Healing ain't always pretty, but it's work worth doing. "Sorry, Baby," the directorial debut from Eva Victor (who also wrote and stars in the film), understands that at its core, with a wry sense of humor and haunting grace that mesmerized me when I first saw it in theaters over the summer. Now that "Sorry, Baby" has landed on HBO Max, I'm shouting from the rooftops about why A24's phenomenal tragicomedy should be on everyone's watchlist this weekend.
It's a story about trauma and healing, but not the kind you've heard before. It lingers in all the messy, half-baked in-betweens of life, when everything's fallen apart and the dust has settled and you're somehow still expected to wake up the next morning and pay bills like reality isn't some surreal funhouse you barely recognize anymore. "Sorry, Baby" is the kind of movie that had me cackling, ugly crying, and, once the credits rolled, immediately calling my oldest girlfriends to yap about why it's required viewing the next time we see each other. I wasn't familiar with Victor's game before "Sorry, Baby," but whatever they come out with next, you can bet my butt's going to be in that theater.
What is 'Sorry, Baby,' about?
Victor stars as Agnes, a graduate student turned English lit professor, as she copes with the lingering aftermath of a traumatic event referred to only vaguely as "the bad thing." We never see what happens, and we don't need to because its impact is felt across time. The story unfolds in nonlinear chapters across several years in a rural New England college town, all the pieces quietly laid out before you to piece together and be thoroughly devastated when you realize what comes next.
"The bad thing" neatly severs her world into a before and after, and she spends the next three years frozen emotionally while working tirelessly to turn her part-time teaching gig into a full-time one. It's only when her grad school friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) is back in town, their first time seeing each other since graduation, to deliver some life-changing personal news that Agnes finally begins to thaw.
Devastating in the best way
"Sorry, Baby" is devastating in the best way. It starts off with slumber party vibes, glimpses into Lydie and Agnes' shared girlhood joy as they reconnect for the first time in years. Understanding and love flow between them as if no time has passed at all. But in the quiet moments between their bubbly and oftentimes raunchy banter, a subtle unease pokes through.
As the movie jumps back in time, peeling the layers back on "the bad thing" and its fallout," Lydie's steadfast support is the one constant in the face of brash indifference and empty reassurances of doctors and administrators. Sure, she makes jokes that don't land, makes some flippant comments when tact was needed, but she also doesn't hesitate to tell her friend's doctor to change his tone when he's being dismissive. Or to heckle their mutual grad school colleague when her passive-aggressive comments go one step too far.
"Sorry, Baby" is a movie about trauma as much as it is about the messy beauty of friendships, distilling down all the playful nonsense and fierce devotion that feel like home when we're really seen by someone. A feeling that's nearly impossible to nail down on the page but Victor and Ackie manage such a pitch-perfect approximation on-screen, it's uncanny. And that's precisely why it felt like my heart was permanently lodged in my throat once the devastating pieces all began to fall into place. It's like Victor took John Williams' seminal novel "Stoner" and made it girlie pop and queer, and I honestly love that for her.
Stream 'Sorry, Baby,' on HBO Max now
If you don't want to take my word for it, critics are raving about "Sorry, Baby" too. It's been getting rave reviews since it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and it's currently sitting at a near-perfect 97% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Carrying off difficult subject matter with a light touch and wry sense of humor, Sorry, Baby triumphantly announces writer-director and star Eva Victor as a formidable talent, reads Rotten Tomatoes ‘Critics Consensus.’
“The manner in which Victor presents this narrative, with such verve and confidence and tenderness and pitch-black humor, defies easy description. It’s simply an amazing display of someone knowing how to get their voice and vision across,” said David Fear of Rolling Stone.
Meanwhile, Wendy Ide of The Observer called it "very funny in an inviting, unforced way – like being welcomed into a group of close friends and their in-jokes. But for all the skittish, appealingly gauche humour, this feature has a serious core: like Michaela Coel’s 'I May Destroy You,' it’s about reclaiming the narrative of a life after a rape."
Audiences seemed to enjoy "Sorry, Baby" too, if its strong 84% on Rotten Tomatoes' Popcornmater (the site's name for its viewers' score) is any indication.
So consider adding "Sorry, Baby" to your watchlist this weekend if you've been sleeping on one of the best films of the year so far. Life is as absurd and complicated as people can be, and "Sorry, Baby" captures that sentiment with unflinching humor and tenderness that you can't help but hold close to your heart.
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