I get everything I need from all the best streaming services, be that brand new movies or fresh TV shows (but I’m more of a movie buff myself). While the likes of Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video and Disney Plus are some of my entertainment confidants, sometimes I can’t quite find what I’m looking for. Enter Mubi, the latest addition to my streaming landscape.
Being a fan of art house movies, browsing the scope of avant-garde dramas on all the main platforms can be a tedious chore. But with Mubi, you have it all at your fingertips. When I downloaded Mubi for the first time, I went on a bit of a spree and added nine movies to my watchlist to see what it had to offer. This week, Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby (2020) was the first movie I checked off, and I couldn't have gone with a better movie to start my journey down the Mubi rabbit hole.
Emma Seligman is one to watch
Prior to writing and directing the 2023 comedy Bottoms, one of the best Prime Video movies and funniest queer comedies, Emma Seligman made her feature directorial debut with Shiva Baby. Set in real-time over the course of a few hours, Rachel Sennott is Danielle, a young bisexual Jewish girl with no direction in life. When she’s stuck at a Shiva among her intrusive family members and ex-girlfriend, she finds herself covering her tracks when she runs into her sugar daddy, his wife, and their infant child.
Packing a combination of dry humor and theatrical flair that reminded me of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, Shiva Baby is a 77-minute domino effect with one dramatic tense after another. With that said, if you’re short on time – or your attention span isn’t as robust as it used to be – this is my first reason why you should give Shiva Baby a watch. But, of course, this isn’t the only factor that made me award Shiva Baby a generous four stars on Letterboxd.
A movie fit for the stage
Going back to its familiarity to Fleabag, Seligman’s black comedy adopts a lot of common tropes. The first being its microcosm of characters, with Danielle being the typical directionless and disorganized Fleabag-type, and her academically gifted and universally-admired ex-girlfriend Maya (Molly Gordon) - a unique comparison tool, just as Claire is in Waller-Bridge’s series. On top of this, dramatic and foreboding music fills the gaps between each encounter between Danielle and her sugar daddy, which kept me clinging on for dear life in preparation for its awkward and unpredictable follow-up moments. This is why it’s perfect for the stage.
Just think about it for a second; a story set in real-time in one location, a strong group of characters each representing a different aspect of society, and a climax that leaves your imagining running wild, wondering what on Earth happens after the credits begin rolling - the same way you feel when leaving the theatre after the curtain call.
Family intrusion at its finest
If there’s one thing that I took away from Shiva Baby it’s how to deal with the annoyance and, as it’s exaggerated in the movie, the soul-crushing weight of your family members nagging about why you’re still single and haven’t found a ‘proper’ job yet. Painting it as some form of fifth degree, Shiva Baby is the perfect analogy of family intrusiveness.
Though this aspect is heightened by the movie’s inherently Jewish setting, which can only be pinned to Seligman’s own experiences being Jewish and queer just like its protagonist Danielle, the movie strays from exclusivity. And despite not growing up within the Jewish community, as a twenty-something year old who went through the struggles of finding work after completing higher education, its message is universal. Not to mention that on top of not having a ‘proper job’, being painfully single was the bitter icing on the cake.
Since I was such a huge admirer of Bottoms when it came out, I knew I was in safe hands when it came to watching Shiva Baby. The only downside is that Emma Seligman’s filmography is limited to those two feature movies only, and though it’s always fun to revisit films you enjoy, this can feel repetitive. On the other hand, it means that Seligman has her whole career as a filmmaker ahead of her, and I’m excited to see where she’ll take me next.
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