In my quest to find great movies, I sometimes come across duds. Other times, I come across absolute gems that change the way I think. In this case, “Sorry, Baby,” from director Eva Victor, is one of those gems. I had heard of this movie for some time but had no idea what it was about. Before I watched it, I read the synopsis and still had no idea what the movie was about. The movie’s premise is vague when you read it. The synopsis simply says it’s about a girl who goes through something terrible. That’s it. And yet, the synopsis draws you in through simple curiosity.
What follows for this film is what I like to describe as “quiet.” This movie makes great use of the in-between moments when it comes to dealing with trauma, rather than using high tension moments of great emotion. I think this works well as it’s a different approach to what’s normally seen, but it also manages to apply an abundance of importance to the seemingly insignificant moments that are life-altering in terms of how one can move forward.
In addition to this, Victor showcases her mastery of tone. The film is a comedy-drama and Victor perfectly balances these genres in a way where neither one is overpowering. You could find yourself laughing one moment and, ten seconds later, you feel the tone shift in a way that’s perfectly natural. Victor accurately portrayed and emulated the true woes of life in a manner that doesn’t feel overdone or dramatic.
“Sorry, Baby” takes place over the course of years, and so the audience follows the main character Agnes from the moment she goes through her trauma to years down the line as she slowly but surely tries to come to terms with what happened to her. The amount of detail that’s packed into this film to make this journey as realistic as possible is one of my favorite aspects of the movie. To avoid specific spoilers, our main character has various trigger words pertaining to her traumatic experience and there’s various facial cues and expressions throughout the film that we can infer as her feeling triggered. The continuity of these slight moments of discomfort add so much more depth to the film as a whole.
What I truly consider to be a moment of “quiet power” is the fact that we never actually see what happens to Agnes. All we see is a still shot of the house that she goes into, a shot that lasts for a few minutes. The film doesn’t exactly dwell on what specifically happens to her, though it is an important aspect of the film. What the film focuses on instead is exactly how her traumatic experience affected her.
What’s most surprising, to me, is the fact this film is Victor’s directorial debut, which is impressive for a film packed with so much emotional depth and mastery of tone. Even with this being a debut film, “Sorry, Baby” showcases an incredible journey of healing, coupled with the seemingly insignificant but necessary moments that define the process of trauma and bring you to a state of acceptance. The film also explores the freedom of being able to move forward. I loved this movie so much, and I can’t wait to see what Victor creates next.
