This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist.While it is always fun to see him on screen, the movies Adam Sandler has done for Netflix have been rather hit or miss. For every more dynamic work like Hustle, there is a forgettable one like Murder Mystery 2. His latest, You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah, falls somewhere in the middle. Starring his daughter Sunny Sandler as the young Stacy Friedman who is trying to create the best bat mitzvah ever, it is a rather plainly shot coming-of-age comedy that benefits from a strong supporting cast and occasional moments of pointed humor. It wears its heart on its sleeve, hitting all the expected emotional notes in a manner that teeters on the edge of being contrived while still feeling more genuine in its depiction of the uncertainty of growing up. Still, as a complete portrait of youth on the cusp of the rest of their lives, it never manages to be authentically sharp enough to transcend the more tiresome narrative trappings it falls into and a grating over reliance on musical cues as punchlines.

Its sincerity makes it a film that is hard to be mad at even as it is the epitome of the nepo baby movie, proving to be a family affair in multiple senses as Sunny is not the only member of the Sandler clan to be made part of the cast. Elder daughter Sadie Sandler plays the film’s older sister Ronnie and matriarch Jackie Sandler makes a few appearances as the parent to Stacy’s best friend in the whole world Lydia (Samantha Lorraine). This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as they all work well enough for their parts, but there is still a sense that we are watching the discount version of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret that was more of an excuse for the Sandlers to riff on the conventions of the genre than a fully successful film in its own right. There are some good jokes at their own expense, especially in the case of the Sandler patriarch who is basically poking fun at himself and what certainly seems like his actual fashion sense, though it is very much a vehicle for them to take the spotlight and, thus, often feels like it is playing it oddly safe. That is, except when one other person comes onto the screen.

RELATED: Stacy Plans the Party of a Lifetime in New ‘You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah’ Clip

‘You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah’ Needed More Sarah Sherman Terrorizing Children
Image via Netflix

Of all the cast, it is Sarah “Squirm” Sherman as the uproarious Rabbi Rebecca who does everything she can to steal the film and push it into more unpredictably chaotic comedic territory. Where much of everything else in the story felt like it was just going through the motions of what we’ve seen in similar coming-of-age comedies, she gives it a much-needed madcap energy. From the moment the teacher first appears on screen, grilling one of the baffled kids in her class about whether he’d be the type of person to cheat on his fictional wife, it feels like she’s been dropped in from a more absurdly clever movie we only get glimpses of.

Every time Sherman steps into frame, she provides a refreshing jolt of energy that comes from seeing a performer in full command of her craft make the most of what could all too easily be a throwaway part. When Rebecca shares one such goofy scene with Stacy, ostensibly about offering her mentorship when she catches her on her phone in class, she does so from a treadmill in her office. It brings to the forefront how she is running circles around anything else the movie is going for and falling short of. If there is anything worth seeing the film for, it would be Sherman’s performance. Unfortunately, she proves to be an all-too-brief of a highlight.

The Core Friendship Is Insufficiently Explored in ‘You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah’
Image via Netflix

The rest of the film, even when it manages to be serviceably sweet, is just never quite on her level. That isn’t to say it is completely bad, as it does get a lot of mileage out of the comedic awkwardness of growing up, though it never feels like we are going anywhere as kinetic and unrestrained as some of its more promising elements. The main element of the film, about the friendship between Stacy and Lydia that becomes fractured over the most tiresome of teenage boys, is too broadly sketched for it to have the impact it is going for. Once the inciting incident causes a schism between the two, Lydia fades into the background of Stacy’s story and feels frequently forgotten about. It is as if the film was so hellbent on creating the broad strokes of a coming-of-age comedy only without putting in the necessary care for the details of its story. None of the escalations feel energetic enough and make the bland visual style feel that much more so. The longer it goes on, the more it feels increasingly forced. When it begins to strain for emotional resonance about growing up by learning from your past mistakes, it can’t quite do so as cleanly as it needs to and instead relies on contrivances to keep going.

There are moments where director Sammi Cohen seems to be trying to bring some more visual flair through recurring zooms, but this isn’t enough to give it a full comedic punch. The film remains driven by the fact that it is about the Sandlers and keeping them in the spotlight, regardless of whether it leaves key elements of the story out of focus. The jokes would land that much better and the emotional journey might carry a real impact if its supposedly central friendship was approached with more balance. By the time we start to get a lot more internal narration from Stacy, we understand her and what she is thinking though feel held at a distance from Lydia. No matter how much clunky dialogue it uses to try to bridge the increasingly yawning gap it creates thematically and narratively for itself, its priorities lie in making another Sandler into a star rather than truly telling the best version of this story.

Rating: C+

The Big Picture

You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah is a coming-of-age comedy that falls somewhere in the middle of Adam Sandler’s Netflix films. The film, featuring the Sandler family, wears its heart on its sleeve and depicts the uncertainty of growing up. However, it falls into tiresome narrative trappings and relies too heavily on musical cues as punchlines. Sarah “Squirm” Sherman’s performance as Rabbi Rebecca steals the show, injecting much-needed madcap energy. The rest of the film, while serviceably sweet, fails to reach the same comedic heights.

You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah is on Netflix starting August 25.