From Happy Madison (You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah) & Range Studios (Black Rabbit), Don’t Say Good Luck is the latest Adam Sandler-produced vehicle for Netflix. Much like his previous 2026 production Roommates, The Sandman is moving away once again from his own starring vehicles and taking on a project led by one of his two talented daughters; this time with his youngest Sunny, the star (and my co-MVP) of Netflix’s You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.
Co-written & directed by the underrated Julia Hart (I’m Your Woman, Miss Stevens), the film focuses on Sophie Birenbaum (Sandler), a high school sophomore with her sights set on a prominent role in her high school’s production of the Broadway musical Waitress. Buoyed by her supportive family, especially her mother Elizabeth (played by Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey), Sophie manages to land the lead role despite auditioning for a smaller part.
However, just when things start to look up for her, Sophie’s mother’s cancer has come back after battling it once before. While in the dark about the severity of the diagnosis, Sophie moves forward with her role in the play. Distracted by the pressure of being the star, her attraction to her co-star (complete with kissing scenes), & her complicated friendship with her best friend Carolyn, she battles through the complex rollercoaster of being an ambitious high schooler while trying to push down the difficult emotions surrounding her home life. As opening night draws near and the state of her mother’s condition becomes clearer, Sophie must face both of her biggest challenges head-on if she’s going to make her family proud.
Based on a story by Laura Hankin, Don’t Say Good Luck captures the emotional toll that a destructive disease can have on a family while clashing against a young woman’s coming-of-age journey into self-discovery & the reluctant spotlight. The subtle approach by director Julia Hart handles the grief with care as it slowly engulfs a loving family, barely keeping it together as their matriarch fights the inevitable.
DON’T SAY GOOD LUCK. (L to R) Melanie Lynskey as Elizabeth and Sunny Sandler as Sophie in Don’t Say Good Luck. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026.
Seeing the story unfold through the viewpoint of the eldest child & daughter of a dying mother allows every moment with the two of them alone to be an emotional check-in for the audience. We’re allowed to relish the playfulness & joy of conversations about hot chauffeurs and performing Southern accents for strangers while Elizabeth’s condition is still stable enough to do so. But we also get to see how hard it is for Elizabeth to bring that same energy as the cancer slowly saps her strength, even though she tries so hard when her daughter needs her most.
The film puts each of the mother & daughter stories on parallel tracks; two women struggling without each other as they protect themselves from affecting each other’s lives in a negative way. Elizabeth wants Sophie to thrive as any mother would and live her best teenage life as the talented young woman she always knew she was while Sophie wants to know the truth to make her own decisions on how to make the best of her mother’s remaining time. That push & pull creates the tension that lives in the background of Sophie’s complicated arc and creates the best scenes in the film when mother and daughter finally come to terms that neither of them knows how to handle the situation and they only want the best for each other.
Thankfully, the film does balance out the slow fade of life with the cheat code that is the musical performances of the blockbuster play Waitress and, of course, a tinge of levity from a cast stacked with actors from prominent comedic backgrounds. Jon Lovitz hating kale wraps & singing a tune from Annie, Steve Buscemi giving grandfatherly warnings about “handsy” boys, Max Greenfield corralling his own crazy boys, & sneaky scene-stealer Claire Scavone as overly enthusiastic & darkly eccentric theater kid Trista giving a potentially murderous backstory to a severely minor background character.
The film also gets a nice distraction of mostly millennial-coded needle drops in the soundtrack. Tracks like The Naked and Famous’s “Young Blood”, Bleachers’ “Tiny Moves”, and the frequently used “Deceptacon” by Le Tigre punch up the Sophie high school experience while the Fleetwood Mac “Silver Springs” callback end-credits song will catch you just as the tissues start to come out.
If nits can be picked in this quite capable musical dramedy, there is a case to be made that, while well-acted, the teenage life of Sophie Birenbaum outside of dealing with her family drama is kind of basic. I know that’s a real “outside of the tragedy, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” situation there, but she mostly just lives her routine life of minor boy trouble, minor friend trouble, one adventure in underage drinking, & a big role in a high school play. It’s a large part of the movie and one could be less compelled for certain sections of her story.
DON’T SAY GOOD LUCK. (L to R) Sunny Sandler as Sophie and Melanie Lynskey as Elizabeth in Don’t Say Good Luck. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026.
However, I feel that, while those sections may not always light up the screen—in the early going especially—those elements do pay off tremendously as the collision of Sophie’s dual life tensions brings about the greatest scenes in the film’s final act. Sandler’s live performance of “She Used To Be Mine” on stage in front of her family and on a smaller stage in her backyard performing for one captive audience member is all you need to bring you to your knees and praise Sandler’s multi-tiered achievement.
The ascension of Sophie despite it all while also being there in the end for her mother, mixed with the strong performances from Sandler & the always incredible Melanie Lynskey, is the reason to tune in here. The story ends so strongly that you can’t help but embrace this delicately crafted tearjerker as it wraps its arms around you and tells you to let go.
Watch Don’t Say Good Luck If You Liked
- You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah
- Miss Stevens
- Coda
- Goodbye June
MVP of Don’t Say Good Luck
Melanie Lynskey as the mother, Elizabeth
While it would be incredibly justified to give this to Sunny Sandler for her dual-threat performance of singing & leading the film, Melanie Lynskey’s thankless role of a mother desperately trying to cling to the moments of parental bliss she has left brought a different level of raw emotion & vulnerability that made the film stand out in every scene she’s in.
Lynskey’s well-established range in her genre-defying career allows her to easily move from a charming & funny “cool mom” to Sophie, a struggling woman unsure how to make her final days worthwhile without scarring the family she holds so dear. She gives realism & dignity to a role that could have been reduced to a more one-note tragic figure.
Writer/Director Julia Hart’s understated yet genuine portrait of a young theater kid trying desperately to strike a balance between her on-stage drama and the real drama at home brings out the best in the mother-daughter pair of Sandler & Lynskey. Their scenes together, as well as the shockingly great Waitress singing performances from Sunny, elevate the story above a more standard coming-of-age high school experience or family drama.
