Rating: 9.5/10
The awards season has begun, and with that, movies that are considered to be the frontrunners have finally started to make their way to the theaters or streaming platforms. Among them is Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and is now streaming on HBO Max. The movie primarily focuses on themes such as sexual assault and trauma that comes after experiencing such a horrifying incident.
However, it is not the kind of film that shouts its message. Instead, it speaks softly and still manages to convey its true meaning. This moving and sharply written drama follows a woman trying to rebuild her life after experiencing a harrowing incident of sexual assault, finding moments of humor, friendship, and hope along the way. What makes Sorry, Baby such a riveting watch is how it treats trauma not as a single event but as something that quietly lingers, shaping how a person sees the world without defining who they are.
Sorry, Baby chronicles the journey of Agnes (Eva Victor), who is a literature professor at a small liberal arts college in rural New England. One day, her old friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie), visits from New York, and their meeting stirs up memories of their shared past. The flashback sequences reveal that Agnes was sexually assaulted by her former advisor, Professor Decker. Interestingly, the movie never features the assault; instead, it focuses on what happens after, the emotional weight, the silence, and the process of moving forward at a slow pace. One of the strongest aspects of the film is how it never follows the predictable beats of a “trauma drama” and takes a more introspective route.
There’s no doubt that healing is really difficult, and it is rarely linear. Agnes doesn’t scream, and she doesn’t wish to take revenge for what happened to her. She continues to teach, to love again, and most importantly, to make sense of an unfair world. For many, the decision to leave the assault unseen might feel like they are missing something pivotal to the narrative. However, in this movie, the decision of leaving the assault unseen gives the story its quiet power, showcasing how trauma lives in small, everyday moments.
Victor’s script strikes a perfect balance between sadness and dry humor. The film’s darkly funny tone keeps it grounded in reality. There are moments of awkward laughter, quiet irony, and gentle absurdity, the kind of humor that real people often use to survive painful experiences. This is both refreshing and deeply human because instead of asking for pity, Sorry, Baby invites empathy.
The relationship between Agnes and Lydie is the movie’s emotional core. Naomi Ackie brings warmth and honesty to her role, making Lydie a true friend who is sometimes blunt, sometimes funny, but always there. Their friendship feels like something we have experienced in our lives. Together, they remind viewers how friendship can be therapeutic and a quiet act of saving each other, one conversation at a time.
Another strong aspect of the film is how it unfolds the story in chapters and moves between past and present. This non-linear structure provides the audience a chance to see how deeply the assault has shaped Agnes’s life, without reducing her to her pain. We see her as a student, a teacher, a friend, and eventually, as a person learning to trust the world again. It provides a much-needed texture to the narrative, making it clear that recovery doesn’t happen all at once. Time passes, but the past remains, just quieter and easier to live with.
Eva Victor is the soul of this movie and deserves full credit not only for her performance but also for writing and directing such a sensitive, thought-provoking debut. She manages to handle the subject matter with a lot of sensitivity and never resorts to melodrama. Victor never lets Agnes’s story turn into a symbol of victimhood; instead, she keeps her human by making her complex, flawed, and full of quiet strength. Truly, one of the finest performances of this decade.
All in all, Sorry, Baby is not just about trauma; it’s about survival, friendship, and the hope of seeing the light after darkness. It is one of the rare original films that finds beauty in resilience and humor in heartbreak. It’s easily one of the most honest and affecting films of the year.
Sorry, Baby is available for streaming on HBO Max.
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