Sorry, Baby

SORRY, BABY (2025) ***1/2 Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie, Louis Cancelmi, Kelly McCormack, Lucas Hedges, John Carroll Lynch. Heartfelt and heartbreaking dramedy with Victor (who, if Sigourney Weaver & Paula Cole had a baby, resembles) as a small-town liberal arts junior professor going thru her life year-by-year with personal events - both hilariously wonderful and horrendously terrible with equal weight given - in her dry-witted, dead-pan and amiable manner with aplomb. Ably assisted by her bestie Ackie (adding sweet gravitas and anchoring the film soulfully so) and neighbor love interest Hedges (touchingly gawky and lovely), Victor (who also wrote & makes an assured directorial debut) adds layers to character development skillfully with its short-story vibes and interactions of cringe-worthy moments while balancing the deeply poignant life lessons as well as the smile-thru-it-all complexities of navigating the pitfalls with the triumphs. Bonus - arguably cinema's cutest kitty & baby. Ever.

One of the year's best films.

This is another film where I have a ton to say, but don't want my original thoughts getting lost in a giant pile of word vomit while I try and put the thoughts to the page.

Very clearly: I am not a woman, and have not gone through the specific type of trauma that takes place in this film. That said, I am a human being and have experienced a multitude of what many would consider to be out of the norm excessive traumas in my life, from an ex partner committing suicide to losing a brother to an accidental fentanyl overdose.

Trauma is something I believe until recently in this country, was an issue that was somewhat a shoved aside, something that wasn't talked about, something that in my parents day (I'm 43), would even be something to be embarrassed about. I'm sure all our Gen X parents were told to 'Man up' at some point in their lives.

Having gone through these very personal traumatic situations in my life has had a tremendous effect on who I am as a person, and how I deal with the outside world, and how I am able to control my own inner thoughts and emotions.

This is an incredible directorial debut from Eva Victor, who like many other found during 2020 while we were all stuck at our homes, and who in a very dark sarcastic way was able to breath some life and laughter into our minds during that psychotic year (also the year my brother passed).

With this film Eva paints around an act of force so intense and so heavy, without ever actually naming the act, but what she brilliantly shows you as a viewer is what becomes of someone who has experienced trauma throughout the following years, whether it be through moments of pure fear, moments of unwilling panic, moments of using laughter to continue to grieve, and moments of pure unadulterated pain.

I've been through these moments in my life, and I am thankful this film exists, as if you have not experienced heavy trauma in your life, this helps paint the portrait of what it's like for those of us who have.

I love the control of tone throughout and how it remains somber while allowing moments of breaths of fresh air through sarcastic comedy to allow your brain to take a breather.

The film executes a non-linear path that bookends itself with a monologue that I will definitely be reading over again and going back to in moments of solitude where I need to remember that even though trauma exists in my life, there are ways to pass through to get to the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm looking forward to more from Eva Victor. Fantastic, touching work here.

Sorry, Baby was a movie I hadn't heard about or read any reviews. So, I went in not knowing what to expect.

Agnes (Eva Victor) is a full professor (!) in her 20's (!!!) at some unidentified small college that seems to be in northern Massachusetts by the seashore. Agnes is kind of quirky, a little off at times and obviously a loner. Her one good friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie), has left the house they shared - platonically - and moved on to a career and a relationship in NYC. Lydie then comes for a visit and they are both very chill and at ease with one another in a nice way. Lydie then reveals that she is pregnant. The movie then bounces back to when they and some friends were working on their dissertations three or so years a ago, then to the more immediate term of the past year or so and then jumps ahead to the not too distant future when Lydie has had her child.

All through the focus is on Agnes and a trauma she experienced (no spoiler) and how she is coping and how mostly Lydie helped her. The mood bounces from stress, to being poignant and the to being funny - but none of it laugh out loud funny. It's a quirky portrait of single childless cat lady (yes, there is a cat featured pretty significantly) without really embracing that concept for self-deprecation or for self-affirmation. The movie meanders, which is nice for a change, yet doesn't really make any kind of impact one way or another. Sorry, Baby is just there.

Sorry, Baby won't be everyone's cup of tea - and I would recommend waiting for it to come out on streaming.

Watched at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Gosh, where can I begin? This movie is both hilarious and heartbreaking as it perfectly portrays of both the drama and comedic moments of life despite the harrowing situation that has been encountered. Eva Victor, who directed and acted, crafts an incredible drama that becomes a good character study of finding ways to move on with great dialogue, character dynamics, performances, and direction on the tone and atmosphere throughout.

Presented with good realistic camerawork, structure, and editing, the movie handles it serious themes solely and perfectly. Including great characters, atmospheres and cunning dialogue that are presented throughout the story that achieves the realism and nature approaches or life. There are some dialogue moments that are still burned into my memory which shows how good the dialogue is. Each conversation, choices and structure is held perfectly from Victor with each pacing moment feeling balanced, tone being focused and a good sense of humane style of life. No moment there was something that felt out of place, cheesy or unrealistic.

Eva Victor might be a new voice in cinema pretty soon and I do hope Victor is able to get the chance to shine soon.

Beautiful acting by the lead, but the script lacks full development of the characters. Hard to understand main character's motivation. No development of origin. Also, she has no family. Why?

Lastly, portrayal of males was 1 dimensional and unbalanced. We see the sociopath, the nice but weak guy, the main doctor, and the strangely helpful but random older man. But we don't have the presence of one strong male in Agnes' life. That would have made this movie much better and more balanced.

Without that, you get a gut punch of having watched something really terrible happen to a nice person without any real good explanation and without enough redemption.

As such, it was unpleasant without enough redemption.