As the age-old saying goes, sometimes less is more. That applies to movies, too. Sometimes a movie under 90 minutes has just as much to say, if not more, than a movie with a 120-minute runtime.
This is true for director Emma Seligman’s feature film debut. In just 78 minutes, Seligman’s “Shiva Baby” manages to produce both quick laughs and anxiety-inducing tension. “Shiva Baby” is a well-written dramedy about a college student who unexpectedly runs into her sugar daddy and her ex-girlfriend on the last day of a shiva service for someone she does not even know.
The protagonist, Danielle (Rachel Sennott), finds herself the focus of other people’s questioning; including questions about her dating life and what she plans to do after college graduation. Every corner she turns in this packed Brooklyn house, people hound her for life updates she just doesn’t have. Not only is Danielle bombarded with strangers and family alike questioning her future; she is also desperately trying to avoid her sugar daddy and her ex while attempting to keep those private relationships a secret from everyone at the shiva.
‘Shiva Baby’s’ Honest Exploration of a Young Adult’s Burgeoning Success (or Lack Thereof)
As a college graduate myself, I can conclude that the seemingly never-ending jobs and dating is truly awful. It causes so much added stress, and it also affects your self-esteem. You forget that you’re still young; you don’t need to have your whole life figured out just because everyone around you is pressuring you to. There is so much more to life and to a person than what you do for a living, or who you have dated, or how much money you make.
“Shiva Baby” depicts this suffocating feeling superbly not just through the character of Danielle, but also through the tight confines of the set. Seligman shot the majority of the film inside the singular house hosting the last day of the shiva; and you can feel how confined Danielle feels as she shuffles around the house trying to escape the questions and confusion. As the film progresses into the third act, the tension builds quickly. It’s like her life is a car-crash happening right in front of her and she is paralyzed in the driver’s seat.
I commend Emma Seligman for being able to create something that is both comedic and extremely intense at the same time. The film is actually an expansion of her short film of the same name, which also happened to be her college thesis at NYU, which is incredibly impressive. Never does it feel like she’s leaning too much on the comedy or too much on the anxiety. It all balances so well together.
