Adam Sandler’s New Movie Is a Funhouse Mirror Image of One of His Best

The post Adam Sandler’s New Movie Is a Funhouse Mirror Image of One of His Best appeared first on Consequence.

Hollywood just can’t stop copying itself! First, we get two movies about asteroids hitting the Earth. Then come two different limited series about the opioid crisis. Now, there are two movies in which Adam Sandler and Idina Menzel play harried parents trying to navigate an important Jewish tradition while keeping their adolescent children happy?

Okay, yes, beyond those specific details, the 2019 adrenaline rush Uncut Gems and 2023’s young and fun comedy You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah might not have a ton in common. But those details are pretty big, creating a funhouse mirror effect if you watch them back to back (as I might have foolishly done for this piece).

The two films represent both sides of the binary that is Adam Sandler’s career, as he can now enjoy literally the best of both worlds: creative risk-taking when he feels like it and fancy vacations on the production’s dime when he feels like that. For Sandler has developed a very comfortable position for himself on Netflix at this point — Bat Mitzvah is the third comedy he’s produced for the streaming service just in 2023, following Murder Mystery 2 and The Out-Laws.

Bat Mitzvah, though, is very much him making that deal the family business, as the film’s true star is Sunny Sandler (making her 21st screen appearance at the age of 14) as Stacy Friedman, a girl just on the verge of her own titular coming-of-age event. The whole nuclear family appears in the film, actually — while Menzel plays Sunny’s mom Bree, Adam is of course Stacy’s father Danny, while Sunny’s older sister Sadie plays Ronnie Friedman, Stacy’s older sister, and Jackie Sandler plays Gabi Rodriguez Katz, the mother of Stacy’s best friend Lydia (Samantha Lorraine). (There are too many names beginning with S in this paragraph.)

In Bat Mitzvah, Stacy is on the cusp of ritually decreed womanhood, with all the complications that entails — if you saw Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret earlier this year, you’re fully versed in the basics. While everything’s in place for her big coming-of-age bash, the tweenage social world is a perilous one, and a fight with the aforementioned Lydia leads to apocalyptic embarrassment for everyone involved.

There’s no mention of unsavory topics like sports betting, cocaine use, or The Weeknd in the film; like It’s Me Margaret, the young protagonist provides the film’s point-of-view (she even narrates her problems to God in voice-over). And that’s what makes it such an interesting pairing with Uncut Gems.

In Bat Mitzvah, Sandler leans hard into the slightly goofy but well-meaning dad role, a milder version of the Sandler we’ve known from decades worth of Happy Madison productions. Does Danny have a job? If it came up in the dialogue, it didn’t make much of an impression, and it’s easy to see that not being an important detail from the perspective of a girl caught up in her own troubles.

So, why not take a moment to imagine that that job is New York City jewelry store owner? Uncut Gems, written and directed by Josh and Benny Sadfie, has no time for the interior life of Howard Ratner’s (Adam Sandler) teenage daughter (played by Noa Fisher). Instead, its focus is on Howie as he attempts to hustle everyone in his orbit, including his soon-to-be-ex-wife Dinah (Menzel), during the same week as Passover.

No spoilers, but things don’t work out great for Howie at the end of Uncut Gems; his bitter relationship with Dinah is frankly the least of his worries, a sharp contrast to the playful and loving relationship shared by Bree and Danny. And because of that ending, you might be tempted to think there’s no overlap between this film and Bat Mitzvah.

However, it’s genuinely fun to consider their similarities, not their differences: The biggest difference between the Friedman family and the Ratner family is that the Ratners have a daughter and son, not two daughters, but hey, gender is a construct. And otherwise, it’s not hard to imagine the two films existing in the same universe — Stacy Friedman’s extravagant desires for her bat mitzvah giving Howie another reason to place another ill-advised bet.

What I love most about pairing these two films together is that they make you consider a fundamental truth about life: In an era where “family” programming isn’t as cross-generational as it used to be, adults and kids are very often watching very different content, just one factor that leads to a gulf between parents and children, secrets both generations keep to themselves for so many reasons.

You cast Sandler and Menzel as parents in two movies, one made for kids and one made for adults, and the two completely different tones and approaches only enhance how little we know what our parents are going through when we’re young, and how little our parents understand us at the same time. Uncut Gems and Bat Mitzvah is not a double feature for the whole family, but it is a double feature that adds a new level of insight into what families are like.

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah premiered Friday, August 25th on Netflix. Uncut Gems is currently streaming on Paramount+.

Adam Sandler’s New Movie Is a Funhouse Mirror Image of One of His Best Liz Shannon Miller