The Birthday Cake Review – A Delicious Vengeance Spiked Surprise

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Thursday, 17 June 2021 16:48

Written by Janet Walker

The Birthday Cake, from Screen Media Films, presents the ultimate sweet revenge flick wrapped up in a classic New York City mob movie as all the men of the family get together for annual holiday dinner.

We meet Gio, as a teen, played by David Mazouz, who is soping with his dad’s sudden death, and without the protection, he is target. Beat up and bullied by the local Russian gangs, his cousin gives him a gun. He threatens his tormentor and before he can pull the trigger, the tormentor moves on him.

His cousin tells him to run, and he does into the local Catholic church where he meets the Father Kelly, played by Ewan McGregor. He seems devoted to the family, and this is when we are told of his father’s death.

Then film the moves to the present. Gio, played by Shiloh Fernandez, is dressing for dinner. It is the holidays, and the tenth anniversary of his father’s death. His uncle, Angelo, played by Val Kilmer, a Brooklyn mafia boss, is hosting is annual holiday dinner and Gio’s mom, Sofia, played by Lorraine Bracco, has baked her traditional cake.

On the way to dinner Gio is met by the FBI, Eagle, played by Aldis Hodges, and Pete, played by Jack Weary, who are trying to convince him to get his Uncle Angelo, to talk, or at least get someone on the inside to talk.

That is the first of his unusual encounters on the way to this annual dinner. The second, as he is asked to pick up a few things on the way to the dinner. He finds that the Russians are moving into the neighborhood and muscling the local bodega owners and shaking them down for refusing to turn on Angelo and pay for them for protection.

He stops off at the local strip club, looking for his cousin. His Aunt Emma, played by Marla Maples, is hosting a Bachelorette Party, comes rolling out of the club with the revelers. Still no one has seen his cousin.

Then he stops off at the bakery, where he explains he is seeing some outsiders in the neighborhood, they look like Dominicans or Puerto Ricans trying to move in on the turf, and he’s been looking for his cousin Joey, played by Joe Magro. They offer to give him a lift over to his cousin’s house.

Once he gets to the house, he understands something isn’t right. Before he has a chance to figure it out, the door opens, and the Puerto Rician muscle arrives with the doorman from the strip club. Within seconds, as Gio is hiding, the gang wars erupt, and a clear message is sent.

Gio finally arrives to the memorial celebration dinner hosted by his uncle. The house is filled with the men as the women are at the Bachelorette Party. Uncle Ricardo, played by William Fichtner and Angelo are still managing business. Everyone is asking where his cousin is and soon the dinner is over and it’s time for Sofia’s delicious triple layer chocolate cake.

The Birthday Cake is an instant classic and will become one of the top ten mob movies ever made. As few can resist a decadent dessert, New York City mob films have an allure all their own the film evoke a classic feel with a modern twist.

The film brings together an ensemble cast of familiar faces, including Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Vincent Pastore, Joseph D’Onofrio and as an aging Uncle Angelo, Val Kilmer, as well as Ewen McGregor and Aldis Hodges, who deliver the authenticity of the genre.

The holiday dessert scene is the ultimate sweet revenge, and more, it shows the great lengths people will go to exact revenge.

The Birthday Cake, a retro style contemporary homage to the great mob New York City mob flicks, delivers a delicious vengeance spiked surprise. The Birthday Cake opens in theaters and digitally June 18, 2021.

Country: USA.

Language: English.

Runtime: 83minutes.

Release Date: June 18, 2021.

Director: Jimmy Giannopoulos.

Writer: Jimmy Giannopoulos, Diomedes Raul Bermudez, and Shiloh Fernandez.

Cast: Shiloh Fernandez, Ewan McGregor, Val Kilmer, Lorraine Bracco, Ashley Benson, Aldis Hodge,  Penn Badgley, Emory Cohen, Vincent Pastore, Jeremy Allen White, William Fichtner.