MIFF: SORRY, BABY

One of Sundance’s buzziest debuts, this A24-backed dramedy about a young woman’s recovery from trauma announces writer/director/star Eva Victor as a formidable new talent.

Agnes feels stuck. Unlike her best friend, Lydie, who’s moved to New York and is now expecting a baby, Agnes still lives in the New England house they once shared as graduate students, now working as a professor at her alma mater. A ‘bad thing’ happened to Agnes a few years ago and, since then, despite her best efforts, life hasn’t gotten back on track.

Writer/director Eva Victor’s performance as Agnes is a breathtaking tonal balancing act between heartbreaking and hilarious. Rather than focusing on the traumatic event, the non-chronological story illuminates the smaller moments in Agnes’s life, such as attending jury duty, adopting a kitten and eating a sandwich – patchwork details punctuating her uneven road to recovery. With its profound honesty, humanity and razor-sharp voice, Victor’s script won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance before A24 scooped up distribution rights in a bidding war. Produced by Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski and Mark Ceryak – the same team behind Aftersun (MIFF 2022) – and featuring key supporting turns from Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges and Kelly McCormack, Sorry, Baby is a funny, gentle and nuanced look at what it means to survive.

“No quick hit of words could ever accurately convey the power and potency of Victor’s debut, a darkly funny and enormously tender film.” – IndieWire