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Highlights

“Sorry, Baby” Showcases Eva Victor as a Must-Watch Director

Writer-director Eva Victor introduces the premiere of “Sorry, Baby” at Eccles Theater in Park City.  (Photo by George Pimentel/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)

By Jordan Crucchiola

 

Writer-director Eva Victor first became known to the world when front-facing DIY comedy was at its zenith on social media. X was still Twitter, and your feed could be awash with hilarious impressions and bits and character send-ups if you wanted it to be. Victor became one of the breakout personalities of the late 2010s moment, and has now expanded her artistic repertoire to include the title of filmmaker premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. 

 

“We made it to Utah!” Victor shouts over applause in Eccles Theater on January 27. “What an honor and a complete dream to be here having the world premiere of this film.” The film is Sorry, Baby, premiering in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section, and senior director of programming Kim Yutani praises the new filmmaker’s vision and voice as she welcomes the audience. “This is her feature debut, and we are so happy to have it at Sundance. It is a funny, elegant, and completely original film,” says Yutani. “This is a film that our programming team responded to not only for its charm and technical finesse, but because it holds a distinct and necessary point of view.” 

 

Sorry, Baby is a wry, contemplative film that feels like a grown, mature heir to the legacy of Girls-esque entertainment about women. That show was polarizing, but it brought forth a frank, funny, and unselfconscious voice to topics that women and girls have been taught to only speak about in whispers. One could say, without a doubt, that Victor is demonstrating herself to be a voice of a generation, and she is sure to emerge as one of the breakout talents of this year’s Festival. For her directorial debut she takes a personal story and presents it in such an honest yet sensitive way that its challenging subject matter still entreats the viewer to settle into her thoughtful point of view. Sorry, Baby is also backed by Barry Jenkins’ production company, Pastel.

 

Comedy in the face of darkness can be a microcosm of life itself, and actor Lucas Hedges says he was transported by the Sorry, Baby script in a rare way. “Usually I start reading something and [one] page in I’m like, ‘Oh, god. No chance!’” says Hedges, to an uproar of laughter from the audience. “This was interesting, because I felt like it completely took hold of me, and I read it in one sitting. I just loved it, I guess.” Costar Naomi Ackie felt similarly connected to how alive Victor’s voice came across in the script, which the actor got hold of about a year in advance of filming. Ackie and Victor spoke shortly afterward with each other, but Ackie says she felt connected to the writer-director before they even met. Tonight is her first time seeing the film, and she grabs Victor’s arm during the post-premiere Q&A. “You’re so special,” Ackie tells her.

 

In the film, Victor plays a young woman named Agnes who is about to finish grad school when she is assaulted by her thesis advisor at her small-town New England liberal arts college. The movie begins with Agnes drifting through her days, caught between who she was before the attack, and who she is now. When her best friend, Lydie (Naomie Ackie), returns to their college town to visit Agnes — who now works as a professor at their alma mater — Sorry, Baby progresses by moving back and forth through time. Grief is not a linear process, and so the way we learn Agnes’ story isn’t either. And even with its somber subject matter, Victor’s performance is imbued with life by her quiet, tongue-in-cheek humor. 

 

“The tone of the movie is why I wanted to make the film,” says Victor. “I really wanted to talk about the aftermath of assault, not the assault itself, and I wanted the film to exist without any depicted violence in it, and to be talking about those years after when people look away and you’re still sort of stuck in the thick of it.” The director continues, “I come from comedy, so every time I tried to write a serious thing, it couldn’t happen for me. I think in my most painful moments, there is stuff to laugh at. And honestly, the relationship between Agnes and Lydia is why I think the comedy has to exist in it, because there is a lot of joy here.”

 

Through the bad days and the better days and the laughter and the sleepless, anxious nights, Agnes copes through an awkward but sweet neighbors-with-benefits situationship (thanks to Hedges’ character), her resilient sense of humor, a kitten, and the unwavering support of Lydie. Although Sorry, Baby isn’t a romance per se, it does have something of a central love story that revolves around Agnes and Lydie, and the chemistry between Victor and Ackie is the warm, beating heart of the film. When Victor thanked her producers, cast, and crew during her introduction of the film, she also took a moment to thank her own best friend, too. “Thank you, finally, to my best friend, Natalie,” says the filmmaker. “Without you, there’d be no film, and there would be a very different, sadder me. This is a film about a time when I felt very unheard, and it is not lost on me that you are all in this theater to hear what it has to say. Thank you to all of you.”

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