The MaccaBee

Sixteen-year-old Aviva Meyer (Madison Iseman) doesn’t have it easy: Her father is dead to her, her mother refuses to ignore her, and her brother runs wild with the local USY crowd. After getting caught smoking whitefish in the bathroom, Aviva agrees to enter a spelling bee to get out of Hebrew School detention.

She enlists spelling bee coach Isaac Steinmann (Adam Sandler) to offer gruff, sage advice as her surrogate father figure. In turn, Aviva reignites Isaac’s love of putting information on flashcards, which he stopped long ago due to a tragic misspelling that cost him the love of his life.

But the real miracle of the holiday would be if Aviva figures out once and for all the definitive English spelling of “Hanukkah” – does it start with CH or H? Is there an H at the end? One K in the middle? Two?