Adam Sandler is on a tear. Not only is his newly released You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah the #1 Netflix movie in the US for the moment, but it’s also earning the funnyman some career-best reviews. In fact, Sandler’s new movie for the streaming giant — which also stars his real-life daughters Sunny and Sadie as well as his wife, Jackie — is currently the best-reviewed of all his films according to the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, an honor that previously belonged to his 2022 Netflix movie Hustle.
You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, which currently has a 95% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, is based on the 2005 YA novel of the same name by Fiona Rosenbloom. It’s a coming-of-age story in which Sandler is actually funny, while the movie is refreshingly free of Sandler’s slacker energy that tends to keep his haters away from his projects — and having his real-life daughters on hand also helps, providing an earnestness too often lacking in similarly low-stakes teen movies.
Directed by Sammi Cohen, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah is focused on two lifelong best friends who’ve always dreamed of “epic” bat mitzvahs. Things go hilariously wrong, though, when outside factors start to come between the two besties — like Hebrew school drama, as well as popular hottie Andy Goldfarb.
Speaking of family affairs like the presence of four Sandlers, the dreamy You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah score was also composed by Este Haim (of the rock group Haim, comprised of three sisters) and her collaborator Amanda Yamate. They last worked together on another Netflix teen film, Do Revenge. Moreover, according to Cohen, while the movie draws heavily on growing up within the context of a Jewish experience, there’s a universality to it that also saw the director take references for everything from Shiva Baby to Mean Girls.
“It has something for everyone,” Cohen said about the movie in a promotional interview with Netflix. “As much as kids will see themselves in this, adults will too. [The movie] gives us insight to this very Jewish coming-of-age experience but speaks to broader themes about what it means to be a kid today. Most of the time it’s a fun, exhilarating ride, but sometimes your stomach drops and you think the world will end. But hey, that’s being 13.”
The charming comedy has already been described as one of the best teen movies since the John Hughes era, and The Daily Beast has even gone so far as to point to a feminism inherent in it that’s reminiscent of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
“Considering the juvenile nature of so much of Sander’s prior output,” The Beast continues, “it’s probably as close as any Happy Madison production has come to maturity — making it, in a certain sense, the comedian’s own cinematic version of a mitzvah.”
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