Female Film Critics 24/375
Now is a good moment for absurdist satire, and I like Bottoms a lot. Why? First of all, Marshawn Lynch is in it. So, it’s already cooking. Speaking of cooking, it stars the versatile and fabulous Ayo Edebiri alongside the movie’s co-writer Rachel Sennott. Imagine a pair of lusty lesbians who dream of getting girls and being ‘qweens’ at their high school. Now imagine the story takes place in a similar world as Heathers.
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Cleverly stylized, Olivia Peace’s impressive debut feature, Tahara is a perceptive variation on the familiar coming-of-age theme. By situating this microcosm of teen types in both a structural and symbolic bubble (think The Breakfast Club but more artistically inventive), she creates a more universal statement. This queer coming-of-age dark comedy becomes more of a meditation on the various types of relationships we find ourselves in – be they social groups, casual relations, or our most intimate connections – and articulates the difficult process necessary to extricate ourselves from the toxic ones.
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It says so much about Shiva Baby that audiences are calling it a horror movie although there is literally nothing violent or scary about it. What’s terrifying is college senior, Danielle, attending a shiva (a Jewish post-funeral ritual where mourners gather to eat and socialize at the home of the deceased) with her parents, only to be forced to deal with the yentas she grew up with and some unexpected guests including her sugar daddy, Max, and the wife and baby she didn’t know he had. Oh, and, also, her ex-girlfriend, Maya.
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Watching college student Danielle endure a shiva that becomes her personal hell in the comedic drama Shiva Baby will trigger sparks of recognition in anyone who’s lived through similar gauntlets. Weddings, reunions, and even funerals often have that surface interaction with people we haven’t seen in ages and various insecurities underneath.
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Michelle J. Li designed the costumes for Shiva Baby, written and directed by Emma Seligman. It is set at a post-funeral gathering. The main character is Danielle, who arrives with her parents and runs into her ex-girlfriend and her “sugar daddy,” the man she has been sleeping with for gifts and money. He did not tell her he was married and the father of a baby. There are a lot of evasions, revelations, and confrontations, played more for farce than melodrama. In an interview, Li talked about the challenges of keeping distinctive looks for characters who are almost all wearing black and where she found the “expensive” bracelet that is the subject of much discussion in the film.
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