Don't watch Sitting in Bars with Cakes (2023) for Bette Midler cuz she ain't in it. Running an agonizing 120 minutes, Midler is on screen for maybe 5 minutes. Film centers on two young women roommates (actresses I never heard of) who live in LA and work at a music publishing company where they work for Midler. One of them is supposedly studying to the LSAT exams so she can get into law school but she prefers baking cakes. They strike on a lame plan to bake a cake and take it to bars (probably illegal from the get-go ... you trying bringing a cake into a bar or restaurant and passing it around) to meet men.
But the plan gets fouled up when the other one comes down with a brain tumor and can't go barhopping any more. It's a slog from there with the sick one getting sicker and sicker while the friend tends to her .... shades of Beaches! Midler doesn't register at all since she has no part. The only ones who do are the sick one's parents from Phoenix (Martha Kelly, Ron Livingston) who are fine. The cook's parents (both lawyers I think) also get nothing to do. Pretty bad.
But the plan gets fouled up when the other one comes down with a brain tumor and can't go barhopping any more. It's a slog from there with the sick one getting sicker and sicker while the friend tends to her .... shades of Beaches! Midler doesn't register at all since she has no part. The only ones who do are the sick one's parents from Phoenix (Martha Kelly, Ron Livingston) who are fine. The cook's parents (both lawyers I think) also get nothing to do. Pretty bad.