Iain K. MacLeod

December 23, 2025

Review: Shiva Baby (2020) - ★★★★

Letterboxd review by Iain K. MacLeod on Dec 18, 2025

This tightly wound, slowly unspooling real-time pressure-cooker of a film (stupid nail in the leg spoils an Uncut Gams pun) is an impressive directorial debut that features a realistic capture of the cringe-inducing ramifications of multiple lives colliding when traditional family and class expectations clash with exploratory and permissive sexuality. The cast is rounded out by familiar faces, but Rachel Sennott (I Love LA) and Molly Gordon (The Bear), make quite a team. Much like a bottle episode (at a brisk 78 minutes), the film centres around a single event that ends up touching on faith, death, birth (well, an 18-month-old), schooling and career planning, SoHo lofts, vans, and buffet-style eating. It's brimming with the awkward exchanges of dads and daddies, moms and grannies, girl bosses and babysitters, and various other mourning souls. 🕍

About Iain K. MacLeod

He/Him | Paid Worker. Unremarkable Hobbyist. Occasional Friend. Full-time Dad. Great-great-great-grandnephew of Angus “Giant” MacAskill. Worked skateboard check at 1994 Gobblefest in Cape Breton. Based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. aka Boost Ventilator. For more info…