The comedy “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” follows the debut of Stacy Friedman (Sunny Sandler), a preteen obsessed with the parties that accompany her Hebrew school cohort’s coming-of-age ceremonies.
This joyride into adulthood is a real-life family affair: Sunny stars, and her father, Adam Sandler, graciously rides in the back seat as Stacy’s confused father, Danny. But despite the support Stacy gets from her family (including Idina Menzel as Stacy’s mother, Bree, and Sadie Sandler as her sister Ronnie), Stacy’s friendship with her best friend, Lydia (Samantha Lorraine), the emotional core of the film.
Stacy and Lydia plan their parties and their lives around each other, but their friendship is tested by middle school’s most challenging trials: cute boys, cool girls and menstruation When Stacy walks in on Lydia kissing their crush on each other, she can’t account for her friend’s happiness in the rabbi-encouraged maturity of the mitzvah season. Instead, Stacy invites Lydia from her bat mitzvah, and she sets out to redefine what her first steps into womanhood will look like now that she intends to take those steps alone.
The young cast proves adept at the film’s clever script, by Alison Peck (based on the 2005 novel by Fiona Rosenbloom), and director Sammi Cohen indulges the virgin-mojito inclinations of preteens while avoiding nostalgia , thank you In one of the film’s best jokes, a partygoer requests a dusty mothball on the dance floor: “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey. For a second, the film’s lighthearted and contemporary appeal hinges on balance. And then with delightful rudeness, the film’s middle-aged, disco-ball-helmeted disc jockey, DJ Schmuley (Ido Mosseri), rejects the song, spitting out, “Let Schmuley handle vibe here!” A Selena Gomez song fills the score, and this goofy charm of a movie bounces.
You Were Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
Rated PG-13 for middle school bathroom language and humor. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. Watch on Netflix.