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Sundance 2025 – Sorry, Baby ★★★★★

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Released: TBC (Sundance 2025)

Director: Eva Victor

Starring: Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie

The Sundance Film Festival is lauded for shining a light on exciting new talent in the cinematic landscape. But not every film stands out, with many narrative features year-on-year offering exciting ideas ladened with poor execution. Sorry, Baby is thankfully a Sundance gem: a terrific debut from writer and director Eva Victor that is wickedly funny and poignantly heartfelt.

It takes a while to tune into the film’s specific frequency but the extended prologue lets audiences become familiar with the cast. Agnes (Eva Victor also), a quirky graduate, welcomes her best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) into her secluded home. It’s clear they’re close—thanks to Victor and Ackie’s winning chemistry—as they catch up and joke in their peculiar ways. We’re a fly on the wall to their years-long friendship. After an awkward dinner with Agnes and Lydie’s old coursemates, Victor solidifies the film’s off-beat humour and tone, blending dark comedy with cringe humour. 

But there’s something bubbling underneath the naturalistic drama. References are made to a terrible event, and Agnes’ eyes convey she hasn’t quite moved past it, unlike Lydie who is now starting a family with her partner. The opening culminates in a sequence that will turn stomachs. Flashing back to their student days, Lydie barely gets by the course deadlines whilst star student Agnes clearly has a spark with tutor Decker (Louis Cancelmi). He invites her round to his house for a tutoring session and, in the most assured piece of directing from Victor, the camera simply observes the house as time passes from day to night. The simple but effective work makes the dread even more anxiety-inducing. We know exactly what is happening inside before Agnes’ quiet devastation as she leaves confirms it.

Sorry, Baby is a story about grief that feels refreshingly authentic. Agnes is quick to weaponise wit as a defence mechanism when referring to the event; whether that’s with doctors, university staff, or acquaintances. Comedy is often blended with tragedy in a single line reading and feels all the more natural because of it. The film charts Agnes’ attempts to heal and move on over several years, and effectively shows how there are ups and downs and no clear resolutions in life when dealing with pain.

Supporting Agnes is Lydie, who is a standout supporting character for many reasons. She’s a woman in a queer relationship, and avoids maternal cliches by remaining in Agnes’ life as a close friend even after starting a family. But Lydie is also simply a character audiences will fall in love with, played with such empathy and energy by Ackie. As a writer-director, Victor also has a keen eye for memorable side characters. Lucas Hedges plays a dorky but kind neighbour, Kelly McCormack is hilariously as a university frenemy, and John Carroll Lynch steals the show in a single scene as a kindly sandwich shop owner. 

But the star of the show is Agnes, and Victor herself. Agnes is an endearing lead that many will find parts of themselves in her: eccentric at times, unsure of themselves when away from best friends, and relying on humour to get by social situations and isolation. Victor nails the deadpan humour and awkwardness, along with the torment eating away at Agnes from the inside. Sorry, Baby’s screenplay also shines, utilising a non-linear structure that bolsters the emotional core of the film, whilst peppered with dialogue and non-verbal moments that will make you laugh and cry.

If there’s any justice in the world, Sorry, Baby will be snapped up by a distributor and shown to audiences worldwide. Victor knocks her feature debut out of the park, and it’s exciting to think where she could go next as a filmmaker and storyteller. 

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