Phillip Thomas’ Cake Day is a universal story that's not rooted in any specific time or place, but I imagine it's happening in real-life now more than ever. As many people know, sobriety is its own struggle. Pile on any one of the contributing factors from our world today and the struggle doubles, if not more. We can be optimistic about the coming year (I’m very, very cautiously optimistic myself). But for many, time is not marked by the changing of the calendar, but by when you get your next sobriety chip. And when a relapse happens, time starts over.
Written and directed by Phillip Thomas, this Oscar-longlisted short is an incisive look into the psychology of addiction, and the ongoing battle of recovery. The precise storytelling pays almost forensic attention to the ebbs and flows of Cameron's inner subjectivity as he interacts with the quiet but telling events and conversations of his outer life. This outside world sees Cameron as an evolving, positive person who is successfully resisting addiction, but Cameron grapples with the secret weight of his failure. The gap grows into a chasm that threatens to swallow Cameron.
The film’s electric score, composed by Jeremy Wallace Maclean, depicts Cameron’s tension during his relapse. His mom brings him to an AA facility to celebrate five years of sobriety. Still, the milestone is in question. There is a scene where Cameron goes to the bathroom to catch his breath and his sponsor, Bill, gives him a pep-talk that saves him from psychological collapse. The score is frantic and suspenseful, carrying us from the solemn NA hall aesthetic to the dimly-lit bathroom. The sponsor later references this time when he reads an introduction about Cameron’s five-year struggle.
People tempt to glorify big milestones, and with good reason; they are usually very hard to get too. But in turn, that glorification makes failure that much harder to accept. That’s the exact emotion Phillip Thomas (The Fish & The Sea) brings forward in his marking film Cake Day. The film is about moments and rushing emotions of guilt, fear and regret, but also much more than that. More because we are pushed to live through this moment with the main character, and his emotions become ours.
On the surface Cake Day is a film about the challenges of recovery and the internal turmoil and subsequent shame of relapse, but for me the film is really about dignity and the recognition that success and failure frequently arrive together. My entire life is a series of lessons learned from moments that could easily be perceived as failures… But is it really a failure if you’ve learned a valuable lesson? Those are some of the bigger themes I hope are felt, not necessarily fully realized as a viewer, but at least felt while watching. I don’t love when I am bashed over the head with a theme so if someone doesn’t fully understand the moment that is okay by me. I just want them to feel it.
Through the short’s 15-minute runtime, the director has us walk along with Cameron on his long journey to a celebration he doesn’t deserve. Cake Day is a powerful exercise of building empathy by the filmmaker. Thomas brilliantly put us in his protagonist’s shoes and helps us understand the inner battle addicts have with their addictions and the deterioration of one’s soul to maintain integrity and honesty. He makes us feel, and that’s the power filmmakers have with short films.
Recovery is a long road, and for Cameron, he’s reached a five-year sober milestone. The problem is he fell off the wagon the day before the celebration in PhiLlip Thomas’ Cake Day. Alan Ng says the short film is “a powerful exercise of building empathy.”
It’s incredibly important to have these honest conversations, where the filmmakers can go even deeper into the psyche of the character, to fully form a story that can be so personal. There is definitely a right way to tell these stories and that is what Cake Daydoes, it just captures this one day and expands upon the internal conflict of its lead character. Every aspect of the film, from the atmosphere to the fantastic score elevated the performances from the actors. It’s an important film that accurately depicts the struggle of being honest, not only with those around you, but with yourself.