Overview
- The film, which premieres Friday, Aug. 14 on Netflix, has received broadly positive advance reviews and high aggregator scores including a reported 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Sunny Sandler stars as Sophie Birenbaum and Melanie Lynskey plays her mother, with critics highlighting Sandler’s emotional lead turn and Lynskey’s quietly powerful performance.
- The story follows Sophie as she wins the lead in her high school production of Waitress just after overhearing that her mother’s cancer has returned, and a climactic performance of the song “She Used to Be Mine” serves as an emotional centerpiece.
- Reviewers praise Julia Hart’s authentic depiction of theater life and the film’s tight, roughly mid-90-minute runtime while noting underdeveloped supporting threads and familiar coming-of-age beats.
- Directed by Julia Hart from a screenplay by Hart, Jordan Horowitz and Laura Hankin and produced by Adam and Jackie Sandler’s Happy Madison for Netflix, the movie is being read as a deliberate tonal shift for the production banner toward more earnest drama.