Shiva Baby

An exhilarating and compassionate film about love, death, loneliness - and the life-affirming importance ofdessert.

The choices Danielle makes and the things she says are cringeworthy in the best way.

Emma Seligman has infused her film with so much dread, tension and claustrophobia, Shiva Baby is as teeth-grindingly mortifying as anything with a supernatural threat.

This clever, abrasive debut is a notable achievement for Seligman who has expanded it from an earlier short film. It all feels closely observed, no doubt inspired by real characters, which makes it all the funnier.

Shiva Baby is an extremely exaggerated version of a certain reality, which is precisely why it's so damn funny.

The debutant director and NYU film school graduate Emma Seligman, 25, comes bolting out of the gate with this scabrously funny comedy set over the course of one heady afternoon at a highly stressful Jewish shiva (wake) in Brooklyn.

Shiva Baby is most certainly not a movie for those who get clammy and start to sweat at secondhand embarrassment.

Usually I am not a fan of cringe comedy, but this film somehow transcends that sub-genre into something much more surreal, tapping into the absurdity of life with deft insight and empathy.

Shiva Baby seamlessly blends hilarious comedy and sobering drama in this incisive story of a college student forced to reckon with secrets and lies during a tension-filled shiva reception. A stellar feature film debut from writer/director Emma Seligman.

One of the most anxiety-inducing non-horror films you're ever going to see. It's brilliant.