A try-hard organised crime tale, The Birthday Cake is too lightweight a confection to be a significant addition to the genre.
As in the previous nine years, the likeable Gio (Shiloh Fernandez – Burn, Edge of Winter) delivers a cake (home made) to his mobster uncles on the anniversary of his father’s death. Easily distracted by friends met, Gio meanders through the darkening New York streets making his reluctant way. But there’s something different about the 10th anniversary – and the Feds want to know the whereabouts of his cousin, Leo (Emory Cohen – Brooklyn, War Machine).
The sleaze of night time New York is perfectly captured (cinematographer Sean Price Williams – Good Time, Marjorie Prime). But with an ill-chosen, abrasive soundtrack and an impossible-to-understand Val Kilmer (Heat, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) as one of the uncles, any layering by writer/director Jimmy Giannopoulos (18 & Over) fails as he sadly over-mixes too many ingredients.
Rating: 45%
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