Sorry, Baby

I have never walked out of a film before, but I almost did. I'm glad I did not as the film won me over. At first, the absurdly goofy and one dimensional characters and dialog was a turn off. I certainly don't know anyone above the age of ten that acts/talks that way. And the costume "designer" should either never work again, or get an Oscar for the impossibly tasteless and frumpy outfits the lead and a few other actors wore.

But as it settled in, the quiet tone and the lead's obviously neurodivergent behavior made more sense. And the subsequent scenes with her next door neighbor "boyfriend", the sandwich shop owner and the baby at the end of the film were sweet. Ultimately, I got a viewpoint that made me think about it later, and that is what makes art worthwhile.

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.

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.

If you have a friend that enjoys complaining about the same thing over and over, for months and years, and you enjoy nodding to whatever nonsense she says, this film is for you.

No spoilers that aren't in the trailer.

It has some good traits: it's not boring and goes by quickly, the main actor is very beautiful and plays well too, the camerawork is very enjoyable.

As some people have pointed out, there are a lot of strange things about the film. To me it looks like it could be taking place in the 80s, it is so quiet and muted, so devoid of technology except for an appearance of a phone/laptop every now and then. A deserted village with barely any people, the main character lives in the woods. The uni is tiny at least in comparison to what I know, of course she is a professor if there are 15 people living in that area. Except for the few main characters no one has a personality, and they are only there to "attack her" by actually doing their job and filling a medical form/interviewing her for the jury service/telling her not to park there/telling her that they can't fire a guy who has already quit. I hated how they treated the doctor, I really did. And I also really disliked how their way of giving a black one some personality was just to have her swear a lot and talk about male organs all the time. As some point the word fork sounded maybe 10 times per minute - it's ridiculous!

Coming back to the beginning of the review: the film is all about complaining. It starts out really pleasantly, but after the initial 40 minutes just spirals into "no one understands me" and "oh poor me". There are enough people like that in the world, why create another one for the film. I honestly have no sympathy for her. She'll live in these woods for the rest of her life and will base her whole personality on how one single evening in her life went.

As a sidenote, I wish the trailer showed more of what the film is actually like. It is more upbeat and positive than the actual film.

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.