TMS Movie Review: Don’t Say Good Luck

(Jaclyn Martinez / Netflix)

Happy Madison, the production company that historically produces all of Adam Sandler’s infamously mediocre-to-terrible slapstick comedies and has been often joked as an excuse for Sandler to fund vacations for his family and friends, has taken a slightly surprising turn in the past few years. The studio now seems to focus on financing projects for Sandler’s daughters, Sadie and Sunny, to star in. And the results so far haven’t been bad. I thought Sammi Cohen’s You are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023) was a fine little comedy starring the whole Sandler clan and Chandler Levack’s Roommates with Sadie earlier this year seemed to do decently on streaming. But Julia Hart’s Don’t Say Good Luck has a more dramatic, serious tone than the previous features.

Here, high school sophomore Sophie Birenbaum (Sunny) has only two goals in life: winning the lead role in her school’s production of Sara Bareilles & Jessie Nelson’s hit Broadway musical ‘Waitress’ and hoping her class crush, Jack Davis (Jack Champion) notices and likes her. Everything turns out perfectly when she is indeed cast as the lead and Jack is playing her love interest on stage. But things are halted at home when it’s discovered Sophie’s mother, Elizabeth (Melanie Lynskey) is diagnosed with cancer, and the outcome sadly isn’t looking good.

Max Greenfield co-stars as Sophie’s father Ted, Steve Buscemi and Bebe Neuwirth appear as her maternal grandparents, Stephanie Beatriz plays the school drama teacher and play director, and Scarlett Estevez is Sophie’s supportive best friend Carolyn.

(Jaclyn Martinez / Netflix)

Don’t Say Good Luck is produced by Hart’s husband Jordan Horowitz and co-written by Laura Hankin along with Hart and Horowitz. As a vanity project made for nepotistic reasons, the best part of Hart’s film is the star herself, who continues to show how much genuine potential she has for a future grown-up career. Sunny can handle herself with both dramatic beats and comic relief, and can even sing to boot. If she is seriously considering branching out on her own, I would be interested in seeing where her resume goes. The rest of the cast is great, especially Buscemi cast against type as a cuddly grandpa; and the heart and maturity of Don’t Say Good Luck helps lift its quality and execution, especially for a Happy Madison release. While the second half of the film does end up a bit weepy in the old school way of Garry Marshall’s Beaches (1988), and there’s an unnecessary switch up in Sophie’s love interest; as a showcase for a famous comedian’s offspring’s talent, Don’t Say Good Luck succeeds.

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