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Film reviews

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah Review

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“Being Jewish” is at the center of this film about a traditional family. The vibe Adam Sandler creates in You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah is full of relatable personalities in partbecause his daughters, Sadie and Sunny, are in the film with him. Adam Sandler plays the classy father who is faithful to his religion. The film does an average job of resembling a traditional family. However, in many ways the story is about revenge and adolescent life more than family. The traditions which are part of being Jewish play a prominent role in the movie.

The plot revolves around adolescence and the peer pressure which hits in early puberty. The film is centered on Stacey (Sunny Sandler), a middle school girl getting ready for her bat mitzvah. Her parents are Danny and Bree (played by Adam Sandler and Idina Menzel). Stacey also has an older sister, Ronnie (Sadie Sandler.). The family is loving and supportive and will do whatever it takes to make her bat mitzvah special. However, due to a conflict with a close friend, Lydia (played by Samantha Lorraine), the plan for a memorable bat mitzvah begins an ugly downward spiral. Stacey cares about being vindictive and having power over Lydia. From my perspective, the real problem is teenage nonsense which is where the film is relatable for young adults.

The age of peer pressure and popularity cross paths with the various aspects of religious practice in You Are So Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah. Culture and tradition hit plateaus for the film’s characters and are demonstrated in the performances of Sandler and his daughters. Being Jewish as opposed to practicing thereligion always comes as a reminder for the harsh actions that sporadically occur in this bizarre comedy. The film itself is notterrible but the writing begins to fade easily, and only shines when there are twists like blindsiding and revenge. In all honesty, the story is a fairly accurate representation of adolescent life with typical frustrations to be navigated.

You Are So Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah tries to be consistentlyfunny but only succeeds in an average way. Frankly, some of the comedic moments did not add up for me. I felt that the movie kept trying to jump between dark comedy and real comedy. Overall, it feels more like a real comedy that tries to have a heart. The premise focuses on a teenager experiencing jealousy but wanting to feel empowered. The movie does offer some moments of connection that provide meaning for adults as well as younger viewers.

The era of teen popularity keeps going awry in You Are So Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah, although adolescence is depicted with some class. There is a quote in the movie comparing soccer and dancing, “Soccer’s a sport, dance is an art.” I feel the sport of the film is represented by the efforts to get revenge, and the art is in the reactions to those efforts. I’m having a hard time explaining the true experience of this film which is why I remain neutral. Two and a half out of four stars.

Film reviews

Heart of Stone Review

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Actress Gal Gadot is beautiful and she is always cute and adventurous in her roles. Of course, she played Wonder Woman, and she can tackle all kinds of suspenseful roles, whether they’re psychologically suspenseful, violently suspensefully, or mysteriously suspenseful. She also has an aptitude for spy thrillers. But I just wasn’t sold with her role in Heart of Stone, or the film as a whole. The title Heart of Stone and the film’s introduction are almost like a 007 experience—like Gal Gadot in Tom Cruise mode. That may seem like a good thing, but it just doesn’t work in Heart of Stone.

In Heart of Stone, Gadot is Rachel Stone, an intelligence operative for a peacekeeping agency that flies beneath the radar. A mission goes wrong, and there is hacker who is trying to steal a weapon that could threaten the world. Stone has a team of people ranging from Parker (played by Jamie Dornan), to Jack of Hearts (played by Matthias Schweighofer), and more. But choosing sides or figuring out who to trust in Heart of Stone is hard. The concept of the film is for the characters to trust no one, but the film just doesn’t pull it off.

Hacking and artificial intelligence are frequent topics in Heart of Stone. There are some invigorating plot points that revolve around those two elements, but the film doesn’t do justice to either topic. The importance of the hacking and AI is to remind audiences that the peacekeeping agency is discreet. But other than those two elements there is not much to say about the film’s technological components. And even those elements don’t really benefit the film or its plot. Frankly, the film is somewhat of a mess, with many elements that don’t seem to find meaning or connection to the plot.

To further elaborate on my boredom with this film, it is probably more because of how it keeps jumping to car chases, dangerous mountain scenarios, and all kinds of rollercoaster disasters. Those are fun in a blockbuster, but in a spy thriller I want more details and emphasis towards where the danger lies. Heart of Stone struggles to do that. The film just relies too much on explosions and anarchy.

I wish I could be more positive, but it’s not coming easy with this one. Although seeing Gadot in a film is always a positive, and her appearance and performance in Heart of Stone are what is most memorable about it. She didn’t come close to making up for the rest of the film.

This is simply one of the biggest disappointments of the summer for me. A poorly made thriller trying to seem like a 007 movie. More of a nuisance than a great experience. It had some brief, interesting moments in its plot, but the rest, to be blunt, is garbage. Just two out of four stars for Heart of Stone.

Film reviews

The Mother Review

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The role of overly protective mother suits Jennifer Lopez well. In 2002, she played a mother trying to protect herself and her child from her abusive husband in Enough. In 2015, she played a mother trying to protect herself from a psycho student in The Boy Next Door (2015). In The Mother, she plays the parent who has a past that impacts her own child. The name of Lopez’s character is simply Mother.

This film opens in a crime investigation and the situation has gotten ugly. She has spent much of her life on the run trying to escape from her past involvement with drug cartels and dangerous enemies. Mother keeps getting caught in situations where her troubles are linked to her past.  Mother can’t even see her daughter Zoey (played by Lucy Paez) due to having legal troubles which pose a risk to her own daughter.  Both Mother and Zoey are in harm’s way and the situations do not get any easier.

Mother has lost custody of Zoey. Despite Mother’s past, she will do all it takes to protect her daughter.  Because drug cartels keep impacting Mother’s life, she has adapted to being aware of her surroundings and fighting like her life depends on it. The film transitions to Mother’s harsh past and Lopez gives a stellar performance of teaching a child how to survive. However, the transition lacks focus, and The Mother begins to feature many catastrophes with lots of shooting action.

Unfortunately, the featured scenarios led to boredom in my opinion. As soon as Mother’s main objective was to ensure her daughter knows how to survive, I found that there was no meaningful clarification to how exactly this connects to Mother’s past.  In the beginning of the movie, there are backstories of Mother being a veteran and also involved in various crime scenarios. Then, she seems to be a criminal who is targeted by the worst enemies. The film’s algorithm which would allow it to find its redemption by having Mother and daughter survive is off base. I thought to myself that the role of Lopez was a bit like Liam Neeson’s role in Taken (2009). The Mother is similar to Taken in terms of fighting for the ones we love most. Disappointingly, the direction is lacking in quality that results in this story being a predictable setup with obvious outcomes.

On a positive note, The Mother is watchable because Lopez delivers a prestige performance. As she teaches her daughter to fight, she tells her to use her hate and frustration to help her live. The Mother fully explores that idea. The film also displays how the present is more important than the past. Mother’s previous issues are not worth going back to. In The Mother, Zoey is the priority of the story, but the film suffers due to the lack of structure and poor writing. Still, thanks to Lopez’s strong acting skills, it is not a complete failure. Two and a half stars for The Mother.