A peak in Adam Sandler's production partnership with the streamer, Julia Hart's honest four-hanky weepie covers familiar territory in both the coming-of-age and let's-put-on-a-show genres, but everything works.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
@guylodge See All
Courtesy of Netflix There’s a high probability that you’ve seen Sunny Sandler on screen before: Thanks to the patronage of her ceaselessly prolific dad, Adam, the 17-year-old has amassed 26 film credits to date. In “Don’t Say Good Luck,” however, you’ll actually notice her. As a teenager likewise stepping into the spotlight for the first time — and, in rather more bittersweet circumstances, facing the end of childhood — she’s the warmly gawky, thoroughly believable center of Julia Hart‘s sensitive, open-hearted theater-kid portrait. She’s matched beat for beat by Melanie Lynskey, no revelation but reliably affecting and emotionally generous as our heroine’s doting, ailing mother. Coming-of-age films with variations of these characters and dynamics come around pretty often; rather more unusual are those written and played with this degree of care and compassion.
Related Stories
