You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah

image for You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah

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Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 13 (mature themes, language)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
  • a review of You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 8 September 2023.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to language, themes and lack of interest.
Children aged 8–13 Parental guidance recommended due to themes and language.
Children aged 14 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Coarse Language
Length: 103 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Best friends, Stacy Friedman (Sunny Sandler) and Lydia Katz Rodriguez (Samantha Lorraine), are planning the ultimate party they have been waiting for their whole lives, their Bat Mitzvahs. As the pair plan their journey to kick off adulthood, they are faced with all the dealings of high school teenage drama.

In true Jewish law, the Mitzvah must accompany the coming-of-age celebrations. Whilst struggling to work on her Mitzvah project, Stacy finds herself too caught up in her desires and social interactions to fulfil the task. When all hope is lost, Stacy knows exactly what she has to do to fix the situation and realign her faith and desire to have the iconic adult life.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Coming of age; Culture/Religion; Friendship, Betrayal; Drama.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Battling with foam battle sticks.
  • Stacy and her older sister, Ronnie (Sadie Sandler), argue – Stacy says, “I’ll kill you Ronnie”, and Ronnie replies, “Not if I stab you first”.
  • In a movie playing on Ronnie’s mobile phone, there is a man holding a knife to another man’s throat.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • At the start of the film there is a montage of scenes depicting various 'coming of age' practices. These include:
    • Land diving, which shows a person that looks to be bungee jumping; and
    • Bull ant initiation, which is described as a cultural, Amazonian tradition where bull ants crawl over hands and bite. If you can handle the pain, you are ready to be a man.
  • Performers blowing fire out of their mouths.
  • Mention of KKK.
  • There are also a number of scenes and images shown in movies playing on Ronnie’s mobile phone, including:
    • Chucky doll
    • Scary clown (shown twice)
    • Scary Leprechaun
    • Guns shooting the Leprechaun
    • Man holding a knife to another man’s throat.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Twizzlers
  • M&Ms.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Stacy imagines a kiss between herself and her crush Andy. The scene cuts as the kiss is about to happen.
  • Stacy’s mum tells her she looks like a stripper with heels on.
  • Several scenes show teenagers kissing.
  • “Under-boob” touching is mentioned.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Promiscuous photo taking – Stacy stands in front of a mirror in a short dress, posing, pouting and attempting to look sexy.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Alcohol consumption at parties – Adults drink alcohol and have ‘shots’. A parent gives older teenagers ‘shots’ which they drink.
  • Adult intoxication.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • “Bitch” is used in lyrics of opening song.
  • Kicking our ass.
  • Why does everyone like this idiot?
  • Oh shit.
  • Get out of here with that shit.
  • Even your crazy ass.

In a nutshell

Based on the 2005 young adult novel by the same name, You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah is a coming-of-age story with a Jewish basis. The high school-based drama portrays the struggles of female teenagers facing their Bat Mitzvahs, while also addressing the often awkwardness of the teenage years; navigating friendships, crushes, and social media; and parenting teens. The film is likely to appeal to people in the Jewish community, teens and older, plus parents of teens.

The main message from this movie is that following your faith will ultimately lead you to fulfilling your religious duty.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Religion
  • Friendship
  • Honesty
  • Selflessness
  • Belonging.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Friendship issues
  • Betrayal
  • Peer pressure
  • Loss of faith
  • Use of social media.