Shiva Baby (2020)

IMDb plot summary: At a Jewish funeral service with her parents, a college student runs into her sugar daddy and ex girlfriend.

Directed by Emma Seligman. Starring Rachel Sennott, Danny Deferrari, and Fred Melamed.

Shiva Baby is a mostly one-room drama about a young college graduate who is uncertain what she wants to do with her future and has been working as a sugar baby in the meantime. She accompanies her parents to the shiva of an extended family member, where she runs into her sugar daddy, his wife, and his baby. For the most part, this little indie drama works. The relationships and interactions feel believable, and it's easy to identify with our lead character who is feeling unmoored and claustrophobic as she shuffles from family member to family member, all eagerly asking her what she's doing next. Even as she makes some truly terrible decisions about how to deal with her stress, we get it. The mood-building in this movie is pretty fantastic -- I have hardly any true connections to this main character but I felt like I was there with her trying to hold it together through the gathering. Things fall apart a little in the final moments of the film, where it feels not so much like it ends as that it meant to end but ran out of time. Still an interesting snapshot of a moment in this person's life, even if I wish it wrapped up more creatively.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Shiva Baby > Kinky Boots the Musical

Shiva Baby > Anna Karenina

Shiva Baby < Secretary

Shiva Baby < The Farewell

Shiva Baby > Judas and the Black Messiah

Shiva Baby < The Scarlet and the Black

Shiva Baby < The Hunger Games

Shiva Baby < Music and Lyrics

Shiva Baby < The Road Warrior

Shiva Baby < Sansho the Bailiff

Shiva Baby > City Lights

Shiva Baby < Kismet

Final spot: #820 out of 3760, or 78%.