Sorry, Baby
A movie review by Alex First
Sensitive and insightful, moving, distressing and, at times, amusing, Sorry, Baby focuses on Agnes (Eva Victor) who is trying to figure out her place in the world.
She lives a quiet life in a university town, where she studied alongside her best friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie), who has moved to New York and is back for a visit.
The pair was inseparable, so Agnes feels the distance and is particularly pleased to see Lydie.
While Agnes is still trying to come to terms with a significant, upsetting incident in her past, Lydie shares big news.
Then we cut back to their student days.
Agnes is being mentored by highly regarded academic and author Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi).
It is clear that Agnes is his standout student. He is overseeing her thesis and has only good things to say about it.
In time, she will not only complete her studies, but return to the university as an accomplished full-time professor.
Mind you, that doesn’t please one of Agnes’ former fellow students, the intense Natasha (Kelly McCormack), who she trumped in being offered the role.
Still, what she learns from Natasha will send her spiralling.
On the personal front, Agnes is in a casual relationship with her next-door neighbour, Gavin (Lucas Hedges), while Lydie is in a committed same sex relationship.
Eva Victor is not only the star of the piece, but she also wrote and directs it.
Emotionally fraught, it is intelligent, profound, empathetic filmmaking, which unfolds in a series of chapters.
The opening is titled The Year with the Baby.
It then moves to The Year with the Bad Thing, The Year with the Questions and The Year with the Good Sandwich, before returning to The Year with the Baby.
The film features many memorable scenes. Among them is a courtroom sequence in which Agnes is up for jury selection and another where she is hyperventilating and forced to pull over her car.
In an impressive, naturalistic showing, as Agnes is wrestling with the way forward and with her sexuality, Victor inhabits her insecurities like a tight fitting glove.
Naomi Ackie is a tower of strength, support and comfort to Agnes as her BFF, Lydie.
I was also taken by the performance of John Carroll Lynch as Pete, a good Samaritan who lends Agnes a helping hand in a time of need. He appears raw and real.
There is something very special about Sorry, Baby, which marks a stunning debut feature for Eva Victor, who stamps herself as a filmmaker to be closely watched.
Rated M, it scores an 8½ out of 10 – 103 minutes
