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

From the opening minutes of Netflix’s Don’t Say Good Luck, it’s clear the spring of 2026 is going to be big in the life of high school sophomore Sophie Birenbaum (Sunny Sandler).

A consummate theater kid, she’s been practicing and practicing her audition number for the school’s production of Waitress. She looks forward to the long hours of rehearsal alongside her BFF and her crush, to capping off yet another school year with the rush of opening night.

But the transformative experience that hits her isn’t quite what she expected. By the time Sophie lands the lead role, the very ground beneath her feet has shifted with news that her mother’s (Melanie Lynskey) cancer has returned. The drama by Julia Hart (Fast Color) traces the intertwined journeys of Sophie’s play and her mother’s illness with an observant eye and a warm touch, sensitive to the bittersweet fact that just because the world is ending on one front doesn’t mean the rest of it stops turning, too.

At school or among friends, Sophie passes all the usual adolescent milestones. She develops a flirty rapport with her leading man (Jack Champion). She has a falling-out with her childhood friend (Scarlett Estevez) as their interests begins to diverge. She gets way too drunk at a party, necessitating what a pal accurately describes as “the greatest acting challenge of your young life” when her dad (an appealingly scruffy Max Greenfield as Ted) comes to pick her up. She hones her talents under the guidance of her drama teacher (Stephanie Beatriz as Ms. Parker), and comes into her own as a performer.

At home, Sophie deals, or often tries very hard not to deal, with the reality of her mom’s illness. The script, by Hart, Laura Hankin and Jordan Horowitz, eschews the sort of grand emotional moments a more conventional cancer drama might build its narrative around — the initial diagnosis or the discussion of options or the tribulations of treatment — in favor of little details that accumulate bit by bit into a grim prognosis: how the family’s plans to spend the summer at their beach house sound a little less certain every time they’re brought up; how Liz has less and less energy for the long book she’s been reading. The realization of what it all adds up to sinks in so gradually that at some point, it feels like we’ve always known.

Sophie would be the first to acknowledge that her petty adolescent woes don’t matter anywhere near as much as her mom’s illness — and in fact does, when her grandmother (Bebe Neuwirth) accuses her of prioritizing the play over family during a Mother’s Day weekend. And her little brother might not get why she’s so fussed about starring in some dumb show in the first place. “Why do they sing? Just be talking,” he complains, with typical little-kid bluntness. But Don’t Say Good Luck recognizes that Sophie’s high school problems still matter, that the play is as much catharsis as it is distraction. Or, as Sophie puts it, “Music can make you feel things that are bigger than just talking.”

That the film is so fine-grained in its empathy and authentic in its emotions makes its occasional, minor missteps stand out all the more. Here and there, you can see the narrative gears creaking to get the story where it needs to go: One butt dial from Dad is a throwaway joke, two is a payoff to that setup, three in the first 20 minutes just starts to feel like laziness. (Blessedly, there is not a fourth.)

Supporting players are so thinly sketched that they seem more like functional objects for Sophie to act out against than people who might continue to exist when the Birenbaums aren’t interacting directly with them.

And then there are the minor, extremely nitpicky things that don’t really matter and aren’t even technically wrong, but nevertheless feel off enough to chip away at the film’s naturalistic façade — like the hellacious late-’80s-ness of the maternity dress Liz claims to have worn while pregnant with Sophie, even though that would have been circa 2010.

But even when such flaws let the story down, the lovely ensemble never does. Steve Buscemi makes the most of his brief screen time as Sophie’s grandfather, a welcome pillar of straightforward understanding and wry humor in destabilizing times. (Dale’s pragmatic reaction to Sophie asking if she can get a ride home from a boy: “If I was your father, I’d say no. But I’m your grandfather, so I say wear a seatbelt and call me if he gets handsy.”) Jon Lovitz might be playing a one-note punchline, as an employee of Ted’s who’s absolutely incensed by the deli’s new healthy options, but it’s never not funny to watch his (literally) spitting disgust at the concept of a kale wrap.

Of course, it’s the leading ladies who really make the film. Sandler, who showed real promise with her first lead role in the amiable nepo family affair that was You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah, rises to the challenge of letting us in on how Sophie is feeling when often she’s unable or unwilling to know herself. But the real gem of this ensemble (as she is in pretty much everything she touches) is Lynskey, who’s never less than completely and utterly present even as Liz increasingly struggles to be. A little bit funny, a lot cheesy and completely, unabashedly earnest, her Liz is — like moms everywhere — at once a perfectly ordinary woman and the center of the universe.

The love between Sophie and Liz radiates from their every interaction, even before the bad news hits. In doting-parent fashion, Liz understands she’s not allowed to wish her actress daughter “good luck,” but can’t quite bring herself to spout the traditional theater benediction: “But I would be so sad if you broke your leg,” she pouts adorably. Really, it almost strains credulity how good their relationship is, despite Sophie being in her prime adolescent-angst years. But so what if it’s possible to quibble with some of the details? Where it counts most, in its tenderness toward young Sophie, her mother and her art, Don’t Say Good Luck rings as true and clear as any Broadway showstopper.

After appearing as a nurse on Larry David’s HBO series Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness last week in the final episode, Romy Reiner‘s resumé is expanding in 2026 with a starring role opposite Carter Jenkins and Emmy nominees Sharon Lawrence and Matt Walsh in Getting to That Age.

The short film comes from fledgling filmmaker Tristen Tarp, who directed from her own script. Getting to That Age casts Reiner as an anxiety-ridden only child who returns home for the holidays to announce her engagement, only to discover that her parents are set to divorce. The story is meant to explores the collision between personal milestones and family upheaval. See the short’s first teaser and a selection of first-look images below.

Tarp, who has also worked as a playwright, helmed Getting to That Age after another previous short, her debut Bark starring Monica Potter, Alfonso Caballero and Jennifer Sherer.

“Bringing together this cast and creative team was a rewarding journey that meant a great deal to me. Between Sharon’s incredible emotional gravitas, Carter’s natural instinct for toeing the line between humor and cynicism, and Romy and Matt’s dry wit, this talented ensemble perfectly captured the nuance that this family dynamic demanded,” Tarp said in a statement. “I’m deeply proud of how this story illustrates society’s perceptions of aging, relationships, and success, and I’m eager for audiences to see how it sparks reflection and introspection.”

The short was produced by Marked Atlas Pictures, Jumpsuit Pictures and Frances Komoda. Executive producer credits belong to Tarp, Geneva Willis, Beck Bennion, Sami Moughrabie, Charles Mudd, Katherine Mudd and Hailey Bailey with associate producer credits belonging to Madi Walser and Shalyn Delhaes.

Reiner has worked on other short films like The Underwater Halloween Movie, Pterry, Whole and the upcoming The Auschwitz Bagel. She’s been seen in projects like Things Like This, You People, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Voices. She was most recently seen throwing out the first pitch at a Los Angeles Dodgers game alongside brother Jake Reiner, marking the siblings’ highest-profile outing after their parents, Hollywood icon Rob Reiner and wife Michele, were tragically killed last December.

Jenkins’ credits include Famous in Love, Women of the Movement, The Shadow Diaries, Mad Men, The Following, Sweet/Vicious, After Ever Happy, After Everything and Paws in the City.

Both Walsh and Lawrence are veteran, Emmy-nominated actors. Walsh’s credits include Veep, The Hangover, Reno 911!, Players, Outsourced, Hung, The Do-Over, Ghostbusters, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Ghosts, The Conners and many more. Lawrence has starred on NYPD Blue, Fired Up, Ladies Man, Monk, The Line, One Tree Hill, Rizzoli & Isles, The Ranch, Me, Myself & I, Shameless, Criminal Minds, Rebel, Dynasty, Joe Pickett, Walker and many more.