Sorry, Baby

I really liked quite a few movies at the Sundance Film Festival this year but if I had to pick just one as my favorite it would be Sorry, Baby.  I was happy for the chance to see it again at the Broadway with my nephew last night and I loved it even more upon a second viewing.  Agnes (Eva Victor) lives in an isolated farmhouse with her best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) while the two of them attend graduate school at a small New England university.  She and Lydie belong to a cohort, including Natasha (Kelly McCormack), Devin (Cody Reiss), and Logan (Jordan Mendoza), led by literature professor Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi) and, much to the disappointment of Natasha, she is the obvious favorite.  She enjoys the praise she receives from Decker so, even though it is ill-advised, she meets with him at his house to discuss her thesis after he is forced to stay home with his sick child and he sexually assaults her.  She tries to move on from what she calls the Bad Thing by beginning a casual relationship with her neighbor Gavin (Lucas Hedges) but she can't commit and periodically suffers from panic attacks.  It is only when Lydie, who now lives in New York and is married and pregnant, comes to visit four years later that Agnes, who still lives in the same farmhouse, is teaching at the same university, still has the same rivalry with Natasha, and even has the same office that Decker used, realizes that she is stuck and must finally process what has happened to her.  This is a meditative, but often very funny, character study about surviving a traumatic experience and I found the non-linear timeline to be incredibly compelling (even more so the second time around) because the audience sees the effect before the cause.  This is a stunning debut for Victor (who wrote, directed, and starred) and I was particularly impressed by a powerful scene which features a long tracking shot following Agnes walking to Decker's house, then a shot of the house showing the passage of time, followed by another tracking shot of Agnes leaving the house and walking back to her car.  The direction and performance is absolutely brilliant because you can see that something devastating has happened by just the change in body language alone.  I was also very moved by an intense monologue in which Agnes apologizes to Lydie's baby for being born into a world where bad things happen because it is such a turning point for Agnes (I haven't stopped thinking about it since Sundance).  Finally, I really loved that Lydie simply shows Agnes that she is stuck instead of getting her unstuck because it is so empowering.  I am sure that this will be among my favorite movies of 2025 and I highly recommend it.