!!Spoiler Warning!! The following contains spoilers for the movie “Sitting in Bars with Cakes”
The movie “Sitting in Bars with Cakes” is a soul shattering film that depicts the love and comfort that comes with meaningful friendships. Based on a true story, the movie follows two women, Yara Shahidi as Jane and Odessa A’zion as Corinne, who live together in a quirky apartment in Los Angeles. The best friends both work at a talent management company, Corinne being the assistant to a scary but powerful Hollywood agent and Jane, the mail delivery woman for the different departments within the building. Corinne’s character is deemed as very social and outgoing, very much that friend who we all have: the life of the party. It’s hard not to be bored around them because of the excitement and pure love they embody walking into every single room. Jane, however, can be classified as nearly the exact opposite. She is a quiet but genuine friend. Pure, in every sense of the word, she is known to be the friend who always plays it safe amongst every aspect of her life. In the movie she is studying for the Law School Admissions Test, to become a successful lawyer just like her parents, whereas Corinne is working to become just like her scary but powerful boss.
On Corinne’s birthday, Jane and all their other friends go to celebrate at a lively bar. Jane, a homemade cake in hand, sits to the side watching Corinne playfully sing karaoke on top of the bar. Slowly Jane gets approached by many men who inquire about the cake and as to why she has it in the bar. Serving up Corinne’s birthday cake (with her permission) ends up filling the night with much laughter and even more drunk men who fall in love with Jane’s delectable cake. Following this eventful night, Corinne traps Jane into a genius idea of baking 100 fancy cakes and taking them to 20 different bars all over Los Angeles. Jane agrees in an effort to encapsulate her best friend’s risk taking characteristic. Throughout the movie, viewers are able to see how the friendship strengthens between the two women and how most of all, both women seem so full of life. Watching the movie made me feel as if my twenties were being filled with as much adventure and smiles as theirs are. Jane began to become more carefree with each bar and with each cake. She pulled many men, and created even more stories. However, on a random night when they came back home Corinne ended up having a seizure and one hospital trip later, she unfortunately gets diagnosed with brain cancer. From this moment forward, Jane begins to become Corinne’s full time caretaker. With tenderness and an everlasting hand of compassion, Jane holds Corinne’s sickness with more love than I would feel lucky to have in my lifetime.
The battle against cancer was no easy feat, but Corinne insisted on continuing the Cake to Bar journey and so it resumed. Revolving around the doctors and chemo appointments, Jane and Corinne continued to travel through the men in bars and the cakes that were baked. With every bite, came more tears. Corinne’s perseverance and Jane’s wholehearted support illustrates the true meaning of unconditional love in every way. When Corinne eventually passed away, the heartbreak I felt was as if I had known her my whole life, and I had loved her the same way Jane had. So much so that I grieved her past the ending of the movie too. Director Trish Sie beautifully portrays the significance of female friendships and especially the power of platonic love.