Streaming on Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max
It’s unreal that Emma Seligman is a newcomer director when watching “Shiva Baby.” She manages to build and introduce us to what is easily one of the most chaotic and absolutely uncomfortable movies I’ve ever seen. “Shiva Baby” is a master class in making its viewer absolutely uneasy and anxious as Seligman just revels in amping up the anxiety to every single bit of her narrative every minute. Seligman, despite making “Shiva Baby” her work of absolute love, is not one who ever lets her characters off the hook. Despite focusing the entirety of “Shiva Baby” on her central protagonist Danielle, Seligman has a great time making her squirm, panic, and just about heave in sheer horror as she twists the screws on her throughout “Shiva Baby.”
When we first meet Danielle she is at her sugar daddy’s house having sex with him, and in spite of his efforts to garner some sense of intimacy, she’s makes a speedy exit from his apartment. On the way out she manages to bump in to her overbearing mother and father Joel and Debbie, both of whom are on their way to a Shiva. A Shiva is a Jewish gathering during a time of mourning and despite her protests Danielle is goaded in to tagging along with her parents. Danielle is completely caught off guard from the starting gate as she’s forced in to spending the entire day with a slew of relatives. They’re not at all very pleasant as they spend a lot of their time berating her and questioning her about her life.
The problem is that Danielle has spent a lot of her time lying to both of her parents as well as her sugar daddy, so her lies eventually begin to crack through her façade. To make things even worse, Danielle’s ex-girlfriend Maya appears to the shiva. Maya formed a very passionate relationship with Danielle without her parents’ knowledge, and she’s yet to really cope with the break up. If that’s not bad enough, Danielle’s sugar daddy Max appears at the Shiva, and he’s not only married (Dianna Agron), but also has a small child. Much of “Shiva Baby” is just a powder keg as Danielle reacts to so many big reveals but has to figure out a way to not make her shock so apparent. It becomes painfully obvious that she’s been lying to Max, but she’s even more taken aback when she learns Max has been lying to her.
Dianna Agron as Max’s wife Kim is yet another stroke of genius as she’s a woman who slowly catches on to Max and Danielle’s tension. It then becomes a matter of when and how she’s going to out the pair, or if she’ll ever out the pair. That becomes the driving force of Danielle’s sense of terror, as she spends so much of her time trying to maintain her lies, while also never quite being sure if Kim is aware of what’s occurring behind her back. There are so many moments where director Seligman zeroes in on Danielle injecting this suffocating energy.
There’s almost always a crowd in every scene of the film, always obscuring Danielle, and covering every exit and doorway. Not even the bathroom is a safehaven. The close ups and slow zooms on star Rachel Sennott amplify the sense of everything closing in on her, and she can never really rely on anyone among the party to really bail her out. Sennott is superb in her ability to act with her eyes and punctuate her emotions with glares and stares. There are so many uncomfortable and awkward moments staged that it’s almost like watching a very slow, very painful car wreck, and there’s always a sense of uncertainty that makes “Shiva Baby” feel less like a comedy and more like a personal horror film. Even in the very end,
Seligman is not content with twisting every screw, but she also stuffs everyone in to a car, allowing for a final uncomfortable topper. It’s a scene intentionally cringe worthy, but still quite funny. Director Emma Seligman has a sheer talent developing her characters, and developing this complicated world that is not about good or bad, but just complicated human situations that have absolutely no easy answers.