SORRY, BABY - Mark Reviews Movies

Sorry, Baby, A24

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 4, 2025

No matter how much one might want it to, life doesn't stop for anything or anyone, and regardless of how much one fights to make it so, pain and trauma don't just disappear. Sorry, Baby is about those ideas, put forth in a simple but insightful story of a woman in the aftermath of a terrible crime. For her, the only thing worse than not talking about what happened to her might be to have to talk about it.

The film, written and directed by star Eva Victor, is filled with such seeming contradictions, because they really aren't in the mind of the main character. A significant point here is that Victor's Agnes constantly finds herself in difficult or downright impossible situations when it comes to how she reacts to a professor sexually assaulting her. Agnes herself doesn't know how she's supposed to respond, behave, and act after the crime, but it certainly seems as if a lot of people know exactly how she should or shouldn't react. As if the memory and agony of the crime itself aren't enough, Agnes has to navigate the expectations and pressures of people whom she barely knows or who are complete strangers to her.

That's one thread of this narrative, which follows Agnes in a series of vignettes over the course of about four years. At first, her life seems ordinary and perfectly happy, since she has a house and her dream job as a college professor. Then again, she's being visited by her best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) after not spending any time together for a while, so happiness is basically a given.

It's neither of the women's fault, because that's the way of adult friendships after college or, in this case, graduate school when the two were housemates and moving, as Lydie went off to New York City and Agnes stayed in the same New England college town, and relationships. Lydie has married and announces to Agnes that she's pregnant with her and her partner's first child. Agnes is happy, of course, but there's something happening inside her that suggests everything isn't as happy as it seems. Is it the knowledge that Agnes and Lydie might spend even less time together after she has a baby, or does the realization that her friend is living the life she wants now make Agnes realize something about her own life?

The answer, like the main character and the emotional/psychological underpinnings of this story, is complicated, to say the least. The narrative unfolds across a handful of chapters, beginning with Lydie's visit, jumping back in time a few years to what will become the defining moment of the story, and returning to periods after that event. Each chapter is as much about Agnes' growth as it is, for those who might only see the surface of this woman, the apparent stagnation of her life, and each one is also as much about how Agnes reconciles the reality of her trauma with the inescapable truth that life will continue for her and everyone else.

There's nothing easy about this process, and that's why the film's superficial simplicity of storytelling is so effective. We can see how Agnes changes or doesn't during this tale, what matters to her so much in proximity to the crime and stops mattering at all after time passes, and who in her life makes some kind of difference in little or significant ways. For subject matter so severe, Victor ensures this approach has a light, subtle quality to it. It feels like we're simply witnessing a life that has been devastated, as it's interrupted by reminders of what happened and, to the extent that such a thing is possible, set on a course toward a new normalcy.

Relationships, really, are at the heart of this story. There's the one Agnes has with Lydie, who's the first person she tells about the assault—not only because they live together, but also because she must know on some level how her friend her react. The perpetrator, by the way, is Agnes' thesis advisor Preston (Louis Cancelmi), who invites her over to his house to discuss her paper (The sudden return of a single word he uses, even years later, instantly returns Agnes to this moment). Victor's camera stays outside the house, across the street, and watches as time passes from afternoon to night, with no sign that anything is amiss, until Agnes stumbles out the front door and makes the long walk back to the car she left parked on campus.

Agnes describes what happened in detail to Lydie, who offers nothing except acknowledgement that what happened was wrong, a silent embrace, and constant often quiet support. When Agnes finds a stray kitten on the street and brings it home, for example, Lydie simply tells her, "Whatever you need."

The rest of the story amounts to such seemingly inconsequential scenes. They ultimately mean more in a positive way than the consequential ones, such as the rough bedside manner of the doctor (played by Marc Carver) who basically scolds Agnes for her attitude, as well as a pair of women from the college, who offer vague support "as women" but might as well be wasting her time in any official capacity. Another relationship is the one that develops with Agnes' neighbor Gavin (Lucas Hedges), who doesn't know and, perhaps more importantly, never asks what some of her hints mean. Finally, there's a scene with a sandwich shop owner played by John Carroll Lynch, who gives genuine comfort and wisdom to a complete stranger, simply because he can.

On the surface, Sorry, Baby may not seem to add up to much. It does, however, in the little moments, the stray but potent observations, and the distinct feeling that, while Agnes may never be the same, she understands, accepts, and decides to move forward with that knowledge.

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