roll with it movie reviews

Roll with It

Where to Watch

McKaley Miller (Samantha) Judith Hoag (Ruby) Evan Hofer (Spencer Taylor) Mark Christopher Lawrence (Nick) Shari Rigby (Evelyn) Elisabeth Hasselbeck (Lady's Night Karaoke Singer) Carl McDowell (Jaxson Wilson) Chonda Pierce (Bonnie Taylor) Jamie Alexander (Mark Hixon) Michael W. Smith (Redneck Karaoke Singer)

Chris Dowling

A small town Biscuit Barrel waitress is forced to enter the Cheatham County Fair Karaoke Showdown as a last resort to save her house from foreclosure.

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Exclusive Roll With It Trailer Previews Family Comedy Movie Starring Chonda Pierce

By Brandon Schreur

ComingSoon is exclusively debuting the trailer for Roll With It , a new family comedy movie starring Chonda Pierce .

Written and directed by Chris Dowling , Roll With It is a new comedy movie starring Pierce and a number of other notable stars. The movie will be released by Shout! Studios on major entertainment platforms later this month.

Check out the exclusive Roll With It trailer below ( watch more trailers and clips ):

What is Roll With It about?

“Roll With It is a music-filled and heartfelt comedy built around southern comedy icon Chonda Pierce, who is beloved for her gut-level honesty and pointed humor. If laughter is the best medicine, Chonda’s character Bonnie Taylor could use an extra dose or two,” the official synopsis reads. “Not only is she dealing with an unexpected demotion at her job at the Biscuit Barrel and a young new boss willing to match her snark-for-snark, she also discovers her house will be on the auction block by month’s end if she can’t come up with $20,000 in back taxes. With her only hope being the grand prize in a karaoke contest, and with the support of her faith, family, and friends that are family, Bonnie must decide if she’s willing to sing for the first time without her late husband by her side to save the home they raised their family in. Roll With It is a down-home family comedy filled with music, friendship, laughter, and love—and a heaping helping of hope.”

Along with Pierce, Roll With It stars McKaley Miller, Evan Hofer, Carl McDowell, Mark Christopher Lawrence, and Judith Hoag.

Ben Howard, J. Clarke Gallivan, and Ken Carpenter produce the movie, while Pierce Andrew D. Tenenbaum, and Max A. Butler serve as executive producers.

Roll With It debuts on digital platforms in North America on March 26, 2024.

Brandon Schreur has been writing about comics, movies, television shows, and all things pop culture for roughly five years. He's a lifelong cinephile who spends way, way too much money buying Blu-rays and trade paperbacks. You can find him on twitter at @brandonschreur.

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Roll With It

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Rent Roll With It on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

Audience Reviews

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Chris Dowling

Chonda Pierce

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Judith Hoag

McKaley Miller

Mark Christopher Lawrence

Spencer Taylor

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Roll with it.

2023 Directed by Chris Dowling

Love. Laugh. Karaoke.

A small town Biscuit Barrel waitress is forced to enter the Cheatham County Fair Karaoke Showdown as a last resort to save her house from foreclosure.

Chonda Pierce McKaley Miller Evan Hofer Carl McDowell Mark Christopher Lawrence Judith Hoag

Director Director

Chris Dowling

Writer Writer

Story story.

Chonda Pierce Martha Bolton David Pierce

Music Comedy

Releases by Date

Theatrical limited, 09 may 2023, 26 mar 2024, 25 jun 2024, releases by country.

• Theatrical limited Fathom Events 3-Day Release

115 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by TheQuietGamer ★★★½

I’m not exactly Chonda Pierce’s target audience by any means, but the comedian’s stand-up material had a pretty big presence in my childhood regardless. Her clean brand of humor and willingness to openly discuss struggles faced in her everyday life through a lens of faith made her a huge hit with Christian mothers back in the day, and growing up my own mom would regularly replay her CDs in the car on long trips. The woman is a holdover from that era when comics could get famous by being relatable and actually funny, as opposed to simply amassing a lot attention on Twitter through drama involving politics or whatever. It’s what allowed talents of her ilk to build loyal, lifelong…

Review by Roundaboot ★★

I think its brave to make a film about karaoke with exclusively shitty music

Review by ivy wolk

my dad played “The Carney”

Review by Garrett DeNardo ★

Can you guys please stop making shitty conservative "comedy" movies easily available online so I don't have to sit and watch them with my parents?

Review by landteller ★★★★★ 1

My roommate’s dad produced this movie…bow to me peasants

Review by Sean O’Connor ★★★

I’ve gotten to meet a number of people over the past year who helped make Roll With It , and it was cool to see their work (and a few of their faces!) on the big screen tonight.

If you’re a fan of Chonda Pierce, you’ll really enjoy this, not just because she carries the movie, but also because this is a very personal story for her. 

There are also two very enjoyable cameos from CCM artists, both of whom are named Michael. Enjoyed that :)

Review by Nabil Khan ★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Never been the first to review something. With this one I can see why.

A woman is going to lose her house in 30 days if she doesn't come up with 20k for a tax lean. The story of what she does for 90 minutes till she pays the lean. Also she has a decent singing voice. It might help

Poor Acting, unrealistic circumstances/alot of suspension to disbelief. You could tell you were watching a movie because noone swore in a movie where someone's life was falling apart. Heavy Christian overtones. Really curious why this was a fathom event.

Review by Caden Willaby ★★★★

I enjoyed this! Such a heartfelt story. I was connected to Bonnie's story. This gave me Tammy vibes and I loved it.

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• Cast & Crew

Roll with It

• 1 hr 55 mins

When her minimum-wage waitressing job at the local Biscuit Barrel is not enough to make ends meet, ordinary woman Bonnie Taylor decides to enter the karaoke competition at the Cheatham County Fair in hopes of winning the grand prize to protect her home from foreclosure.

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0:30 Roll With It (Fathom Events 30 Second Trailer)

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Judith Hoag

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Spencer taylor, latest news see all, trailers & videos see all.

Roll With It (Fathom Events 20 Second Trailer)

Roll With It

Roll With It (Fathom Events 30 Second Trailer)

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Roll With It

Watch the trailer watch the trailer, buy book + movie.

“Roll With It” Book + Movie

If the "Roll With It" film gets you inspired, then get a copy of this limited edition book of the same name which dives deep into the nitty gritty of how to get your crew and gear together for a bike trip. Gabriel Amadeus Tiller is a fantastic wordsmith, along with wonderful contributions from Mai Yan Kwan and Jules NeSmith, amazing illustrations from Chris McNally, and great photos from Brian Vernor. Each copy includes a unique download code for the film, so you can watch it as many times as you like!

Get yours, while supplies last!

Discover what it's all about, a bicycle adventure with friends.

Going on an overnight camping trip with just what you can carry on a bike seems scary to most people. This quirky, yet artful film debunks those fears, by pulling together strangers with different backgrounds to show how truly joyful and enriching travel by bike can be.

The film will be accompanied by a book that explains, in more granular detail, how anyone can use their bike as a portal to a world of adventure. Look for both the book and the film this June at theatres, bike shops and other venues worldwide.

Find a Screening Near You

Learn How to Host a Screening

Do you know someone or someplace that would be perfect for a screening in your town.

If so, we’d like to hear from you. Here are a couple things to consider to get a screening going:

• Location — A small theatre, bike shop, brewery or even a back yard can be perfect
• Date — Any date will do, but keep in mind when you might get the best attendance or if there are weather considerations
• Time — If this is an outdoor affair, be mindful of the sunset and if there are any noise restrictions

The film is about 25 minutes long, and works great when mixed with other short films or activities (local band, party, bike club meeting, etc).

Catch a Glimpse Behind the Scenes

A story of makers.

Each person in the cast also played a role in making the film or book. Including illustration, photography, musical score and writing book chapters …

Download a Press Kit

“roll with it” press kit.

So, you want to talk about the film, host a screening or make a poster? Let us help you. This file contains all the information you could possibly want, including words, photos and links.

Roll with It (2023)

Streaming in:

We checked for updates on 247 streaming services on April 17, 2024 at 2:28:33 PM. Something wrong? Let us know!

Roll with It streaming: where to watch online?

You can buy "Roll with It" on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play Movies, YouTube as download or rent it on Amazon Video, Vudu, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand online.

Can I watch Roll with It in theaters?

Yes! You can get tickets to see Roll with It in theaters in the United States right now. Tickets are available on Fandango.

A small town Biscuit Barrel waitress is forced to enter the Cheatham County Fair Karaoke Showdown as a last resort to save her house from foreclosure.

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Comedic Icon Chonda Pierce Stars In ‘Roll With It,’ Premiering In 750 Movie Theaters

Great reviews are pouring in on “Queen of Clean Comedy” Chonda Pierce ‘s new film, Roll With It . The movie premieres in more than 750 theaters across the U.S. on May 9, 11, and 13 through Fathom Events.

Tickets are available at www.fathomevents.com/events/Roll-With-It.

Roll With It is the latest project in Chonda’s storied career whose highlights include platinum-certified comedy albums, regular performances at the Grand Ole Opry, and five Daytime Emmy nominations. Christian music legend Michael W. Smith , country hitmaker Jake Owen, Shari Rigby and others make cameo appearances in the film.

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2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees: Cher and Foreigner Make the Cut

Ryan Seacrest and Lionel Richie had the honor of announcing the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class of 2024 inductees during the April 21st episode of American Idol . This year’s inductees include four first-time performer nominees: Cher , Foreigner, Kool & the Gang, and Peter Frampton. And the class of 2024 is one of the museum’s largest, with 16 inductees total in four distinct categories.

“Rock & Roll is an ever-evolving amalgam of sounds that impacts culture and moves generations,” said John Sykes, chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. “This diverse group of inductees each broke down musical barriers and influenced countless artists that followed in their footsteps.”

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees

Performer Category: • Mary J. Blige • Cher • Dave Matthews Band • Foreigner • Peter Frampton • Kool & The Gang • Ozzy Osbourne • A Tribe Called Quest

Musical Influencer Award: • Alexis Korner • Big Mama Thornton • John Mayall

Musical Excellence Award: • Dionne Warwick • Jimmy Buffett • MC5 • Norman Whitfield

Ahmet Ertegun Award: • Suzanne de Passe

The 2024 induction ceremony will take place on Saturday, October 19th at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. Disney+ will livestream the ceremony, and ABC will release a special later this year.

Following the announcement, Peter Frampton posted a thank you on Twitter. “This is something I never expected. I am overwhelmed that I will be inducted into the @rockhall, especially alongside so many incredible artists who have gone before me. I can’t thank everyone enough for voting for me,” tweeted Frampton. “You are the best. Somebody pinch me please!!”

Dave Matthews Band’s official Twitter account also posted their reaction to the induction announcement. “Dave Matthews Band is honored to be in the @rockhall Class Of 2024. Congrats to our fellow nominees and thanks so much to all of our fans for the support!” – Dave Matthews Band

• Full List of the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Late Night with the Devil’ on Shudder, an Amusing High-Concept Horror-Comedy Starring David Dastmalchian

Where to stream:.

• Late Night with the Devil
• Stream and Scream

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Horror-comedy Late Night with the Devil ( now streaming on Shudder and AMC+ ) had a strong opening for an IFC Films release, grossing $2.8 million in its opening weekend. Notably, it made $666,666 on that Sunday, prompting Variety to report “you can’t make this up,” although I’d assert that you very much CAN make that stuff up, especially if a film company’s marketing and PR departments are reporting the numbers. Anyway, Aussie sibling directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes did what few people are brave enough to do: They made modern cinema’s du-jour character actor, David Dastmalchian, their lead, playing a 1970s late-night talk show host who’s desperate for ratings, and therefore lets his live Halloween broadcast fly way off the rails. That makes for “good TV,” especially if you’re peddling satire, but does the premise make for a good movie? Let’s find out.

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: We hear Michael Ironside’s voice, and it is indeed foreboding. (It’s accompanied, appropriately, by the music of one obscure heavy metal band called Pentagram, to which I say, nice .) Ironside’s giving us a brief history of Jack Delroy (Dastmalchian), aka “Mr. Midnight,” and his late-night talk show Night Owls . The show launched in 1971, aiming to take down Johnny Carson. Seems like a fool’s errand, but whatever – you gotta dream big. It went pretty well for a while, landing Delroy an Emmy nomination and a five-year contract extension. By 1977, though, things looked less rosy. Ratings plateaued. None of the Emmy nods became Emmy wins. Delroy’s beloved wife died of lung cancer. He was rumored to be involved with a weird cabal of men who occasionally gathered in the woods to perform arcane occult rituals and such. And then – dum dum DUMMMM – it was Sweeps Week, you know, the time when ratings counted the most and TV series were canceled or renewed. Such drama!

And this is when the fateful Night Owls broadcast occurred. Thus, the gimmick: What we’re about to see is the long-lost unedited master tape of the show, which aired live on Oct. 31, 1977, and “shocked the nation.” Delroy takes the stage for his monologue of lame jokes and banter with his sidekick Gus (Rhys Auteri), then cheekily asks his audience to “keep an open mind” with regards to the evening’s slate of guests: A psychic medium, a magician-slash-skeptic and a parapsychologist. This seems like all the ordinary dopey stuff of era-specific talk shows. So far, so good. 

Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) takes the stage and does his I’m-sensing-a-name-that-starts-with-P cornball scam-shtick, and all goes OK, but there’s a weird incident when his eyes roll back in his head and the lights flicker and crackle. As they say, curious . Then the skeptic, Carmichael the Conjurer (Ian Bliss), joins the show, and he can explain all paranormal phenomena in rational terms, which is admirable, but our ideological loyalty to him disintegrates when he ends up being a smug, pompous ass and serial condescendypants. Something ain’t right with Christou, and he projectile-spews black sludge all over Carmichael, who instantly insists it’s just an old vaudeville trick. Then, the guests du jour arrive, Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and her ward, a teenager named Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), who survived a Satanic mass suicide and also acts very oddly, possibly because she claims to be possessed by an evil demon. “‘Psychic infestation’ is the term we prefer,” Dr. June says, and it’s only a matter of time before Delroy coerces her to demonstrate said “psychic infestation” to the live TV audience out there. Seems like a terrible idea but great TV, and what rules over all in this reality? Ratings, baby! Or Satan. Is there a difference?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: This is kinda like The Exorcist meets The Morton Downey Jr. Show . 

Performance Worth Watching: It’s easy to like Dastmalchian’s portrayal of a desperate TV host who seems both incredibly vulnerable but also immune to flop sweat – an impressive balancing act. 

Memorable Dialogue: Delroy: “Ladies and gentlemen, please stay tuned for a live television first, as we attempt to commune with the devil. But not before a word from our sponsors.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: The message of Late Night with the Devil is kinda Old Testament: Thou shalt not worship false idols. And is there a bigger false idol than the ol’ boob tube? Yeah, especially in the social media age, so we need to think bigger, so we land on media itself, or the shiny bauble that media dangles in front of people, fame, which is false as all hell, pun totally intended. Not that the film is entirely focused on this theme. It stays firmly in the Satire Zone, and gets a little spoofy about the post-Manson/pre-Satanic Panic period of pop-cultural occultism and lampoons the schmaltzy entertainment of the post-variety-show/pre-David-Letterman era of chitchat TV. (Is it me, or is trotting out psychic mediums sub-bottom-of-the-barrel entertainment?)

The film shows evidence of needing another draft in the writers’ room – the quasi-found-footage structure is as inconsistent as the wobbly archer-shots at thematic targets. There are moments when the Delroy character could use more focus, but Dastmalchian nevertheless endures and endears; when Torelli turns up to creep out the audience by staring directly into the camera with unsettlingly aggressive friendliness, she gooses the film to life for its final act. As for the ending, it’s surprisingly challenging, or it doesn’t make much sense, take your pick. But the Cairnses maintain an uneasy comic tone throughout, and the proliferation of goo from their impressively throwbacky practical effects helps spackle over any script problems. We nitpick because we must, but bottom line, Late Night with the Devil is a consistently funny and entertaining horror-comedy with at least a little bit of something on its mind.

Our Call: [Presses fingers to temples, closes eyes in concentration] I’m… I’m sensing… an “S” word… is there an “S” around here anywhere… soup… stoop… steam… stream… STREAM IT. 

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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In a way, any music biopic is off to a bad start, since there’s always going to be the curse of symmetry: everything must square with what we already know, and fill in some blanks for those that don’t. Back to Black is no exception in that regard, but it’s understandable — how do you explain a teenage London girl who’s inspired by Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Charles Bukowski, Lauryn Hill and Charlie Parker unless she tells you? Refreshingly, however, it is free of the curse of timestamping (there’s no “Glastonbury: 2007”), which may be a hurdle outside the UK, where even non-music fans saw the whole tragedy writ not just large but played out in excruciating real time.

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What not be immediately apparent is that Back to Black is the story as seen through the singer’s own eyes, which is a very smart way of dodging the bullets that accompany any attempt to tell her rise-and-fall story. Although there is a LOT of foreshadowing in Matt Greenhalgh’s script (when her beloved Nan refuses a cigarette, you know exactly what’s coming), this isn’t a retread of Asif Kapadia’s almost forensic documentary Amy , which turned the tables on the accepted narrative of Winehouse as willing tabloid fodder. Instead, it actually indulges some of her self-sabotaging behavior, which may seem reckless but doesn’t seem to have tarnished any of the male members of the 27 club.

It’s a measure of Winehouse’s accelerated life that it only takes 20 minutes to take us from a family party to her debut album and the first blush of fame. Even then, she is headstrong, stonewalling her management’s insistence that she stop playing her guitar onstage (although she did later drop it altogether) and taking time out to live her life and find new material for songs from that lived experience (although one of her biggest hits was a cover of The Zutons’ song “Valerie” in 2007). Interestingly, all these contradictions start to add up, especially when Winehouse goes from saying, “Class-A drugs are for mugs,” to smoking crack cocaine, which is quite radical in itself for a biopic but also signals, in a very honest way, that we are never going to get to the bottom of this story.

The meat of the film, but not the focus, is Winehouse’s relationship with Blake Fielder-Civil, who gets off so very, very lightly. Played by Jack O’Connell, “Blakey” is the catalyst that sparks the singer’s very public descent into drink and drug-addled infamy (“You’ve got an eye for the bad boys,” says Nan, which is putting it mildly). But, again, Taylor-Johnson plays an interesting game with the truth here; it’s all very well to wonder where the adults were — and her naïve father Mitch pays off a lot of bad press in that regard, thanks to a very touching performance by Eddie Marsan — but these decisions were her own, and Taylor-Johnson makes that a tentpole, which — again — runs counter to the sexist “candle in the wind” narrative that grows up around so-called “difficult” female artists.

At the heart of it is relative newcomer Marisa Abela , who excels when she’s free of delivering expositional biopic dialogue and just being Amy Winehouse (a brief, verité-style sequence on the streets of Manhattan is quite breathtaking). In those moments, we get a sense of Amy Winehouse on the rise, a superhero origins story in which certain elements coalesce to produce the elegantly surly, coifed and tatted icon represented on the poster (although the film hedges its bets as to whether the famous beehive was inspired by The Shangri-Las’ Mary Weiss or The Ronettes’ Ronnie Spector).

Given the material, Back to Black bows out on an unexpectedly minor key, which is probably better than a queasy Queen of Hearts payoff. In that respect it’s an unusual film, in that it doesn’t quite boil down to any one thing: it’s not about fame, it’s not about money, it’s not (really) about addiction. It does, however, paint an unexpectedly complex portrait of an artist who, over the years, has largely been portrayed in broad and patronizing strokes, much like the tattoo of Betty Boop she wore on her back. The musical biopic format doesn’t quite do it justice, but it would make one hell of an opera.

Title: Back To Black Distributor:   Focus Features Release date: May 17, 2024 Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson Screenwriter:  Matt Greenhalgh Cast: Marisa Abela, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, Lesley Manville Rating:  R Running time:  2 hr 2 min

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