You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah Film is Pretty Basic

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah is a Sandler family affair. An Adam Sandler production paraded as Sandler’s highest-ranking film on Rotten Tomatoes to date with a nearly perfect score.

Although the film is decent and effectively carries out the classic coming-of-age story embedded with Jewish culture, it really doesn’t do anything to truly wow the audience enough to earn a nearly perfect reception.

Good, maybe, but great, no.

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah Film Review

In You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, best friends, Stacy and Lydia, plan their Bat Mitzvahs together but when their mutual crush on the boy drives a wedge between them, major drama threatens the strength of their friendship and the success of their Mitzvahs.

Coming of Age Traditions

Although this film is rooted in Jewish culture, it immediately unites audiences by acknowledging how many cultures have a celebration similar to that of a Bat Mitzvah.

A lot of cultures celebrate a child’s coming of age in their own unique ways. The universal transition from childhood to adulthood is an event that you don’t need to be Jewish to in order to relate.

The film strongly adheres to the coming-age tropes such as the hot crush that is quite airheaded, the sweet boy that has an obvious crush on the protagonist but she doesn’t notice, the mean popular girls, and the kooky teachers.

The cringey middle school energy is strong and abundant in this film as well. With ridiculous rumors, silly games like trying to see who cries first while watching sad videos, and “accidentally” sending scandalous pictures to your crush.

We see Stacy and her friends yearn to fit in and belong.

We see them make mistakes.

We see them utterly embarrassed.

We see them giving grand importance to things with little significance.

It gives you a bit of PTSD to middle school moments you’d rather blot from existence eternally.

It also shows a clear growth in the protagonist and how she matured from the beginning of the movie as an immature child and blossomed into a young adult who is a little wiser and more thoughtful in her ways.

Friendship

Stacy and Lydia’s friendship is the focal point of this film.

When Lydia gets more attention and love from the popular kids and from her crush, Stacy is very upset by this. So upset to the point of placing herself in dangerous positions for attention and sabotaging Lydia.

This is normal for friendships to bend and break and for people to go their separate ways.

This enmity between Stacy and Lydia does reach and boiling point and there comes a point where Stacy realizes that she’s gone too far.

She reconciles things with Lydia but there is such a huge breach of trust in their friendship that was still never addressed in the movie and remains unresolved in my mind.

They are middle schoolers so maybe forgiveness is easier for them but I do feel as though more convincing needed to be done to truly mend that friendship.

Nepotism

This film is not so far from reality as it features Adam Sandler playing the father of his two real-life daughters, Sunny (Stacey) and Sadie Sandler.

His wife, Jackie Sandler, also plays the mother of Stacey’s best friend, Lydie. So the whole family played a crucial role in this story that didn’t veer too far off from their real-life roles.

Critics have pointed this out as a consequence of nepotism. However, I had no idea of this real-life relationship between the Sandler family until after the movie and it has no bearing on the quality of the story or acting provided.

In fact, it makes the story all the more endearing because you can imagine how fun and memory-building this experience must have been behind the scenes. That’s the fun energy that emanates through the screen when watching this film.

Additionally, each family member carried out their role decently well meaning that their talent supports their name, rather than their name compensating for their lack of talent.

In Conclusion…

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah is a predictable coming-of-age story with a moderately well-executed plot.

It focuses on friendship and growing pains and tells that story with all the awkwardness and cheesiness of adolescence. Occasionally it pushes the line a little bit into being a bit annoying, but aren’t we all when we’re preteens?

Although I wouldn’t consider this film to be anything out of the ordinary, it doesn’t stop this film from being a decent, relatable watch that will have you rejoicing that your middle school days are behind you.

Ultimately a fun project for the Sandler Family and a movie beloved by critics, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah is worth a casual watch.

Rating 6.5/10

What do you think of You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah? Let me know in the comments below!

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Peace, love, and lots of popcorn,

IMO