SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.The number of points and counter-points, some more literal and some more emblematic of the larger struggles at play, that Seligman is able to juggle between is impressive and each helps clarify Danielle’s struggles in identifying a place for herself. They are as follows:

• Babysitter vs Sugar Baby (Danielle’s occupations)
• Eating meat vs not eating meat (Danielle’s dietary behavior, especially at the “shiva”)
• Baby vs Adult (how Danielle sees herself vis-a-vis her parents act in regards to her)
• Shul vs Sex Act (the place where Max and Danielle met, one is a religious arena and another is less than so)
• Gender Business vs No Degree (Danielle’s current plans)
• Running corporations vs Sugar Baby as forms of entrepreneurship (Kim and Maya’s respective careers which is brought to light by Max and Maya’s observations on “entrepreneurship “)

The most relevant comparison seems to be Danielle vs Maya, which to borrow Jungian phrasing, is between the shadow and persona. Maya is a double to Danielle and seems to be the “ideal ego” that the latter strives to; the latter feels like using the former’s characteristics are preferable to her own. The disjunction between the two, which the people at the “shiva” call to question, is what sets off many of Danielle’s troubles. This also makes the ending a kind of reconciliation between the two aspects if one views the two characters as parts of a “whole”.

2.The primary conflict occurs at the 18-minute mark. Danielle eats a bagel, one accompanied by meat which showcases the conflict she faces at a more micro-level, while listening to Max tallk to her parents in the background. (As an aside, the framing of this trio in shallow focus casts them as specters, ghosts given the horror trappings the film employs, who whisper terrifying truths that Danielle has to learn.) In this situation, she learns that Max is not only married but also has a child.

The camera closes in on her face as the news begins to hit her before the film cuts to her finally getting a look at Kim (Dianna Agron). In response to Kim and the baby’s fraternization with her parents, Danielle tries to engage in any conversation to take her mind off the events. But her attempts to engage in distractions are upended, as a character from outside the frame pushes her into an exposes screw on the wall, puncturing her flesh and causing her to bleed out. The mess of her internal struggle becomes present in her physical world. Her response is to double-down and she engages in an confrontation with her “imaginary” opponent – the rival for Max’s love. She hates Kim for “taking away” her special relationship to Max and performing” better” than she does by being an successful business-women. ^[1]Fink, B. (1997). Object (a): Cause of Desire. In The Lacanian subject: Between language and jouissance. essay, Princeton University Press She engages in a form of “competition” to stake her claim.

There’s also a self-destructive impulse here that confirms the nature of the guilt she feels, an feeling that will continue to characterize her interactions with Kim (and Max) as the film progresses. She feels guilt over engaging with a married man and so tries to expose herself by engaging in even more risky behavior. ^[2] Bryant, L. R. (2006, June 7). Lacanian ethics and the superego. Larval Subjects . Retrieved January 18, 2023, from https://larvalsubjects.wordpress.com/2006/06/07/lacanian-ethics-and-the-superego/

3.At the 24-minute mark, Seligman brilliantly captures the way ego-identifications are projected onto others. First, Danielle stares at Kim, the baby, and her own family interacting with one another. The camera pans to reveal Maya and her own mother in the background; Danielle’s “private” moment is public and her encounter is being surveilled. She’s called to interact with this group and is clearly focused on the discomfort of her own situation; Max and Kim’s baby takes up her mental bandwidth and brings a sense of palpable discomfort she can’t seem to shake off. However, Maya, who is as focused on Maya as the latter is focused on her own problems, projects her own desires onto the situation and the camera consequently moves from the baby to Kim. Maya (who at least based on these interactions seems to be lesbian as opposed to Danielle’s bisexual) focuses entirely on Kim and projects this focus onto Danielle as well; the idea that Danielle is focused on another party in this situation slips Maya’s mind (and also helps explain her frustration later on when she realizes Danielle is involved with a “man”.)

4. This (mis)identification is highlighted again at the 27-minute mark when both Danielle’s mom and Maya’s mom (Glynis Bell) notice their daughters interacting with one another and immediately project a lesbian context to the same. Danielle’s lack of tights and the innocuous touching between the two prompt the increased scrutiny and lead Debbie to break the situation up in fear of her daughter engaging in “funny” business at an event as special as a “shiva”, an ironic enough worry given the amount of “approved” gossiping and insulting being done.

5.There’s a great bit of frenetic editing that amplifies the tension at the 35-minute mark when Danielle’s bracelet becomes the focal point of conversation again. She’s just sent a nude to Max in the moments leading up to the confrontation at hand and is now forced to reckon with the consequences of what her action could lend to. She gazes at Max’s phone, placed at crotch level to reinforce the nature of the sexual competition, before Kim does the same. The coffee in his hands is made apparent but it’s not the center of the focus until the montage ends and Danielle is marked by the liquid. It’s no coincidence that Maya later refers to such markings as “cum-stains” – proof of the sexual dalliance between Max and Danielle.

6.Seligman chooses to highlight Danielle’s increasingly precarious situations with a red, hellish ambiance that showcases just how far she’s pushed herself with her decisions; the weight of her guilt becomes increasingly present. The red hue is lightly introduced when Maya is forced to deal with her knowledge of Max with her parents who become curious on how the two know one another.

The hue increases when Danielle drinks a bit more and is forced to confront the reality of her situation. She tries to reveal the nature of her transgressions to Kim. She wants to be punished for giving into the “desire” for finding a good man (something her mom especially harps on) and tries to reveal as much but can’t go fully through. ^[3] Ibid

The red color comes fully into play when Maya seemingly betrays Danielle. Given the latter’s projections onto the former, the appearance of a “man” in the relationship breaks the duo’s kinship fully. This seems to be tied into the “bi-erasure” that Danielle hinted at earlier with her own mother, but Maya takes it to the next level.^[4] Fink, B. (1997). Object (a): Cause of Desire. In The Lacanian subject: Between language and jouissance. essay, Princeton University Press There’s a “rivalry” here that explodes over the difference in sexual orientation, regardless of Maya’s insinuation that Danielle is a whore (which also serves as callback to the comments about Danielle’s projected “misogyny” in relation to Kim).

The mention of the two being sister’s here plays a key role- this is akin to a sibling rivalry where differences prompt antagonism. Maya sees herself as a queer subject whose existence is threatened when her “double” in Danielle veers from the path and engages in a fling with a “man” – a counterforce to both of their mothers who want to enforce a heteronormative order.

After being unable to find her phone and finding herself in a situation with no “ally”, Danielle becomes completely lost in the ebb-and-flow of persons at the shiva. The faces which previously just hinted at terror become “monsters” in their own right, as they take up the frame and become accentuated by the hellish hue. Even simple acts of eating transform into terrors that cannot be comprehended anymore. Danielle is truly lost.

She’s finally made to confront Kim at the end of this journey and “breaks” as a result. Desperate to find something to latch onto, she kisses the religious texts she’s knocked down, an appeal to the symbolic Other, but is eventually given a reprieve by her mother, who comforts her and explains that Danielle still has time to find and carve her own path for the future.

6. This reprieve nicely leads to the ending which plays off the first genuine moment of levity that occurs at at the 49-minute mark when Danielle and Maya have a heart-to-heart, air their feelings out, and then engage in a loving embrace which quickly transforms into a heartfelt kiss – a counterpoint to the more forced kiss from the opening between Danielle and Max. Seligman intentionally pulls the camera out to showcase the two kissing out in the open within the background of the frame and highlights that other attendees are very much still present in the foreground but they no longer “matter”; the threat of a looming judgement disappears in this moment as Danielle finds someone/(thing) to latch onto in the sea of judgements- a space to find “herself” in. Seligman’s highlighting of the judgement both before and after this moment make its impact all the more relevant.

The ending serves as a nice continuation of this moment and encapsulates the journey Danielle has gone through. Joel’s car becomes a microcosm of the party proper; it’s filled with all the relevant parties that made Danielle’s experience so terrifying – her parents, Max, Kim, the child, along with elderly members passing judgement. The baby even continues its crying, but the strings have disappeared as Danielle finds her stable “grounding” point once again in Maya. The two hold hands and look upon each other lovingly before the film cuts to black – an space for Danielle has been carved out in the chaos, one she’ll hopefully be able to develop.