Sitting in Bars with Cake is pushing an in depth friendship to the emotional extremes.

PEOPLE has the primary trailer for the movie from director Trish Sie (Step Up: All In, Pitch Excellent 3), written by Audrey Shulman and primarily based on her 2015 e book of the identical identify.

Sitting in Bars with Cake, impressed by true occasions, follows lifelong buddies Jane (Yara Shahidi) and Corinne (Odessa A’zion) navigating their 20s in Los Angeles till a medical analysis adjustments factor ceaselessly.

“Corinne, the final word extrovert, convinces her shy however extraordinarily gifted home-baker greatest good friend Jane to decide to a yr of baking desserts and bringing them to bars, with the aim of assembly folks and growing confidence,” a synopsis reads.

“Throughout their yr of ‘cakebarring,’ Corinne receives a life-altering analysis, and the pair face a problem not like something they’ve skilled earlier than.”

Sie spoke with PEOPLE about what impressed the movie, and dealing with Shulman, “the protagonist in actual life” who lived a narrative much like Jane’s.

“[Audrey’s] greatest good friend by way of this entire factor — who form of masterminded and believed on this entire undertaking — additionally had this unimaginable analysis within the center,” says the director, 51. “She insisted that they preserve going, and Audrey herself needed to step up and actually grow to be an entire completely different model of herself primarily.”

By no means miss a narrative — join PEOPLE’s free every day e-newsletter to remain up-to-date on the perfect of what PEOPLE has to supply, from juicy celeb information to driving human curiosity tales.

Sie says the real-life shut friendship between Shahidi, 23, and A’zion, 23, was “an exquisite bonus” when casting, in that “they already had this type of shorthand and straightforward affection for one another and belief of one another.”

“Yara was my dream Jane from the start as a result of I’ve identified her since she was fairly younger,” she says, noting Shahidi’s “considerate, profound” nature that she has had since childhood. “Then we needed to set about discovering the precise Corinne to match her.”

In A’zion, Sie discovered one thing “that was simply so particularly spirited and so effervescent and form of unpredictable, however on this actually exhilarating approach.”

Bette Midler additionally seems in Sitting in Bars with Cake as Corinne’s boss. As a giant fan of Midler’s, Sie admits she “was shaking in my boots as a result of I like her a lot and I used to be so excited and nervous and scared” to satisfy her.

However she had nothing to concern, as she says Midler, 77, “is definitely so extremely pretty,” and simply “as humorous and edgy and artistic as you’ll say she is.”

Midler additionally had no need to play out any form of “boss girl” stereotypes and as a substitute took the depth and “mothering intuition” of her function to coronary heart.

“I like that she introduced this type of heat and dimension to a personality that might have been slightly little bit of a cardboard cutout. That is simply not how she does issues,” Sie says.

The cookbook that Sitting in Bars with Cake is predicated off on, Sie says, contains “candy, glad” tales of individuals from all walks of life. The movie provides one thing within the type of “a message about not simply surviving by way of a tricky time, however thriving by way of actually difficult instances in our lives.”

Whereas young-adult girls are the “apparent” target market, she additionally thinks males, older folks and plenty of extra “will find it irresistible” for its common themes and “fabulous performances.”

“It is a story of what occurs when the map that you just suppose you are following in life form of goes offline and it’s a must to determine issues out with out something to information you apart from your individual inside compass,” Sie says.

She provides, “It is about determining life when it throws you a fairly depraved curveball, as a result of that’s one factor that all of us have in widespread.”

Sitting in Bars with Cake is streaming Sept. 8 on Prime Video.