Probably because I am a South Korean nerd who was mostly occupied with getting good grades except when reading a book or watching a movie, many of American coming-of-age drama or comedy films feel like alien stories from very different worlds, and recent Netflix film “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” is no exception. While this is another typical adolescent tales of many ups and downs, it comes with a specific cultural background to observe, and it is also quite surprising considering that it is actually another Netflix product produced by Adam Sandler.

Here in this film, Sandler often willingly steps aside for his several family members to shine. As the young Jewish heroine of the film, his daughter Sunny Sandler gives a spirited performance which may lead her to more interesting stuffs in the future, and her older sister Sadie Sandler is also effective as the heroine’s wise-cracking older sister. As Sandler steadily holds the ground along with Idina Menzel as the heroine’s parents, Sandler’s wife Jackie Sandler plays the mother of the heroine’s best female friend, and ever-reliable character actor Luis Guzmán plays her converted Latino husband.

Oh, I forget to tell that, as reflected by the very title of the movie, the story mainly revolves around the upcoming Bat Mitzvah ceremony of Stacy (Sunny Sandler) and her best female friend Lydia (Samantha Lorraine). As watching how many of their schoolmates having each own fancy Bat Mitzvah one by one, both Stacy and Lydia are more determined to have each own Bat Mitzvah of lifetime, and Stacy even does a presentation on her ambitious Bat Mitzvah plan in front of her parents, who naturally tell her that she should be more realistic about her Bat Mitzvah.

Anyway, everything mostly seems to be going fairly well for Stacy and Lydia. While Lydia gladly helps Stacy on her Bat Mitzvah speech, Stacy works on a video to be played at Lydia’s Bat Mitzvah party, and they are quite hopeful about their big bright future after their respective Bat Mitzvah ceremonies. After all, who cannot possibly be excited about officially entering adulthood?

However, of course, the situation becomes rather tricky between Stacy and Lydia because of a handsome boy who has been Stacy’s longtime crush. Once she happens to draw a bit of attention from him, Stacy naturally wants to attract him more, and that leads to when she attempts one risky act when many others including him is watching her. As advised by Lydia, she could just stop at any point, but she did that in the end anyway, and, despite fortunately not getting hurt at all, she accidentally gets herself humiliated in front of others for a different reason. Quite angry and frustrated about this, Stacy comes to clash more with Lydia, and their conflict goes further when Stacy later happens to witness something going on between Lydia and that boy.

Around that narrative point, you can easily see where the story is heading, but the screenplay by Alison Peck, which is based on the young adult novel of the same name by Fiona Rosenbloom, takes some time for more character development along the story. While often making the circumstance messier due to her several unwise choices including the one represented by the title of the movie, Stacy also tries to fix the resulting problems as much as possible, and she and the movie surely earn the little poignancy shown around the end of the story.

In addition, Peck’s screenplay pays considerable attention to a bunch of supporting figures surrounding Stacy. Although many of them are no more than broad caricatures, the screenplay fills them with engaging personalities, and they also become more likable than expected in each own way. For instance, a rabbi schoolteacher played by Sarah Sherman feels a bit too cartoonish at first, but she turns out to be more understanding and caring than expected, and Sherman somehow makes her wacky character rather endearing instead of totally distracting.

In case of the relationship development between Stacy and Lydia, its dynamic course over the narrative of the film is believable, and Sunny Sandler and Samantha Lorraine are effortless as their characters’ relationship sways in one direction or another. As both of their characters cope with their complicated matters of heart, Sandler and Lorraine convey well to us their characters’ gradual growth along the plot, and we come to care more about their relationship than before.

Around these two young promising actresses, Adam Sandler and several other adult notable adult cast members dutifully occupy their respective spots without overshadowing them at all. Sandler shows a bit softer side of his screen persona as a no-nonsense father who sometimes shows some tough love to his dear daughter, and it is also a little amusing to see he and Menzel in a marital relationship completely different from the one they played in the Safdie Brothers’ intense comedy thriller film “Uncut Gems” (2019).

On the whole, “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah” does not break any particular new ground in its genre territory, but it is probably the best thing coming from the partnership between Sandler and Netflix during last several years. Besides having shown more serious sides of his acting talent these days, Sandler also seems to show some maturation as a producer, and I sincerely hope that he will make bad comedy films less frequently than before.