Reviewed by Hannah Spencer.
Director: Emma Seligman, 2020, Utopia, 77 mins.
Although billed as a black comedy, Shiva Baby has all the tension of thriller. It is rare that a film can evoke such a visceral, quite literally, edge-of-your-seat, response.
All in a shockingly efficient 77 minutes.
For anyone who has experienced the gnawing anxiety or insecurity of family gatherings, Shiva Baby will take this feeling to a whole new level.
A supremely confident study of stress and tension from first time writer/director, Emma Seligma.
Shiva Baby follows Danielle (actor & comedian Rachel Sennott) as she reluctantly attends a Shiva (the Jewish mourning period similar to a wake) following the burial of a family acquaintance.
Trapped in a house filled with middle class family friends who prod and probe her about job prospects after college; her weight; her lack of a boyfriend.
Everyone has an opinion and Danielle struggles to face the onslaught with her unconvincing, rehearsed answers.
However, tensions reach a fever pitch when both her ex-girlfriend, then her “sugar daddy” with wife and child in tow also arrive to pay their respects, threating to unravel her fragile persona.
You can almost feel the heat rising up Danielle’s back and the sweat beading on her forehead.
Tight shots, build to an almost unbearable claustrophobia.
The dissonant score (by Ariel Marx) peppered with screaming babies is a searing accompaniment to the internal turbulence brilliantly acted by Sennott.
Farcical comedic elements of mislaid phones, awkward social encounters and an increasingly suspicious wife punctuate a film which feels like a taught string that winds irrevocably tighter with each scene, surely about to snap at any moment.
Although not autobiographical, Emma Seligman draws on her experiences as a bi-sexual female growing up in a tight knit Jewish community, who briefly dappled in “sugaring”.
The naturalistic performances and cultural specificity make for brilliantly authentic and relatable film which places “millennial/ boomer” tensions front and center.
Danielle’s character can be bratty at times but the friction between her overbearing parents, meaning parents who view her as a child, and her attempts to navigate the adult world are palpable, raw and relatable.
An expert study in anxiety and insecurity, Shiva Baby is stressful roller coaster that doesn’t let up but will leave you impressed by its brilliant execution.
With a HBO pilot in the works exploring the lives of Jewish “Sugar Babies” we may not need to wait long to see what Emma Seligman does next.
In the meantime, here’s hoping that no one’s Christmas gatherings are as stressful as this.
In cinemas for a limited time and on Apple TV+
Hannah’s rating: 4 out of 5 stars
