‘You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah’ puts Adam Sandler’s kids front and center

Review by Brian Lowry, CNN

(CNN) — At first glance, “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” looks like the gift for kids who have everything: A starring role in one of dad’s Netflix movies. Yet Adam Sandler’s daughter Sunny – the clear belle of the ball – quickly dampens the “nepo baby” asides with her winning, natural performance in a familiar but very nicely done coming-of-age story.

Sunny is one of four Sandlers featured, with Adam playing her dad (as well as producing the movie), real-life older sister Sadie as her sister and mom Jackie as the mother of her best friend, who becomes the “so not invited” part of the title as the two girls clash over a boy at the religious school they attend.

Yet as adapted by director Sammi Cohen and writer Alison Peck from Fiona Rosenbloom’s book, the film acts as a sort-of Jewish companion to “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” – itself the subject of a recent movie adaptation – as Stacy Friedman (Sunny Sandler) talks to God as she narrates her enthusiasm about her coming Bat Mitzvah amid the angst, crushes and occasional humiliation associated with becoming a teenager.

Like a lot of teenage girls in such stories, Stacy harbors a secret crush on the dreamy if monosyllabic Andy (Dylan Hoffman), a secret she shares with her best-friend-since-toddlerhood Lydia (Samantha Lorraine), who tends to give Stacy lots of good advice that, in her desire to fit in, she isn’t always eager to heed.

Specifically, Lydia starts to get attention from the popular girls, which provokes some jealously on Stacy’s part, who nevertheless seizes on the opportunity, at the potential expense of their nerdier outsider pals.

There’s nothing much new in any of this, but the movie’s charms largely reside in its smallish details, from Lydia casually saying “My mom is trying to spend all my dad’s money before the next court date” to “Saturday Night Live’s” Sarah Sherman dropping in as the hip (or rather, wannabe hip) rabbi trying, awkwardly, to bond with the kids.

Then there are those unrealistic Bat Mitzvah fantasies, as the girls picture elaborate affairs involving yachts and guest appearances by Olivia Rodrigo, while mom (Idina Menzel, like Sandler, in a very secondary role) and dad lament the insane escalation surrounding the ceremony, with the latter noting sarcastically that the theme of his Bar Mitzvah was “Being Jewish.”

Sandler is hardly the first Hollywood luminary to leverage that status to create employment opportunities for those sharing his surname; still, this showcase for Sunny, in particular, represents a major step up in class from modest cameos in his recent movies, including the Netflix titles “Hustle” and “Murder Mystery.”

While the elder Sandler hasn’t exactly raised the creative bar with his Netflix output, “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” marks a refreshing addition to that filmography, turning this family enterprise into a polished and ultimately sweet look at growing up. And who knows? A few more efforts like this one, and the youngest Sandler will have more than earned her place at the cool kids’ table.

“You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” premieres August 25 on Netflix. It’s rated PG-13.

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