Sundance 2025: Sorry, Baby Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

This year’s edition of the festival provided quite a few impressive films, mostly from filmmakers who also starred in their film. However, none were as impressive or widely discussed as Eva Victor’s brilliant debut Sorry, Baby. Known for building a small audience online for her clever comedy skits she would upload on Twitter., this got Victor a position as a writer at Comedy Central and a small role in the television series Billions. As she ventured more into the world of film and television, she started to develop her own script, which caught the attention of Barry Jenkins who produced the film and convinced Eva to direct and star in it. 

Sorry, Baby is a non-linear slice of life dramedy that consists of five chapters that span five years, each representing key moments of a year in the life of a woman named Agnes (Victor). When audiences meet Agnes, she has just recently become a college professor living in a forested area just off campus. Her college best friend Lydie (Ackie) has settled down in New York and has come to visit, which is made clear as the time between these visits gets increasingly larger. The two have a strong bond, the kind that only develops by going through a lot together. Despite Agnes thriving from a career standpoint and becoming the youngest professor in the history of the faculty, it is made clear immediately that she has endured something traumatic that has kept her from moving forward, unlike Lydie, who has settled in a big city, is married, and has a child on the way. From there, audiences are taken back to the past where they slowly get to piece together Agnes’ past. 

In a decade full of confident, fully formed directorial debuts, Victor’s Sorry, Baby, stands tall as one of the most impressive. She is strikes such a specific tone, as she explores dark subject matter while drawing natural comedy out of so many moments that would otherwise be very bleak. It’s a strange tone and very specific style of dialogue that some may take issue with, yet it still feels so incredibly natural, and never undercuts the serious themes the film grapples with. To that point, it is seriously hard to believe that this is not only Victor’s directorial debut, but also her first script and her first major acting credit – and she does all three expertly. This is partly why the film is so successful, as Victor’s acting, directing and writing all work in tandem to achieve a very specific vision. It so beautifully captures the life of a grad school and the pressures of being in your late 20s and feeling stuck, especially when it is prompted by something tragic or traumatic preventing you from moving forward. 

The beating heart of Sorry, Baby is the beautiful friendship between Agnes and Lydie. Ackie proves herself to be an absolute pro, as she’s so charismatic and natural in every scene she’s in. She and Victor are such a joy to watch on screen together and it’s hard to believe they haven’t been friends their entire lives. There is such a profound trust between them across every scene, making the dramatic territory they traverse feel very cathartic. Meanwhile, Hedges makes his welcomed return to film after years of focusing on theatre. Though Gavin is not that well developed, he has such great chemistry with Victor and is clearly having fun in every scene.

In the end, Sorry, Baby is an absolute knockout that will surely be among the years best films. It’s so confidently written and straddles the line between quirky humour and very challenging subject matter so beautifully. Eva Victor proves herself as an incredible new voice in filmmaking and we cannot wait to see what she does next. 

still courtesy of A24

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Tristan French