Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Eva Victor
Starring: Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, Louis Cancelmi, John Carroll Lynch
In similar fashion to Ally Pankiw's recent Rachel Sennott vehicle I Used to Be Funny, writer/director Eva Victor's feature debut Sorry, Baby is a dramedy about a funny woman using her humour to help move on from a sexual assault. It's a much more loosely structured version of this theme than Pankiw's more narratively satisfying film, but it's centred on a beautifully realised protagonist also played by the director in one of the year's breakout roles.
Victor casts themselves as Agnes. In the film's non-linear narrative we first find her as a tenured professor at a liberal arts college in one of those cosy New England towns where it always appears to be autumn. A visit from her best friend and former classmate Lydie (Naomi Ackie) sees the two women talk around an incident they refer to as the "bad thing." We quickly move back in time to Agnes' time as a student, where her academic talents are nurtured by an admiring professor, the wonderfully named Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi). Decker's approach is less nurturing and more grooming, however, and when he invites Agnes to his home under the pretence of discussing her thesis...well, that's when the bad thing happens.
From there most of the narrative moves forward, skipping days and then months at a time to chart Agnes' progress, or lack thereof, in the aftermath of the incident. Agnes closes herself off from people, only leaving her house when necessary. She adopts a cat, which initially provides comfort until the animal suffers a miscarriage and Agnes has to finish off the stillborn kitten. This scene is what David Lynch would refer to as "the eye of the duck," the moment that encapsulates Sorry, Baby's sad but not untrue notion that life will inevitably bring bad things to bear.
Agnes' relationship with her cat also sums up her state as someone who has a lot of love to give, but can no longer trust anyone enough to give it freely. Everyone is now viewed with suspicion, and Agnes keeps a physical distance from strangers as though the pandemic's six feet rule were still in place. But her true armour comes from her sense of humour, which makes Sorry, Baby as entertaining as it is insightful. As a performer Victor is something of a millennial Tina Fey, and there are moments here that wouldn't be out of place in 30 Rock. The situation Agnes finds herself in is so dire and hopeless, not just for her but for the society she inhabits, that you have to laugh, otherwise you'd go mad.
While Victor's debut is as dialogue heavy as you might expect from a post-mumblecore American indie, they also understand the power of silence in their film's heavier moments. The "bad thing" is never shown onscreen, Victor instead riffing on Hitchcock's Frenzy in keeping the camera stationed outside Decker's home and letting our minds fill in the awful blanks. In the immediate aftermath Victor's camera tracks Agnes as she walks in a daze to her car several streets away, then remains mounted to her windscreen as she drives home, confusion writ large across her stunned face.
It's this very confusion that plays into how Agnes decides to deal with the crime in its immediate aftermath. Victor makes it clear why women tend not to report such assaults, not only by detailing Agnes' cold and uncaring treatment by those whose job is to come to her aid, but by allowing Agnes to express her objection to ruining the life of her attacker's child. Agnes also takes the liberal view that a prison sentence wouldn't make Decker a better person.
Victor avoids any reductive "woman good/man bad" dynamic by creating supporting characters of both sexes in friendly and antagonistic roles. There are bad men, like the asshole doctor who "treats" Agnes the morning after her attack, but also bad women, like the college HR staff who make it clear their priority is to ensure this doesn't negatively affect their institution.
Victor's handling of the shifting timeline doesn't always go smoothly, and in a couple of places it's a little confusing to figure out where exactly we are in time, especially given how every scene appears to have been shot in October. They also fumble what is one of the film's more interesting aspects - that of Agnes landing the role of professor partly due to a recommendation by her attacker - by failing to interrogate Agnes's feelings regarding such an ironic fate. But Victor is so engaging as Agnes, and her stupor so convincingly real that such quibbles don't overly affect a drama that is as riveting as it is ruminative.
Sorry, Baby is in UK/ROI cinemas from August 22nd.
