Shiva Baby

by Julian Spivey

Photo: Utopia

Director: Emma Seligman 
Starring: Rachel Sennott, Danny Deferrari & Molly Gordon
Rated: Not Rated 
Runtime: 1 hour & 18 minutes

Director Emma Seligman’s directorial debut “Shiva Baby,” which she also wrote, is one helluva first feature.
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The film must be something close to her because it’s been something she’s worked on for years. The feature version of “Shiva Baby” is adapted from her own 2018 short film of the same name, which was her thesis project while studying at New York University and is only eight minutes long. How Seligman managed to flesh out eight minutes into 78 minutes for the feature is beyond me, but boy did she ever make it work.

The film stars Rachel Sennott as Danielle, an aimless twentysomething Jewish woman making money by prostituting herself via an app and not really knowing what she wants to do with her life. She is attending a shiva with her family in which other attendees include her ex-girlfriend Maya (played by Molly Gordon), Max (played by Danny Deferrari), who is one of her sugar daddies via the app, and Max’s wife Kim (Dianna Agron), who is in tow with their baby and has no idea what her husband has been up to. Also featured in the film are Fred Melamed and Polly Draper as Danielle’s parents Joel and Debbie.

Basically, the entirety of “Shiva Baby” is set at this shiva in a house with way too many attendees and it gets claustrophobic as hell with the setting and feeling of things tightening in on her serving as a terrific state of being for Danielle. It’s amazing how a debut filmmaker like Seligman is able to convey the anxiety of Danielle’s experience so perfectly and this combined with Sennott’s excellent portrayal of a moment in one’s life spiraling out of control really make “Shiva Baby” what it is – an almost fly on the wall experience where the viewer can be on the verge of an anxiety breakdown themselves.

The absolutely most cringe scenes in the film involve Danielle’s awkward conversations with Kim, especially after Kim begins to realize something has happened between Danielle and her husband. At times it’s fairly comical when Danielle is toying with Max in front of his wife with him realizing Danielle can bring him down at any moment and Danielle truly doesn’t care if she does.

I wouldn’t change anything about “Shiva Baby,” but damn if there’s also not another movie within it that I’d love to see and that is the relationship between Danielle and Maya. Sennott and Gordon have such great chemistry together that I wanted more every time they were on screen together. I want to see their story, whether it was their relationship before or whatever they have together after the film’s final scene.

Speaking of the film’s final scene … wow. It’s the cherry on the ice cream as far as cringe-inducing moments in the film. I don’t even want to say anything about it because it was such a fun experience that I hope people just view the film and get to it. I was giddy watching it. It was the best final scene of a film I’ve seen in a while.

I’m really impressed with Seligman’s debut product “Shiva Baby” and can’t wait to see what comes next from this young filmmaker.

“Shiva Baby” is currently streaming on HBO Max.