You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah

The whole Sandler clan shows up here, starring as a nuclear Jewish family loosely based around them (although, Jackie Sandler is perplexingly playing the mother of a different family in the film, replaced by Idina Menzel for unknown reasons).

Like many coming of age films that came before it, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah is full of teenage angst, cringeworthy moments, and rebellious spirit. I am not a middle school girl, but man… I felt like one.

Okay, not really. But Stacy’s (Sunny Sandler) struggles felt like mine. Nothing felt more important than her boy drama. And no one wanted her to have an amazing Bat Mitzvah as much as I did.

Okay fine, you caught me exaggerating again. But in all seriousness, this was a very funny film and surprisingly much better than expected. It almost completely lacks the typical Adam Sandler humor that you’d expect. In fact, Adam Sandler is in this film a lot less than you would expect.

I enjoyed the characterization a lot. They felt like real middle schoolers going through the ringer, and I believed all of their petty fights and tight friendships.

The camerawork impressed me too! There were some fun camera moves, particularly a fun zolly when Stacy sees her crush kissing her best friend(!!!!). It felt like everyone was there to have fun while they worked. This was probably a fun set to work on.

This was also a fun deep dive into the Jewish faith. I do feel more learned after watching this, I must say. I feel like I picked up on a few Jewish terms and customs that I previously was not privy to.

While I won’t be revisiting this anytime soon, this was a fun time and I’m very happy I watched. I would recommend this to anyone who either is or knows a middle schooler. I’d give it a score of 6/10 Sandlers.