User Reviews

"Shiva Baby" is an American live action short film that is in the English language and also includes a little bit of Yiddish towards the end that you do not have to understand though in order to understand the movie. This short came out in 2018, so now it is five years old, over five years old, and the writer and director here was Emma Seligman. It was her second short film and she is still pretty young today, not even 30 so this shows you how young she was when she wrote and directed these under eight minutes. Even if, according to the title's imdb page, the film only scored one single awards recognition, it was successful and popular enough apparently to be turned into a full feature film two years later again written and directed by Seligman and Rachel Sennott also plays the main character once again. The title character you could say as well I suppose unless you understand the title as a reference to the actual baby that is shown at the very end of the film. Up to you. This film starts with a woman and man exchanging sexual favors, or rather her providing him with some, but it is nothing too explicit. Both get phone calls a little later and then she also leaves his apartment to get in time to a funeral of a distant relative. The big twist here is that she meets the man from the beginning of the film who gave her money for what she did. We, at the same time as her, understand that the man is married and even has a baby and the protagonist as a consequence is the only one who knows that he is cheating on his wife. So Sennott had a lot of acting here without her (character) talking. She does an alright job with that there at the funeral I would say. Her looks maybe help.

The deeper meaning of this film is maybe linked to the turn of events. Towards the beginning, you maybe think that the female protagonist is on the despicable side because she takes money in exchange for providing sexual favors, but when you find out more about the man's background, then of course you are seeing things differently or at least you are supposed to see things differently. If you will, is another question. Surely you can say the man paid her for what she did and they had a contract and he does not know about her love life either. You could also wonder if perhaps she has feelings from him or if she thinks that he has feelings for her and that maybe he would imply being interested in her without the business component too because he hesitates before paying her and makes her ask, but yeah with what we find out at the end, there is no such valid explanation of course and he maybe only played with her or hoped he could get away without paying. So it is really difficult to like him when the film is over. Unfortunately, it is not much easier to like the film. The ending feels alright, but very abrupt. As if something is missing. The good news is that you probably wonder what happens next. The bad news is that the entire concept feels quite unrealistic and with too much happening overall. The moment all the people the man was talking to go away from him at the very same time, so he could make his way past the female protagonist felt very staged. With that, they probably would not even get away during a stage theater production. The escalation with the baby in the end and that it had to be this exact couple's baby screaming was not a lot better. Once again, the protagonists are too much at the center there.

As a whole, I struggled too much with this short movie and its (lack of) authenticity to give it a positive rating and I am a bit surprised it really got turned into a full feature film. I think the critical reception for the latter was actually not too bad and many general viewers have also seen and liked it and this also gave a boost again to this short film from two years earlier. The male lead in here is Jason Keller(man) by the way. Gotta name him as well because he did fine with what he was given and also because sadly he did not get a role in the full feature film. Finally, it can be said that this one here is a mix of comedy and drama and also the main character's mother adds some comedy by how she totally misinterprets the entire situation. Actress Robin Wesley-Peck did return for the sequel, but played the role of a smaller character apparently, one linked to smoking? At least, that is what it sounds like from the credits there. I did not watch the full feature film. Eventually, this short film here gets a thumbs-down from me. It's not a big problem it is not super easy to find anymore because my suggestion is that you skip the watch here.