52 Films by Women Vol 9. 16. Sorry, Baby (Director: Eva Victor)

 

Pictured: 'You like the form. You don't like the content.' Agnes (Eva Victor) teaching Vladimir Nabokov's taboo-busting novel 'Lolita' in a scene from the film, 'Sorry, Baby', written and directed by Eva Victor. Still courtesy of A24 (US) / Picturehouse Entertainment (UK) 

Lately, people wishing to display virtue have been pictured holding cats.

You have to feel sorry for the cats. They have no idea of the purpose into which they have been co-opted. Why am I being held so high? Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, has been pictured with a cat, with the intention of mocking the tyrant President Trump - currently Newsom’s full-time job. On the poster of her acclaimed film, Sorry, Baby, the writer-director-actor Eva Victor holds a cat she has liberated from houselessness in an apologetic way. ‘I’m sorry, cat,’ her character, Agnes, seems to say, ‘but I need you.’ People say things to cats that they wouldn’t say to a human being but having placed the cat in the position of mewling confidante, Agnes does not confess.

Sorry, Baby is a film about trauma. Traumatised people shouldn’t apologise; they deserve the apology. Yet so often, those who commit grievous wrongs, often in the mode of self-deception, don’t apologise to their victims. What would their words mean anyway? Trauma forces individuals to retreat from the world, but at the start of Sorry, Baby, Agnes welcomes her recently pregnant best friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie) for a visit. Agnes stayed in the university town where the trauma took place. She works for the institution whose trust was breached by the perpetrator of her trauma. The trauma is not something to be overcome or reconciled. You can regard as a teachable moment for a lesson you preferred not to learn. It is a blot on the consciousness, like an optic floater. You see the world through it; it is always there, like the title of Lars Von Trier’s film, Epidemic, which appears in every frame.

The film makes discrete use of captions: ‘The Year with the Baby,’ ‘The Year with the Bad Thing’, ‘The Year with the Questions’, ‘The Year with the Sandwich’ and finally back to ‘The Year with the Baby’. There is a child in this movie, and we meet her in the last part of the movie. The film is set over a three-and-a-half-year time period, with no obvious product placement, in spite of a prominent role of a lunchtime snack.

‘So, a new house. What are you going to do it?’ This is a question posed by a college educated person. Agnes has joined Lydie and three other former classmates for dinner, a chance to reflect on achievements. Natasha (Kelly McCormack, all drawn-in cheeks) scowls. She doesn’t appear to have a non-scowling face. Later, she tells Agnes that she wanted her job as a college professor with tenure, having applied and been turned down. Perhaps you can’t be a successful literature teacher with a scowl, even if discussing Ted Hughes with feigned mild disapproval.

Agnes is happy for Lydie and places her head to Lydie’s belly. ‘I felt a kick,’ she exclaims with exaggerated joy. ‘No, you didn’t,’ Lydie responds. ‘It’s too small for that.’

Pictured: Lydie (Naomi Ackie) and Agnes (Eva Victor) in a scene from the American drama, 'Sorry, Baby', written and directed by Eva Victor. Still courtesy of A24 (US), Picturehouse Entertainment (UK)

In the second section, we meet the catalyst of Agnes’ trauma, literature professor, Decker (Louis Cancelmi) who described Agnes’ thesis as ‘extraordinary’. He invites her to his office to discuss it, enthuses (again), but then has to leave. He has a child-related emergency. Agnes receives a second appointment – at his house. Agnes enters. The camera stays outside the house. Night falls. Agnes races out of the house, Decker following her as far as the doorway. He does not step into the street.

Agnes reports the incident to the university. The two women who hear her glance at each other before looking at Agnes. ‘He’s resigned and taken another job,’ the older woman explains. ‘There is no action we can take against him.’ Her only option is to go to the police. Agnes is apoplectic. This happened under their watch. The university was supposed to protect her.

With Lydie, Agnes visits the doctor. The doctor tells Agnes that she should come sooner, for forensic purposes. Lydie doesn’t like his tone. The doctor undertakes to carry out tests for sexually transmitted diseases. Lydie continues to regard him with suspicion.

Agnes encounters a neighbour, Gavin (Lucas Hedges, cinema’s go-to sensitive young man). She asks him for something to start a fire. She explains that she is cooking hotdogs. Gavin’s interest is piqued. ‘We only have two hotdogs,’ Agnes explains. He loans her some lighter fluid. Agnes’ intention is to set fire to Decker’s office. Now she isn’t sure. ‘I’ll do it,’ says Lydie. Agnes is shocked by her enthusiasm – her willingness to commit a crime. ‘You tell me to do it, I’ll do it.’ The plan is abandoned.

In the third section, Agnes is summoned for jury service, a requirement she doesn’t want to fulfil. She completes the questionnaire. A number of people are excused – but not Agnes. A prosecutor talks them through the types of evidence that they’ll have to consider, circumstantial, direct testimony. They she asks, ‘have any of you been the victim of a crime?’ Agnes and one of other person raise their hand. The other person explains that they were robbed. ‘Would that affect your ability to be impartial?’ ‘No.’ Agnes lowers her hand. The prosecutor asks why. ‘I didn’t think we’d have to explain the crime,’ she replies.  ‘What do you do for a living?’ Agnes is asked. ‘I teach at a college.’ ‘You’d be an excellent juror.’ Agnes is pale and withdrawn. The effect of the incident is palpable. Agnes is excused.

There is a point at which Agnes’ trauma overwhelms her, as she experiences a panic attack whilst driving in the rain. She stops outside a sandwich place. The owner (John Carroll Lynch) tells her its closed. Seeing her face, she asks her to breath with him, regulating her exhalations, getting them under control. Then he offers her a sandwich.

Pictured: Agnes (Eva Victor) and a sympathetic sandwich vendor (John Carroll Lynch) in a scene from the American drama, 'Sorry, Baby', written and directed by Eva Victor. Still courtesy of A24 (US), Picturehouse Entertainment (UK)

‘Why didn’t you go to the police?’ she is asked. ‘Because he had a kid,’ she replies plaintively. The sandwich helps, so does the cat that she finds. But living with a cat isn’t easy. Her cat attacks a mouse but doesn’t kill it. Agnes covers the body of the mouse and hits it with a hardback book, wincing as she does so. I wanted to know which book.

In class, Agnes teaches ‘Lolita’. One of the (male) students doesn’t like it. He hates the subject but agrees that the book is well-written. ‘There is a disjunction between form and content,’ Agnes explains. She wants to know what her students think about that.

There is no such disjunction in Sorry, Baby. The content exactly matches the subject, dealing with an event that cannot easily be talked about directly and for which there is no remedy. We witness Agnes experiencing desire. ‘Will you come to my house for sex?’ she asks Gavin, the only age-appropriate man she is able to trust. He answers the call. Afterwards, he asks if she liked the sex. There is so munch more invested in the act. Agnes has a bath and allows Gavin to join her. She observes his relaxed penis. ‘It’s better like that,’ she remarks. Gavin steps in. ‘The water is a nice temperature,’ he observes. He asks to sit behind her, so she can rest her head against his chest. His penis, we deduce, is somewhat less relaxed. She agrees. This tender moment shows Agnes learning to trust, dealing with men who respect boundaries.

By the end of the film, we are told what happened in the house. We observe Lydie and her partner, leave the baby with Agnes. Agnes gives the child a scary pep talk, relying heavily on the infant’s inability to understand her. We see Agnes’ potential to be with others, to live on.

Reviewed at Picturehouse Central, off Shaftesbury Avenue, London. Tuesday 19 August 2025, 18:00 screening.