#REVIEW: “SORRY, BABY”

Review by Nicholas Porteous for Mr. Will Wong

At the risk of being totally insensitive, let me proclaim that Sorry, Baby is the feel-good trauma movie of the year. Hear me out. Eva Victor plays Agnes, a sexual assault survivor finding their footing and processing the attack in the days and years that follow. Sounds like a pretty somber, painful and reflective film… and it sure is! But Sorry, Baby isn’t just a patient character study, or an introspective meditation about recovering one’s identity in the wake of devastating victimhood. It’s also funny as hell. Victor‘s fearless sense of humour imbues Sorry, Baby with the watchability and pluck of a great Comedy. This thing moves. Despite its harrowing subject, emanating from the heart of every scene–I found myself cackling pretty regularly. And Victor never stretches an inch to find the joke.

Sorry, Baby artfully depicts victimhood as an agonizing rebirth. Utterly thrown off her axis, Agnes must rediscover humanity. Victor has a gorgeous understanding of the inherent comedy of this dynamic–an adult woman, an English professor, moving through the world like a newborn alien. What are cats? What are neighbors? How can she possibly confront or call out her pain when it’s also the last thing she wants to talk about? Giving the audience permission to laugh at these trauma-soaked situations feels profoundly, radically uplifting.

Victor isn’t only nailing this precarious balance of anguish and absurdity as an Actor. They’re the Writer and Director too. And it’s their first movie. And while I give bonus points for such a confident debut, don’t get it twisted: Sorry, Baby isn’t just a great first movie. It’s a great movie period. It’s the kind of art that feels effortless despite its meticulous craft. Victor‘s mastery of their material is inspiring in its seeming straightforwardness. Its tone of emotional generosity ripples outward. Sorry, Baby is one of those movies that can lend a glowing perspective to everyone’s personal narrative–whether they have overlap with Agnes’ story or not–universal in its specificity. Do not be dissuaded by its pitch black themes. Sorry, Baby is more vibrant and invigorating than it has any right to be.

VVS Films release SORRY, BABY July 4, 2025.