It’s debut feature assessment time! Two aspiring female filmmakers delight and impress us in rather different ways. Emma Seligman’s SHIVA BABY, a US-Canada production extended from her eponymous short, is a faux-spontaneous, concise film that whirls around almost in real-time, it runs only 77 minutes but what a whirlpool of anxiety-ridden quagmire it is! SAINT MAUD is a British psychological horror about a Catholic zealot consumed by her savior complex, first-time director Rose Glass stylishly flexes her muscles of genre-moviemaking and it features a blue-ribbon performance from Morfydd Clark.

In SHIVA BABY, American Jewish college girl Danielle (Sennott) attends a shiva with her parents. There she touches base with her ex-girlfriend Maya (Gordon) and bumps into Max (Deferrari), who is the last person in this world she wants to see under the circumstances, one of her clients since on the sly, Danielle moonlights as a fille de joie to earn some quick cash, which her clueless parents think she earns from baby-sitting.

Actually, a sitter is gravely needed when Max’s Gentile wife Kim (Agron) brings their bawling bundle of joy to the shiva, Danielle’s secret is at risk when telltale signs are observed by Kim, her naive act of sexual autonomy backfires and it is Maya who twigs her side hustle, a falling-out dampens their renewed passion. Beset by family friends’ gossipy inquiry, a hot-and-bothered Danielle is desperate to leave, when measured small talk becomes exceedingly awkward, only a cup of lukewarm coffee can offer her a breather, and the family’s egress is another scrape where everybody is squeezed out of their comfort zone but Seligman also celebrates the girls’ solidarity whereas their older generation is predisposed to pass judgement.

Sennott bestirs herself particularly well, her Danielle seems perpetually teetering on the brink of cracking up, but like many people of her age, Danielle’s irritable facade is her go-to defense mechanism, underneath that, her insecurity, vulnerability and strength are all in nascent form needs to be seen and nurtured.

SHIVA BABY is a quirkily energized, even frenetic (when Danielle’s anxiety level surges, her vision of reality is also pertinently warped and roasted, on the strength of Seligman’s showy technique and composer Ariel Marx’s eerie string klezmer) practice of mapping out a Jewish girl’s bisexuality (without making a fuss over it) and inquietude caused by the constraint of a suffocating family tie (the overbearing Jewish mother/the insensitively amicable Jewish father tropes are worn-out), and if you suffer from social anxiety disorder, the film’s relatability is spot-on.

Title: Shiva Baby

Year: 2020

Country: USA, Canada

Language: English

Genre: Comedy

Director/Screenwriter: Emma Seligman

Music: Ariel Marx

Cinematography: Maria Rusche

Editing: Hanna A. Park

Cast:

Rachel Sennott

Molly Gordon

Polly Draper

Danny Deferrari

Fred Melamed

Dianna Agron

Glynis Bell

Jackie Hoffman

Vivien Landau

Sondra James

Cilda Shaur

Rating: 7.5/10