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Shiva Baby

A gruelling, hilarious exercise in anxiety
Dimbo Pictures
by
ABR Arts 02 August 2021

Shiva Baby

A gruelling, hilarious exercise in anxiety
Dimbo Pictures
by
ABR Arts 02 August 2021
Rachel Sennott as Danielle in Shiva Baby (Dimbo Pictures)
Rachel Sennott as Danielle in Shiva Baby (Dimbo Pictures)

With their forced solemnity and rigid formality, religious ceremonies have long been ripe for comic subversion – see Four Weddings and a Funeral, Death at a Funeral (the original and the American remake), This Is Where I Leave You, Six Feet Under, et al. – but Shiva Baby, a new indie comedy from American writer–director débutante Emma Seligman, gives the sub-genre a refreshing Millennial update. Set almost entirely at a shiva (the Jewish equivalent of a post-funeral wake), Shiva Baby depicts one (very bad) day in the life of college student Danielle, wonderfully played by rising comic star Rachel Sennott. We first meet Danielle mid-coitus with Max (Danny Deferrari), her ‘sugar daddy’ – an older man who forks over a handful of cash and an expensive bracelet in exchange for the time they spend together. Danielle is almost immediately summoned to the shiva in suburban New York. Her first question when she arrives is: ‘Mom, who died?’