Drew Burnett Gregory is back at Sundance bringing daily updates on the best of LGBTQ+ cinema and beyond. Follow along for more coverage or read her review of Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby below.
One of the first things we learn about Agnes, Eva Victor’s character in their directorial debut, Sorry, Baby, is that she is the youngest person to be made a full-time professor at the college where she works. The rest of the film will reveal how Agnes is stuck in the past — a trauma in grad school keeping her in the same house, closed off from other people — but this detail proves her competence. She can perform Being Okay even as this experience impacts her past, present, and future.
Since the mainstream Me Too Movement began in 2017, several films have aimed to meet the moment with stories about harassment and assault. While they certainly range in quality, most of these films have framed assault as either completely debilitating or as something to triumph over. Sorry, Baby lets Agnes just live.
Split into vignettes, each focused on a moment in a year of Agnes’ life, the film begins in the present before going back to the year with “the bad thing.” The film is well-constructed yet blunt. Its trauma isn’t a mystery to reveal — the form is far more interested in the trauma’s different effects with each passing year. It’s a film that trusts its audience, allowing several moments of extended quiet alongside its more obvious portrayals of the aftermath of assault.
Not only does Agnes continue to live her life — in her own altered way — the film itself continues to encompass all aspects of life including humor and tenderness. While certainly difficult to watch at times, Sorry, Baby works so well, because it’s ultimately a slice-of-life comedy. The most important relationship in the film isn’t between Agnes and her abuser but Agnes and her lesbian best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie). Even at the doctor’s office the day after the assault, the two have a rapport that will make you laugh as well as cry. This movie recalls Frances Ha more than it does other so-called Me Too movies.
The entire supporting cast is great, but Lucas Hedges as Agnes’ neighbor/years-long casual hookup is a particularly inspired piece of casting. Hedges has a complicated sweetness to him that makes the relationship feel deeper than even Agnes wants to admit. Victor and Hedges have a casual chemistry that pushes against the character’s walls. Their romance is not the point of the film, but whenever they’re together you want it to be and that’s what makes it work so well.
While the smart script and strong performances are easy to praise, the filmmaking is just as noteworthy. The form isn’t showy, but it is skilled. This doesn’t fall into the trappings of the flat indie dramedy look seen again and again at Sundance. Even in the more standard dialogue scenes, the cinematography by Mia Cioffi Henry feels rich and specific.
If you’re a fan of Eva Victor from their comedy, Sorry, Baby with its wry observational humor won’t disappoint. But more than anything it feels like the arrival of a true filmmaker. This is an accomplished debut and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
Sorry, Baby will be available to watch on the 2025 Sundance online platform tomorrow.
Eva non binary? That’s awesome
Yeah! Last I checked they use they and she pronouns.