Well, the last two days have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Going through Happy Madison’s output for the year has led to some pleasant surprises, some unsurprising duds, and some genuinely amazing stuff. And I don’t know if it’s because I’m going into this directly after having my heart torn open by Leo, but this coming-of-age teen flick… it’s alright. Just… alright.
It operates similar to films like The Edge Of Seventeen, Lady Bird, and I Like Movies from earlier this year, in that it portrays the coming-of-age character arc as the process of learning how to stop being a whiny, entitled brat and become more mature. We’ll ignore that teenagers don’t have a monopoly on whiny, entitled, or bratty behaviour, and instead focus on the basics here: How is that progression shown?
Well, through the character arc of Sunny Sandler’s Stacy, getting ready for her bat mitzvah and falling out with her best friend Lydia (Samantha Lorraine) over a crush with Andy Goldfarb (Dylan Hoffman), it’s fairly standard stuff. Sunny is decent as an actor, but both as the genuine depiction of a Jewish teenager and as the one who needs to learn a lesson by the end, she doesn’t stand out that much in her own movie. Samantha Lorraine at least makes an impact from bearing the brunt of Stacy’s jealousy, but it just doesn’t hit the same.
Then again, that might be because of how insular the film’s cultural identity is. A lot of the drama and sense of humour is built on Jewish norms concerning bat/bar mitzvahs, going to temple, reciting the Torah, etc. It’s more than fine for a film like this to aim for a specific audience (homogenising everything for the lowest common denominator doesn’t usually make for great or even good art), but as an outsider who is still open to learning more about other cultures, I kept feeling like I was on the outside of the inside jokes. Honestly, the person I related to most here is Stacy’s sister Ronnie (Sadie Sandler), and that’s mainly because she’s shown watching horror movies in public on her phone. I worked through my Favourite Films list at my then-day job, so I can relate to the feeling of just wanting to enjoy your gore in peace.
But even looking beyond its admittedly-unique approach to the formula, it doesn’t present much that I haven’t already seen elsewhere. I mean, the whole love triangle plot leading to the two best friends splitting is near-identical to the one in The Edge Of Seventeen, it lacks the visceral sensation of Eighth Grade, and for a film primarily involving mitzvahs, it pales in comparison to Cha Cha Real Smooth. It’s good for what it is, and I’m sure it’ll work a treat with its target audience, but personally, it was just alright.
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