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USA | Spain | France 2025
Opening December 18, 2025
Directed by: Eva Victor
Writing credits: Eva Victor
Principal actors: Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie, Louis Cancelmi
There is a gentle, endearing stealth factor about Sorry, Baby that slowly works its way into your heart. At first it is a little unexpected that a quirky film about a young, unpretentious English literature professor, Agnes (Eva Victor), living a quiet life in rural New England could resonate in today’s fast-paced world. At the heart of the story is the friendship between Agnes and Lydie (Naomi Ackie), two former roommates/graduate students at Fairpoint, a picturesque liberal arts college in rural New England. At the core of their friendship is also the story of the sexual assault on Agnes by her mentor and academic advisor Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi).
The film is cleverly arranged in non-chronological chapters spanning Agnes and Lydie’s five years of friendship. This keeps the audience guessing what is happening and when, but in an enticing, playful way. “The Year with the Baby,” chapters one and five, bookends the film. In between there are “The Year with the Bad Thing,” “The Year of the Questions,” and “The Year with the Good Sandwich.”
Agnes had decided to stay on at Fairpoint, even after the assault and lightning-quick exit of her academic advisor; she was hired for a coveted full-time teaching position upon his resignation. Lydie had moved to New York and married her wife Fran (E.R. Fightmaster) and became a mother. The baby in the film’s title and in the two chapters’ title is Lydie’s baby, Jane. Jane and Agnes spend the closing scene in the movie together deep in conversation; Agnes of course is the one who does all the talking.
Quite remarkably Eva Victor wrote, directed, and starred in Sorry, Baby. Much of the deadpan, understated, dark humor that permeates Sorry, Baby can be traced back to her career making social media videos and as a stand-up comedian. The quiet, sardonic, muted tone of the film tweaks your curiosity and seductively draws you in. There is rarely any drama, repression reigns. The “Bad Thing,” the sexual assault, is not on film. Agnes disappears behind Professor Decker’s front door to discuss her thesis. The camera stays motionless, focused on the house, as day turns into evening and evening into night. Then a distraught Agnes exits, as Decker watches, a silhouette in the doorway. Disheveled, she drives hastily back home to Lydie trying clumsily to explain that her “pants broke.”
Sorry, Baby is a little gem of a film not to be missed. Eva Victor, writer, director, and actor is a force to be reckoned with—for Victor, her debut film is a triumphant beginning. (Pat F.)