal Weinberg put it back together,\u201d Cianfrance said. \u201c2000 fluorescent lights. She had to put in all the copper wire that had been stripped. We had to restore the electricity, and then we had to fill it with period toys. It takes a lot of toys to fill up a toy store.\u201d<\/p>\n Making the store real and fully stocked was important to Cianfrance, whose approach has always been to give his actors the tools they need to completely get lost in the scene. \u201cI\u2019ve always made movies that were experiential, and I like to drop my actors into an aquarium of real life,\u201d he said. \u201cI want them to be immersed in this place so that they can play. It was almost like a big sandbox.\u201d<\/p>\n While the period detail of the Toys \u201cR\u201d Us and other locations is part of what makes \u201cRoofman\u201d feel like a movie from the 2000s, another key component in this regard is Cianfrance\u2019s decision to shoot on film. \u201cMy chosen format\u2019s always two-perf 35 millimeter,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like it has a great texture to it. And if you\u2019re gonna shoot film, it\u2019s the most economical choice to me. It\u2019s also a great format to unify a time period. I love digital and HD, but the challenge is you see everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Cianfrance feels film has a magic that comes not only from the things you can\u2019t see, but the dreamlike nature of the technology itself. \u201cI attribute it romantically to the shutter, because as you\u2019re watching 24 frames a second, you\u2019re also watching 24 frames of black per second,\u201d Cianfrance said. \u201cImagination erases those frames of black and tricks you into persistence of vision, and I love the magic of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Cianfrance briefly considered shooting on a video format that would have been in use at the time \u201cRoofman\u201d takes place, like SD video. \u201cI love SD,\u201d Cianfrance said. \u201cSome of my favorite movies were made on SD \u2014 \u2018The Celebration,\u2019 \u2018Julien Donkey-Boy,\u2019 \u2018Meeting People Is Easy.\u2019 There are so many great films shot on SD, and I\u2019ve always longed to make an SD movie. This couldn\u2019t be that because it was our off-Broadway production of a Broadway play.\u201d<\/p>\n Cianfrance felt it was important to not only shoot on film, but to go to the places where the real story took place. \u201cI grew up in the suburbs of Lakewood, and I grew up in big box stores, and I worked at Walmart for a long time,\u201d Cianfrance said. \u201cThis is my culture. Suburbia, big box stores, fast food restaurants. And I didn\u2019t want to see it in an ironic way or a satirical way. One thing I have in common with Jeff Manchester is he loves that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n In order to convey Jeff\u2019s point of view, Cianfrance romanticized the environment, something he felt shooting on celluloid helped him accomplish. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to see all the edges,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to let it be elegant, poetic. I wanted it to have some mystery. I wanted it to feel cinematic, and film was able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Film also aided in the creation of the movie\u2019s uniformly terrific performances. \u201cThe other reason I love shooting film is it\u2019s a tool to elicit performances,\u201d Cianfrance said. \u201cIf you\u2019re shooting two-perf 35mm, with a 400-foot magazine, you get about 11 minutes. I don\u2019t like saying action. I don\u2019t like saying cut. I just want [the actors] to go and live in a scene, and pretty soon they start to learn the time of a mag of film. It makes them more urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n The difference between that and digital shooting is considerable, in Cianfrance\u2019s opinion. \u201cI\u2019ve shot a lot of things on digital,\u201d he said. \u201cI shot the second half of \u2018Blue Valentine\u2019 digitally because I wanted to erode moments. I didn\u2019t want to have the urgency of these two people falling in love. I wanted to have the erosion of two people that had lived together for so long, they were now boring each other to tears. And I was shooting 44-minute takes on digital. I could use the digital format as more of a surveillance device.\u201d<\/p>\n Cianfrance says that in the digital sections of \u201cBlue Valentine\u201d the takes went on so long that Ryan Gosling actually fell asleep during one of them while eating spaghetti. \u201cThat\u2019s what video will get you,\u201d Cianfrance said. \u201cThat\u2019s what HD can get you, an actor falling asleep. But film, they have to wake up. They have to get some points on the board.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"'Frankenstein'\"](\"https:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AAAAOhDJF0LteWOqXOQMdpVB9IgmWXlUwIMOEXZy1nTnyasi2gNcRkvEU3ig1Lo6nJBhYOBS8XSOCsa5ytkQpygvv-f214pBTkHihVj8c6FA_ao7550gSwUUwiQtTtYGkoIS3B4JzwQd.dyn_.jpeg?w=300&h=168&crop=1\")
<\/div>\n![\"Channing](\"https:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/RM_23065R.jpg?w=650\")
![\"ROOFMAN,](\"https:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MCDROOF_PA012.jpg?w=650\")