Movie Review: How to Kill Your Roommates and Get Away with It (2022)

Synopsis: Grad student Ellie is growing increasingly frustrated with her roommate April, who has invited her boyfriend to live with them, creating a variety of conflicts ranging from a lack of parking to them giving their friends permission to have sex in Ellie's bed. Unwilling to move out because of the cheap rent, Ellie is willing to just put up with it until the end of her college term. However, when her friend, Jacob, jokingly suggests murdering the couple instead, Ellie decides it is the best option.

Who's in it? The movie stars Nicole Cinaglia, Lara Jean Sullivan, Hunter Johnson, Eric Reingrover and Christopher Bryan Gomez.

Review: I came across this movie while at our local library this past weekend and, even though I had never heard of it before, thought the premise sounded interesting enough to check it out. My wife and I watched it yesterday evening and, while it doesn't quite live up to its title, it ended up being a fun film to watch.

I think the thing that really won me over was how over-the-top everything was. It was a fairly dark subject, especially when Ellie (Cinaglia) and Jacob (Johnson) started hashing out their plan, but the film did it in a way that kept things lighthearted.

I especially liked how Ellie and Jacob proved to be surprisingly incompetent when it came to murder. The way Jacob talked about it, it almost seemed as though he was an experienced killer. Yet, even in their fantasies, plenty of things still managed to go humorously wrong, to the point I almost thought their real attempt was part of their imagination too.

Another thing I liked about this movie was the way it never reached a point where I agreed murder was her only option. Yeah, her roommates were crappy, especially the boyfriend (Reingrover), who was as much of a jerk as anyone could possibly be. Yet, at the same time, Ellie seemed to be as much of an instigator as times as they were (something that was even pointed out to her) and she had a standing offer to move in with Jacob and his roommate, though I could also see why she might be uncomfortable with that idea since Jacob was obviously interested in being more than just friends. This made the movie a whole lot less predictable because it wasn't as though I was rooting for them to succeed.

I am also going to say I liked the ending to this movie. I wasn't so sure about it at first and did secretly hope it would have a slightly different twist but, given the subject material and everything that happened during their murder attempt, I feel like it was a solid way to end what was a surprisingly good film.

Final Opinion: It's probably not going to be for everyone, but I thought the movie was a fun film to watch and would recommend it.

My Grade: A