Roofman: a ‘stranger than fiction’ tale

The events that inspired “Roofman” fall squarely into the category of “stranger than fiction”, said Sophie Butcher in Empire . In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a US army veteran named Jeffrey Manchester robbed more than 40 McDonald’s fast-food joints, by crawling into their roofs overnight and descending into the restaurants the following morning to hold staff up at gunpoint (while being disarmingly friendly and apologetic throughout).

He was eventually caught but he managed to escape, and then spent months hiding out in a branch of Toys R Us, living on baby food and M&Ms. Director Derek Cianfrance’s film based on these events is gritty but heartwarming, and features a “remarkable” performance from Channing Tatum , who depicts Manchester as “goofy and childlike”, while “effortless