‘Don’t Say Good Luck’ Review: Sunny Sandler, Melanie Lynskey netflix

After showing genuine talent opposite her father Adam Sandler in 2023’s Netflix comedy, You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah, Sunny Sandler 100% confirms that talent runs in the family with another Netflix film produced by Happy Madison (her father’s production company) and right in line with the heartfelt coming of age films the Sandler dynasty is turning out along with the expected more raucous comedies.

Don’t Say Good Luck is based on a true story that actually happened to screenwriter Laura Hankin, who wrote the first draft and collaborated on the script with Jordan Horowitz and the film’s director Julia Hart. Sandler plays high school drama student Sophie who is angling for a part in her school’s production of the Broadway hit Waitress and gets more than she dreamed when she lands the lead role. But unfortunately life gets in the way of this triumphant moment in a young person’s life when her mother Elizabeth’s (Melanie Lynskey) cancer returns.

Hart’s sensitive direction deftly balances the trials of a mom facing the end of her life much too soon with a major moment in the life of a teenage daughter just hitting her stride at the same moment in a family turned upside down. Shifting from the dynamics of the making of a high school musical, the budding attraction to her leading man, and the anguish of her mom’s worsening condition just as it collides with what should be a joyous time is at the crux of this surprisingly mature and engaging film that ultimately shows the healing power of art against the raw reality of the curves life can throw at you. In lesser hands this all could have been a minor YA story of the sort we have seen played out so many times before, but in it is a much deeper and emotional dive thanks to the two lead performances of Sandler, and the incomparable Lynskey whose caring mom is determined to keep her terminal diagnosis a secret from her daughter as perhaps a final gift just when Sophie needs it most. Of course eventually this decision causes conflict when things get really rough for Elizabeth, her determination finally getting the best of her.

Structurally the film goes back and forth between the devastating family drama, and the rehearsals of Waitress (and by the way if only I got to do sophisticated musicals like this one in my high school shows) where Sophie is playing a character who is pregnant. That plot development alone smartly allows for an intimate discussion between Sophie and her mother that won’t leave a dry eye in the house when the school’s drama teacher (Stephanie Beatriz) unknowingly suggests that to find deeper meaning in the role she ask her mother what she felt when she was expecting Sophie.It is just one of several scenes that make this movie rise above the pack of typical teen coming of age movies.

Hart, who seems to specialize in movies about young people including finding a little known Timothee Chalamet to play a student in an earlier film about a high school drama class called Miss Stevens, knows how to break hearts without cloying sentiment. In the hands of Sandler (who also displays an impressive but naturally believable singing voice in performing several songs from Waitress in varying points in the rehearsal process leading all the way to a poignant final and very personal performance), we see that Sophie is a good person devastated because her mom can’t even be there for this hallmark in her life, but growing up in the process and learning it doesn’t always go the way we planned. Lynskey, an actress who can do no wrong, is exquisite playing a loving parent caught up in her own crisis but doing everything she can to help her daughter against all odds.

The film belongs to both of them, but there is fine support from Max Greenfield as her father, Jack Champion as the handsome love interest in the play who uses the kissing scenes as an entree for something a bit more, and the lively Elyse Bell as the effervescent drama student who vied with Sophie for the lead but has her back all the way. Veterans Bebe Neuwirth and Steve Buscemi also get some key moments they deliver memorably. This is a movie that also just may want to make you see Waitress again, or for the first time. The Sara Bareilles songs soar.

Producers are Adam Sandler, Jackie Sandler, Horowitz, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, and Fred Berger

Title: Don’t Say Good Luck

Distributor: Netflix

Release Date: August 14, 2026 – Streaming

Director: Julia Hart

Screenplay: Laura Hankin and Jordan Horowitz & Julia Hart

Cast: Sunny Sandler, Melanie Lynskey, Max Greenfield, Jack Champion, Stephanie Beatriz, Elyse Bell, Scarlett Estevez, Emma McNulty, Bebe Neuwirth, Steve Buscemi, Jon Lovitz.

Rating: PG13

Running Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes