Shiva Baby has the familial neuroticism of a Woody Allen film and the heightened anxiety of Uncut Gems. It is the brainchild of a revolutionary young creative team, star Rachel Sennott and writer and director Emma Seligman, in their stunning feature debuts.
The plot is simple: a young woman named Danielle (Sennott) attends a shiva, a Jewish funeral, with her overbearing parents (Polly Draper and Fred Melamed). In between dodging busybody relatives, Danielle finds herself caught between her ex-girlfriend (Molly Gordon) and her current sugar daddy, an older man named Max (Danny Deferrari), who is there with his #girlboss wife Kim (Dianna Agron) and their baby.
Sennott navigates Seligman's snappy and clever script with balletic ease, conveying Danielle's Gen Z angst with mordant wit and buzzing energy. She artfully communicates Rachel's internal vexation when her family belittles her gender studies major and lack of a proper job aside from "babysitting." She feels worthless against her successful ex-girlfriend Maya and Max's young entrepreneur wife and seeks validation through sex.
The situational comedy evolves into pressure cooker moments that feel more akin to the horror genre. Seligman wields claustrophobic close-ups that highlight the characters' thin sheens of sweat on their faces as they flap their impassioned gums and Max's baby unendingly cries. Ariel Marx's haunting string score takes you closer to the edge of fear and sanity along with Rachel, who nearly crumbles from her need to keep her sugar baby identity a secret. The audience is constantly kept on edge as to whether or not Max's true relationship with Rachel will be revealed.
Rachel also must tiptoe around her relatives after rekindling her romance with Maya. It is refreshing to see a lead female character that is so unapologetically and proudly bisexual. Gordon and Sennott have sparkling chemistry and they naturally convey the tangled history between the couple.
Shiva Baby glides between agoraphobic dread and dark comedy at a snappy pace, making the film an exhilarating and concise watch. Seligman and Sennott are a dream team, capturing female insecurity and the clumsy transition into adulthood with a fresh and contemporary shrewdness. Their intelligence and creativity make Shiva Baby destined to become a comedy classic.
