TIFF Review: Emma Seligman’s “Shiva Baby”
BY SCOTTIE KNOLLIN
Based on her short film of the same name, writer/director Emma Seligman’s “Shiva Baby” is a surprisingly beautiful but deliciously edgy comedy of errors set at a shiva gathering, a Jewish tradition that follows the burial of a loved one. Set in a single day, we first meet Danielle (played with aplomb by Rachel Sennott in a role that will, hopefully, serve as a sort of break out), she’s finishing a tryst with a client, the older and ruefully handsome Max (Danny Deferrari). He pays her in cash and a bracelet. She exits. Then the day truly begins.
Watching Sennott’s Danielle explore the world of youthful ambition and loneliness is both remarkably sweet and uncomfortably familiar. Even if most of never entered adulthood as a sex worker, we’ve faced the terrors of a room full of family and friends-like-family when we were college-aged having to answer a ridiculous amount of personal questions. For Danielle, the easiest thing to do is lie about her potential prospects, or at least not correct people with the truth.
The room in question is indeed filled from door to door with revelers, a sort of tangible showing of the lack of boundaries many in the Jewish community come to expect. The mothers almost immediately gravitate towards gossipping in the corners about each young person while doting on their own children as if they were the second coming of Christ. Thanks to Danielle’s oversharing mother and clutz of a father, we’re soon hinted with information about a possible romantic past between Danielle and fellow shiva-goer Maya (Molly Gordon), the one who is actually going to law school.
With orders from her parents to refrain from any funny business with Maya, Danielle’s miserable attitude serves as her tool for survival. That is, until Max and his beautiful wife, played by a fantastic Dianna Agron, show up.
Seligman’s emotional comedy hinges on both Sennott’s performance and a spectacular script that is every bit delightful as much as it is cringe-worthy. The film’s camerawork and music add to the ebbs and flows of Danielle’s moments of psychotic breakdown. There are scenes where the claustrophobia she’s feeling inside are so perfectly displayed with such humor and care. Though it’s her first feature, Seligman never feels the need to over-explain or under-develop, traits that often make up debut features. As a director, she perfectly orchestrates the film’s quick pace with a level of confidence that’s shaped by her own life experiences. Even when the film tiptoes towards stereotype, there’s an immediate moment of vulnerability that draws it back in.
Some may not give comedies enough credit, but “Shiva Baby” is a satisfying piece of melodrama sprinkled with some of the best laugh-out-loud moments we’ve been gifted in a long time.
