Director: Julia Hart
Writers: Laura Hankin, Julia Hart, Jordan Horowitz
Stars: Sunny Sandler, Melanie Lynskey, Stephanie Beatriz
Synopsis: Sophie Birenbaum is ready for the spotlight as the lead in her high school musical — until suddenly she’s living with even more drama at home than on the stage.
I cannot remember a movie from Happy Madison Productions like Don’t Say Good Luck, this heartfelt, this poignant, or this beautifully done. We are talking about a company that has given us some of the quintessential sophomoric comedies, from Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy to films Adam Sandler made for his friends, like Grandma’s Boy and the Deuce Bigelow franchise.
Yet, a funny thing happened a couple of years ago when Sandler made You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah. That family affair was sweet, unlike anything the brand had made before, while still carrying dashes of Sandler’s comedic sensibilities. However, with Don’t Say Good Luck, he has produced something entirely different: something wonderful, tragic, and deeply moving.
Yes, Don’t Say Good Luck isn’t as intimate in nature as Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
nor does it capture the coming-of-age awkwardness of Eighth Grade or the visceral antipathy of the mother-daughter dynamic in Lady Bird. However, this Netflix film is so heartfelt and grounded that it makes you appreciate what you have or long for what you don’t.
The story follows Sophie Birenbaum (Sunny Sandler, wonderful here), a seventeen-year-old shy theater kid who tries to win a small part in her high school’s production of “Waitress.” Sophie is the oldest daughter of Elizabeth (Melanie Lynskey of Heavenly Creatures fame) and Ted (New Girl’s Max Greenfield), who are also raising her rambunctious young twin brothers.
However, Sophie’s parents, in a charming and poignant running bit throughout the film, have a habit of accidentally calling their daughter. One of those times, Sophie picks up and hears something she was never meant to hear: her mother’s cancer has returned. She calls her best friend (Scarlett Estevez), and her grandparents (Bebe Neuwirth, Steve Buscemi) come to help.
Ted runs a local delicatessen, making it a family affair. Sophie comes running in to announce that, with the support of her teacher (Stephanie Beatriz), she has landed the coveted lead role. Soon, she is paired with the theater heartthrob (Avatar: Fire and Ash’s Jack Champion), navigating the awkwardness of coming-of-age just as her mother’s health begins to deteriorate.
Don’t Say Good Luck comes from director Julia Hart, who wrote and directed the criminally underseen streaming crime thriller I’m Your Woman. Hart co-wrote the script with Laura Hankin and La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz, with the story reportedly inspired by Hankin’s own life. Hankin, an acclaimed novelist, makes her first screenplay, where the characters feel lived-in.
In a coming-of-age drama, it is unusual to see teenage life portrayed with so little sensationalism. Sophie’s parents and grandparents don’t threaten the teenage boy dating their daughter. The kids are empathetic, treating each other with respect and kindness. Where another film might turn a friend spending more time dating into a major rift, here, fences are mended with tenderness and care.
A clever storytelling trick is that much of the anxiety and conflict surrounding her mother’s deteriorating condition plays out in the background whenever Sophie puts on her headphones. The most critical moments where family members snap at each other happen with Neuwirth’s character, whose anxiety about her daughter’s health is understandable.
Also, there is a scene where Sophie becomes angry that her mother cannot see her performance. Some may be quick to call the teenager selfish. However, what they may fail to understand is that this is a young woman projecting her fear and anxiety over the possibility of losing her mother. Over the course of the movie, the screenplay connects these two perspectives.
Lynskey’s performance shows viewers the profound selflessness of motherhood. This being a Netflix film, it is a genre picture, designed to pull at your heartstrings and build to a finale designed to open the waterworks. Or at the very least, put a giant-sized lump in your throat. This isn’t a raw look at cancer like in Our Friend. This is designed to be a tearjerker, but not a shameless one.
Hart, Hankin, and Horowitz’s film is indeed a tearjerker, but unlike many others, it knows exactly which emotional buttons to push and earns every single one of them. Sunny Sandler steals the show in the finale, as a warm family film gives way to inevitable sorrow. Yet it’s the moments lived in between that make life worth living, in a story about a young woman finding her voice, guided by love, by family, and, to a point, by community.
You can stream Don’t Say Good Luck exclusively on Netflix August 13th!
