Sorry, Baby

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.

Sorry, Baby is one of the most nuanced, simple yet complex telling of the effects and aftermath of a traumatic event in the life of a bright, energetic and youthful woman. Beautifully written, directed and brought to screen with a very balanced, sensitive and realistic performance by debutant Eva Victor. The movie is truly deserving of its premiere and writing award at Sundance and being the closing movie of the director's fortnight at Cannes.

Eva Victor tells her story in a non chronological manner by moving forward and backward in time through five specific chapters representing five very different years of her life. This non linear approach highlights her emotional journey and augments the story telling significantly. The story is simple and the pace of the movie is slow but it is this slow pace and focus on the lead characters subdued emotions when alone mixed with phases of elation when in the company of her best friend that makes the movie so effective.

Eva does a brilliant job channeling the emotions of disappointment, disillusionment, isolation, grief, anxiety and anger mixed with those of hope, resilience and healing. At no point it appears that she is acting and that is what makes her performance and the movie special. Don't expect any cinematic fireworks as Eva makes the audience truly experience the lead character's emotional journey through trauma. Delicate, authentic and realistic. 8/10.

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.

I've seen this twice now (Sundance and LA premier), and what struck me on the second viewing is how cozy this movie is, despite the circumstances of the plot.

At my second screening, Eva Victor did a Q&A and emphasized how important it was for her to make sure the audience felt safe and she parsed through this story, and to avoid any depictions of violence onscreen.

This translated pretty clearly, as the warmth and love from friends, strangers, and new love interests help guide Agnes through the pain, guilt, regret, and distrust.

Also, awesome depiction of the Cat Distribution system. 10/10 cat.

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.