June 27, 2025
by Carla Hay

Directed by Eva Victor
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed Massachusetts city, the comedy/drama film “Sorry, Baby” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) who representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Over a five-year period, a young woman copes with the aftermath of being sexually assaulted by someone she used to trust.
Culture Audience: “Sorry, Baby” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and comedy/dramas with quirky protagonists.

“Sorry, Baby” is a unique comedy/drama about coping with sexual trauma, from the perspective of an intelligent and quirky woman. Some viewers might be bored by the slow pacing, but this movie has enough wit and authenticity to keep most viewers interested. “Sorry, Baby” is the type of movie where you know within the first 15 minutes whether or not you will care to know more about the protagonist.
Written and directed by Eva Victor, “Sorry, Baby” is Victor’s feature-film directorial debut. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where “Sorry, Baby” won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. “Sorry, Baby” takes place in an unnamed city in Massachusetts, where the movie was filmed on location in various Massachusetts cities. The story is told non-chronologically in five chapters, with each chapter reflecting the life of the protagonist, from the ages of 27 to 32.
“Sorry, Baby” begins with a chapter titled “The Year With the Baby,” which is also the title of the last chapter in the movie. The opening scene is a joyous reunion of two best friends: introverted Agnes (played by Victor) and extroverted Lydie (played by Naomi Ackie), who were roommates and attended the same grad school, where they studied English literature. Agnes and Lydie now live in different states.
Agnes, who is 31 years old in this chapter, lives in a house by herself in a rural part of Massachusetts. Lydie, who has come to visit Agnes, lives with Lydie’s spouse in New York. Agnes has an isolated existence where her closest neighbor is several yards away, and she doesn’t have any close friends except for Lydie. Nothing is told about Agnes’ biological family.
As the two friends reconnect, they start off with small talk. They both say that they miss the ability to see each other in person on a regular basis. They both say that they wished that they lived closer together. And then, Lydie breaks some joyous news to Agnes: Lydie is about 10 weeks pregnant.
Agnes is very happy for Lydie, who seems a little worried about Agnes. Agnes says that everything is fine. She also shares some good news of her own: She’s been promoted from being a part-time professor to a full-time professor at the same college where she and Lydie went to grad school.
During Lydie’s visit, Agnes nearest neighbor randomly shows up unannounced. His name is Gavin (played by Lucas Hedges), who’s about the same age as Agnes. Gavin is socially awkward and has an obvious crush on Agnes. The movie implies that Gavin might have some learning disabilities because Agnes reminds Gavin where he lives and politely tells him to go back home.
Later, Lydie and Agnes both have a reunion dinner with three people who were in their same study group in grad school: Devin (played by Cody Reiss), Logan (played by Jordan Mendoza) and Natasha (played by Kelly McCormack), who has an obsessive jealousy of Agnes. Natasha works at the same college and has always considered Agnes to be her biggest rival.
Natasha is hosting this dinner party, which quickly becomes tense when Natasha is rude to Agnes. When Agnes excuses herself to use the restroom, Lydie verbally cuts into image-conscious Natasha in a passive-aggressive way: Lydie complains to Natasha that there’s a bone in the fish that Lydie was served. Lydie admonishes Natasha for not being careful enough in checking for bones in the fish served to Natasha’s dinner guests.
The chapter titled “The Year With the Bad Thing” is the most pivotal chapter in the story. It’s a flashback to when Agnes was 27 years old and living with Lydie while they were both in grad school. Agnes, Lydie, Natasha, Devin and Logan were in a small study group that had a professor named Preston Decker (played by Louis Cancelmi) as their advisor.
Preston, who is a divorced father in his mid-to-late 40s, treats Agnes as if he thinks she’s his best student. Natasha, who wants to be “teacher’s pet,” believes that Preston gives special treatment to Agnes. Natasha pathetically tries to get praise from Preston, who is casually dismissive of Natasha.
In a private conversation at home, Lydie mentions to Agnes that Preston seems attracted to Agnes. Lydie asks Agnes if Agnes is interested in hooking up with Preston. A slightly mortified Agnes says no because she’s not interested in Preston and because Agnes knows it would be ethically wrong on many levels to have a sexual relationship with a faculty member who will influence her academic grades. Meanwhile, Lydie openly talks about her sex life to Agnes and drops a hint about Lydie’s true sexuality that is confirmed later in the story.
During a crucial period of time in the students’ academic careers, Preston wants to give in-depth feedback to Agnes about her dissertation and invites her over to his house for this discussion, to make up for cutting short their previous meeting in his office. The movie shows Agnes leaving Preston’s house several hours after she arrived. What happened during this house meeting is not shown but is described in detail by Agnes to Lydie after Agnes goes back to their home.
The trailer for “Sorry, Baby” already hints that the “something bad” that happens to Agnes is a sexual assault that prompted her to get a medical check-up, with Lydie accompanying her as comfort. In one of the movie’s most uncomfortable scenes, the unnamed doctor (played by Marc Carver) who examines Agnes is uncaring and glib when he finds out why Agnes wants this medical exam. Later, Agnes comes across a disheartening roadblock when she reports what happened to her and she attempts to get justice.
The chapter titled “The Year With the Questions” (the movie’s shortest chapter) shows Agnes in a jury duty situation. “The Year With the Good Sandwich” chapter has its best scene when Agnes has a panic attack while driving in her car, and she is helped by a kind stranger named Pete (played by John Carroll Lynch), who sees Agnes when she drives into a convenience store parking lot during this panic attack. “Sorry, Baby” is at its best when Agnes copes with indignities and reminders that she can’t escape her trauma by trying to forget that it happened.
“Sorry, Baby” also has a subplot about Agnes finding some comfort with Gavin, but it’s not the type of comfort that’s about people falling in love. It’s the type of comfort where she knows she will never fall in love with Gavin (even though he wants it to happen), but she wants to have a “friends with benefits” situation. Is she using Gavin for her own selfish needs? Yes, but Gavin is a consenting partner, even if his feelings for Agnes aren’t mutual.
Ackie gives a vibrant performance as outspoken Lydie, but Lydie is not in most of the movie. Agnes is front and center in this story. Where “Sorry, Baby” falls short is in telling more about who Agnes is outside of her career, her limited social interactions, and how she deals with her trauma. Shortly after her sexual assault, Agnes adopts a stray kitten (whom she names Olga), who becomes Agnes’ constant companion after Lydie moves away.
There is nothing revealed about Agnes’ family and nothing revealed about what she likes to do in her spare time besides reading. There’s a brief scene of Agnes in her classroom and a another brief scene of Agnes getting positive feedback in the evaluation that leads to her job promotion. Agnes’ choice to have her students read Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel “Lolita” (about a literature professor who sexually abuses his 12-year-old stepdaughter) is shown in “Sorry, Baby” as an example of how people can react differently to sexual controversy. But there are many unanswered questions about Agnes that make her depiction in the movie somewhat shallow at different times.
Still, Victor’s portrayal of Agnes has many meaningful insights into Agnes’ personality in other ways. Agnes is the type of person who doesn’t use her physical attractiveness to “get ahead” in her career. She’s eccentric but not mentally unstable. She’s an unapologetic literature nerd who’s not standoffish, but she has a hard time meeting anyone (other than Lydie) who’s on the same wavelength as she is.
These insights into Agnes’ life bring vitality to the story and will make interested viewers curious to see what will happen to Agnes. Because of Victor’s capable writing, directing and acting, “Sorry, Baby” brings some dark comedy to the disrespectful ways that people can degrade each other and emotional resonance to the compassionate ways that people can uplift each other. Most of all, “Sorry, Baby” isn’t about finding out if Agnes gets “closure” for her trauma, because it’s a story that takes a worthwhile glimpse at part of her bumpy journey along the way.
A24 released “Sorry, Baby” in select U.S. cinemas on June 27, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on July 25, 2025.