After a screening of Sorry, Baby, writer, director, and star Eva Victor admitted they probably didn't think hard enough about the poster image for the movie, which features Victor, with a look of concern on their face, holding up a kitten. Kittens!? Cute! But that title? And the look of concern? Should the audience be concerned about that kitten?
I'm happy to report that no cats die in the course of the film (though one creature does meet its ultimate fate via said cat). But a bad thing does happen to Agnes, and it's the magic of this movie that it manages to be truthful to the pain of that experience, without being exploitative, or triggering.
Sorry, Baby is also also very, very funny, in both expected and unexpected moments, thanks to the immense chemistry between Victor and her co-star Naomi Ackie (who is really becoming a secret weapon in every movie she appears in). They play Agnes and Lydie, best friends reuniting for a long weekend at the house they once shared as graduate students at a small New England college. Agnes still lives there, and now teaches at the same school.
Over the course of this visit, Agnes and Lydie hang out and joke around, are annoyed by the presence of strangers (them both reacting with disgust to a neighbor hollering "Ahoy!" at them is hilarious), and sit through a tense dinner with former classmates from the college. By the end of the visit it becomes clear that Agnes is still dealing with a past trauma, though it isn't until the film's second chapter, and its time shift, that we learn what happened to her.
Aaaand, unfortunately, I'm going to need to cut this review short because I had carpal tunnel surgery and was only able to finish the above before said surgery, and now I can't really type for very long. So let me just say this: Sorry, Baby is one of the best screenwriting and directorial debuts I've ever seen, I absolutely loved it, and I am really looking forward to what Eva Victor comes up with next. Do yourself a favor and seek this one out.
