Sorry, Baby

Eva Victor's story highlights Agnes's journey post a traumatic experience as life moves on. Agnes tries to move on but the trauma doesn't let her while she really is unable to take legal course of action. The story focuses on her emotional journey as she acknowledges the bad thing that happened to her and tries hard to live with it. The world is such, thet bad things just happen and it is never easy being a woman in the said world.

This is the kind of film that rendered me speechless. It started off casually with an overdose of the F words which helped showcase Agnes's bond with Lydie. But the 5 minute scene of her confiding to Lydie over what really happened, made me sit up. What followed next was simply terrific piece of writing and execution. Eva brought Agnes's character alive and her way of dealing with what happened was simply holding a mirror to us, the viewers. This is not the film about Agnes fighting for justice but a film about her fight to survive, move on and worse, accept the bad thing. The way she pushes herself to learn to live with it, was indeed a tough watch.

What makes the screenplay terrific is how Eva Victor tries to insert humor into the narrative. I felt sad with Agnes while having a chuckle now and then despite the grim moments. She really struggles to get on with her life and hyperventilates, which is a normal thing that one expects from her. Then the narrative shifts to showcasing that the bad thing just happens and Agnes has to live with it, leaving us the audience to accept the very thing as normal. It's infuriating to feel the helplessness of the character but also hold onto the hope of her pulling through. The rest of us are like Pete, while the countless Agnes' are made to move on with their lives and apologizing for the world we have created.

Agnes (Eva Victor) is a student who experiences something bad with her professor Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi). As she tries to heal from this she experiences many different types of relationships over the years from close ones with her friend from college Lydie (Naomi Ackie), to the saviour complex between her and a mouse that her cat Olga (Noochie the cat) brought in years later.

I won't be so arrogant as to say I understood the nuances of the film, although I recognise that Eva Victor who also wrote and directed the film, was saying something about the relationships we have with people and how the communication between us can be very different and layered. Who you are with one person is not who you are with another. There is a fluid dynamic of personality in and between relationships. I suspect that's why nabokov's book Lolita was discussed in the film: there were very different dynamics and power levels in the relationships within the story of Lolita.

It's not a film where you come out of the cinema and say "wow that was fantastic." It's more of a film you come out of the cinema and you remember lines from the film, and scenes form it for weeks, as you piece everything together and apply it to your own life. Who are you and who are the people in your life?

Victor's presence on screen is amazing and her acting skills sublime; I've never seen her before but I will certainly look at some of her other work. Her direction was amazing and not a single moment of the film was wasted. Some of the shots and scenes were pure art.

Suffice to say I loved this film and everything about it, I gave it a solid 8.

I really wanted to like this movie. However it felt like a movie that existed only because of the harshness of the subject matter, that of which is not explored very much in the film. There is not really any tension in the film, nor any real sense of storyline. It is basically just a slice of life tale but actually several slices that aren't that intertwined, and most of the plot points felt completely unimportant. You could edit this film down to 30 minutes or less, and it would probably be a lot better. I also felt like the movie could've leaned into Eva's quirkiness more, there were a few funny moments but not nearly enough. Some decent cinematography though and Naomi Ackie is always great. (6.2/10)

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.