Victor’s ‘Sorry, Baby’ stands out at Sundance

Cinema | February 18th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

Writer/director/performer Eva Victor’s feature debut “Sorry, Baby” was one of the big 2025 Sundance success stories. Audiences connected with the film’s perfect blend of acidity and tenderness. Victor received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for the movie’s fantastic script. And following serious interest from Searchlight, Neon, and others, worldwide distribution rights were acquired by A24 for a sum reportedly in the neighborhood of 8 million dollars. This bright spot occurs during a particularly precarious state of affairs for independent cinema. No matter the eventual box office outcome, Victor’s victory is well-deserved. “Sorry, Baby” was one of the very best of the sixteen Sundance world premieres I had the opportunity to see.

Victor opens the story with a reunion between Agnes (played by the director) and grad school bestie Lydie (Naomi Ackie) in the rural house in the small New England hamlet near the university they attended. True to the literary themes associated with the story, Victor divides the segments of the story into chapters that preview various events with straightforward headings (“The Year with the Baby,” “The Year of the Good Sandwich,” “The Year When the Bad Thing Happened”). Covering what turns out to be about a half-decade span, the events unfold out of chronological order, a choice the filmmaker handles with a sharp organizational strategy in mind.

At the heart of “Sorry, Baby,” and lurking in plain sight in the logline that “Something bad happened to Agnes,” is the dawning realization that the fractured recounting of events mirrors the psychological processing and blacked-out gaps stemming from the sexual assault perpetrated by the professor and thesis advisor trusted by Agnes and her graduate cohort. The onscreen (and offscreen) presence of the writing mentor named Decker (Louis Cancelmi) is calibrated with precision. Victor has spoken about the desire to address the entirety of a harrowing and devastating experience without showing any violence. “Sorry, Baby” cracks the code, offering up a multitude of comic and tragic ways that Agnes works through ongoing trauma.

Among those dramatic choices is Victor’s masterstroke. Following the departure of Decker, Agnes ends up with her attacker’s old job and his old office. Cutting with and against the grain of that development and the mixed feelings it inspires in our protagonist, audience members are also as surprised as Agnes by some unexpected revelations from fellow student and creative rival Natasha (Kelly McCormack). Multi-talented filmmaker McCormack, a vocal public supporter of the #MeToo movement, is as wickedly funny as anything in the movie, which frequently laces the dark self-reflection and doubt with situational hijinks and droll wit.

Those latter two categories are supplied in part by Lucas Hedges, who plays Agnes’s neighbor Gavin. Gavin’s delight in the various kinds of attention paid to him by Agnes leads to several of the film’s most enjoyable exchanges. John Carroll Lynch, trying out an awesome accent, drops in for a humdinger of a single scene that practically defines the balance of laughter and pain sought and achieved by Victor. But the key relationship in the film is the one shared by Agnes and Lydie. Lydie’s willingness to challenge Agnes while wholly respecting her friend’s feelings unfolds with warmth and authenticity.

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