--- title: "Sorry, Baby" year: 2025 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/sorry-baby" fi1m_id: "sorry-baby" imdb_id: "tt32843349" tmdb_id: 1205515 wikidata_id: "Q131450483" fi1m_score: 81 critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 25 published: "2026-09-30T22:43:32.124264+00:00" updated: "2026-09-30T22:43:32.615101+00:00" region: "EC" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Sorry, Baby (2025) Directed by Eva Victor · 1h 43m · Drama, Comedy ## Identity Sorry, Baby - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/sorry-baby - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** sorry-baby - **IMDb ID:** tt32843349 - **TMDB ID:** 1205515 - **Wikidata ID:** Q131450483 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32843349/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1205515, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q131450483 **Fi1m score: 81** · Critics 80 from 25 reviews *In a sentence:* Bad thing, bath, kitten, sandwich from a stranger: the film knows how little it takes to keep a person going > Eva Victor’s first film, which she wrote and leads, is about the years after a sexual assault at a small college, and it is dry, patient and often funny. It goes slack in the middle, and Naomi Ackie holds it up whenever it does. ## Synopsis Agnes (Eva Victor) teaches literature at the small New England college where she did her graduate degree, and has never left the town or the wooden house she once shared with her best friend. Lydie (Naomi Ackie), who did leave, comes back from New York for a weekend and finds Agnes much as she was, only more so. The film then goes back several years to their last term as students, when Agnes is the star of the seminar, Natasha (Kelly McCormack) resents it, and their advisor Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi) asks Agnes to his house to discuss her thesis. What happens there is the thing the rest of the film lives with, along with a neighbour, Gavin (Lucas Hedges), a stray cat, and a sandwich shop run by Pete (John Carroll Lynch). ## Review Eva Victor’s first film opens with a visit. Agnes (Eva Victor) still lives in the small New England college town where she did her graduate degree, and now teaches in the department that taught her. Lydie (Naomi Ackie) comes back from New York for a weekend and the two fall into the private language of people who have shared a bathroom. Then the film goes back to their last year as students, and to the afternoon Agnes went to her advisor’s house to talk about her thesis. Victor, who also wrote it, has made a film about a sexual assault that spends almost no time on the assault, and she holds to that. It comes in chapters, one a year, each with a title card, and they are out of order. Alex O’Flinn and Randi Atkins cut between them without a dissolve or a date, so the years after look like the years before. Caity Birmingham’s production design keeps the same books and mugs on the same shelves throughout, and Emily Costantino dresses Agnes in the same oversized jumpers whether she is a student or a lecturer. Only the people change. The scene that decides the film is the house. Mia Cioffi Henry puts the camera across the road from the home of Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi) and leaves it there. Agnes walks in with the sun still up, and the shot holds while the afternoon goes, a lamp comes on inside and the windows turn from white to yellow to black. Then she comes out, gets into her car, and the camera goes with her in one take as she drives home. Nothing is shown, and we sat through it counting the light like someone waiting outside a hospital. Then the bath. Lydie sits on the floor and Agnes, in the water, tells her what happened, in order, going back to correct a detail, laughing once at something that is not funny. It moved us more than we were ready for, because Victor plays it as reportage: Agnes is trying to get the facts right, as if that will help. Ackie’s face does the rest, and she has the harder job throughout. Lydie is loud, quick and warm, and must be the well person by consensus without turning into the film’s conscience, which she manages by being funny at Agnes rather than about her. Victor is good on the people who are no use. A doctor examines Agnes with the manner of a man checking a boiler. Two women from the college explain, kindly, that Decker has already left, that there is a process, and that the process cannot now be started. Nobody is a villain; everyone says the correct thing in the correct order and none of it does anything. We laughed in the doctor’s office and were not sure we were meant to. Not all of it holds. Kelly McCormack’s Natasha, the jealous classmate, is drawn broad enough to belong in a different film, and Lucas Hedges’s Gavin, the neighbour Agnes takes to bed, is a decent man written as a placeholder. The two middle chapters slacken, and there are stretches where Cioffi Henry’s stillness starts to look like a director unwilling to move the camera. Lia Ouyang Rusli’s score is used sparingly, which is right, but when it arrives it tends to tell us what to feel a beat before the scene has got there. The best thing in it is five minutes of John Carroll Lynch. Pete runs a sandwich shop, finds Agnes in her car unable to breathe, and sits with her on the kerb. He asks her nothing, gives her a sandwich, and she eats it. Victor names a whole chapter after this and she is right to; it is the most useful account of what helps that we have seen in a film on this subject. Most films about this build to a confrontation, a courtroom or a speech. This one is not interested, and we will not say what it does instead beyond noting that Victor, with Barry Jenkins and Adele Romanski producing, has the nerve to keep the last chapter small. It is a 15 and runs 103 minutes. Watch it with the friend you would have rung from the bath. *Fi1m score 81, published 30 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics take to Eva Victor’s debut, and the praise gathers in one place: the way it sets dry humour beside a sexual assault and its aftermath without letting either undo the other. Victor’s performance as Agnes, deadpan and closely observed, comes up in nearly every review, as does writing that lets her be a whole person rather than a case study. The friendship with Lydie, played by Naomi Ackie, is singled out again and again as the film’s emotional centre, and several reviews admire the non-chronological structure for making the recovery feel lived rather than plotted. The reservations are mild and few. The Hollywood Reporter finds it occasionally too easygoing and visually cautious; The Skinny thinks it never quite realises its potential. The one clear dissent is Vulture, which finds the film evasive where it means to be insightful, though even there Ackie’s performance is praised. The spread is narrow, with twenty-one positive verdicts against a single negative one. ## Straight answers **Is Sorry, Baby worth watching?** *Sorry, Baby* is worth watching for anyone who can sit with a quiet, dry film about the years after a sexual assault, and we scored it 81. Eva Victor's first film is patient and often funny, with Naomi Ackie holding it up whenever the middle chapters slacken. Watch it with a friend rather than alone. **How long is Sorry, Baby, and what is it rated?** *Sorry, Baby* runs 1h 43m. It is a drama and comedy film. **Where can I watch Sorry, Baby in Ecuador?** *Sorry, Baby* is not on any streaming or rental service in Ecuador at the moment. It is available in 29 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Sorry, Baby, and is it suitable for children?** *Sorry, Baby* is a UK 15 and US R, and it is not for children. The assault at its centre is never shown; the camera waits outside the house while the light goes, and Agnes describes what happened afterwards, plainly, in a bath. There is no on-screen violence, but the subject is adult throughout and some viewers will find the waiting harder than anything explicit. **How does Sorry, Baby compare to I May Destroy You?** *Sorry, Baby* is slower, quieter and smaller than [*I May Destroy You*](https://film.one/tv/i-may-destroy-you), which covers the same subject as a twelve-part series and is faster, angrier and just as funny. Michaela Coel's series has more incident and, in our view, two episodes too many; Victor's film goes slack in the middle but keeps its last chapter small. Choose the film for restraint and the series for fury. **What should I watch after Sorry, Baby?** After *Sorry, Baby*, try [*I May Destroy You*](https://film.one/tv/i-may-destroy-you) (2020, Fi1m 88): Michaela Coel’s series on the same subject, faster, angrier and just as funny. Then [*Frances Ha*](https://film.one/film/frances-ha) (2012, Fi1m 82): Two women who share a language, and what happens when one of them leaves; and [*Never Rarely Sometimes Always*](https://film.one/film/never-rarely-sometimes-always) (2020, Fi1m 84): A quiet American film that trusts a held face over a speech. ### Reviews we read (25) - **Time Out**, Hanna Flint (5/5): The review calls Eva Victor’s debut breathtaking and says she has nothing to be sorry for. It singles out the film’s emotional insight and warmth. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/sorry-baby-review-2025) - **Evening Standard**, Olivia Petter (95/100, inferred): Petter warmly praises the film as an exceptionally truthful depiction of sexual trauma and healing. She singles out the supportive friendship between Agnes and Lydie as central to its emotional power. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/sorry-baby-movie-sexual-trauma-eva-victor-b1245833.html) - **IndieWire**, Kate Erbland (A-): The critic calls the film a darkly funny, tender, and major debut. She especially praises Victor’s finely tuned performance and the film’s empathetic balance of humor with painful subject matter. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/sorry-baby-review-eva-victor-1235086848/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Katie Walsh (90/100, inferred): Walsh finds Victor’s debut a sensitive, nuanced triumph that lingers. She particularly praises Victor’s detailed honesty in portraying trauma and female friendship. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-06-27/sorry-baby-review-eva-victor-naomi-ackie-lucas-hedges) - **Slant Magazine**, Ross McIndoe (3.5/4): McIndoe finds the film sharply funny without diminishing the devastation of Agnes’s experience. He praises the performances and subtle writing for conveying her dissociation, while highlighting the absurd, unresponsive bureaucracy she faces. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/sorry-baby-review-eva-victor/) - **Empire**, Miriam Balanescu (85/100, inferred): The review calls the film a fresh, thoughtful and tenderly funny reinvention of the trauma plot. It praises Victor’s deft balance of light and dark, especially the perceptive scene where Agnes discusses trauma over a sandwich. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/sorry-baby/) - **The New Yorker**, Justin Chang (85/100, inferred): Chang finds the film quietly heroic and original, praising its humane, non-linear portrayal of pain and healing. He singles out its unexpected humor as a particularly effective way to resist defining Agnes by her trauma. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/30/f1-movie-review-sorry-baby) - **The AV Club**, Jacob Oller (B+): Oller praises the film as a funny, affecting, and formally assured account of trauma and recovery. He singles out Eva Victor’s performance and the nonlinear structure for making the story feel vivid and lived-in. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/sorry-baby-review) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (Critic's Pick): Debruge finds Victor’s debut warm, compassionate, and quietly affecting in its portrayal of rebuilding after trauma. He especially praises its elliptical storytelling and lived-in everyday details for creating a subtle, lasting impact. [Read](https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/sorry-baby-review-sundance-eva-victor-1236286028/) - **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (3/4/4): Strong finds the film tender and reassuring in its portrayal of life after assault. She praises its small moments of kindness and the friendship between Agnes and Lydie. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/sorry-baby) - **Sight and Sound** (80/100, inferred): The review finds Victor’s debut assured, tender and defiantly funny, with a wry tone that makes its treatment of trauma feel distinctive. It particularly praises Victor’s deadpan performance and the daring one-take shot following Agnes after the assault. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/sorry-baby-eva-victors-tender-debut-wears-its-jokes-like-armour) - **The Guardian**, Adrian Horton (B): Horton praises the film as a funny, humane account of life after sexual assault. She particularly singles out Victor’s naturalistic portrayal of the aftermath and the intimacy between the two friends. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/29/sorry-baby-movie-review-sundance) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Jon Frosch (75/100, inferred): Frosch finds the debut frank, funny, and tender, though occasionally too easygoing and visually cautious. He especially praises Eva Victor’s performance and the warm, convincing chemistry between Victor and Naomi Ackie. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/sorry-baby-review-eva-victor-naomi-ackie-lucas-hedges-1236118828/) - **Screen Daily**, Tim Grierson (70/100, inferred): The standfirst presents the film as an insightful drama debut. The accessible text does not identify a specific element the critic singles out for praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/sorry-baby-sundance-review/5201208.article) - **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The page appears to be a festival review, but its verdict is unavailable. No specific praise or complaint can be verified from the blocked page. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/sundance-2025-train-dreams-sorry-baby) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The page is inaccessible, so the critic’s verdict cannot be determined. No specific praise or complaint is available from the supplied text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/movies/sorry-baby-review-eva-victor.html) - **Vulture**, Alison Willmore (40/100, inferred): Willmore finds the film promising in its treatment of language but more often exasperating for substituting evasiveness for insight. She praises Naomi Ackie’s performance as Agnes’s effervescent, supportive friend. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/review-eva-victors-sorry-baby-is-promising-exasperating.html) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (90/100, inferred): Hammond gives the film a strongly enthusiastic verdict, calling it an assured and heartfelt debut. He particularly praises Eva Victor’s layered performance and her deft balance of dry humor with the story’s trauma. [Read](https://deadline.com/2025/01/sorry-baby-review-eva-victors-poignant-dramedy-sundance-1236270020/) - **HeyUGuys** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film an unforgettable, exceptionally accomplished Sundance debut. They especially praise Eva Victor’s pitch-perfect balance of humor and drama, supported by its non-chronological structure and strong performances. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/sorry-baby-review/) - **The Wrap** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a moving, cathartic debut that balances painful truths with humor. They especially praise Victor’s restrained, compassionate writing and performance in portraying Agnes’s trauma. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/sorry-baby-eva-victor-movie-review/) - **Paste**, Andy Crump (8.7/10): Crump calls the film a thoughtful, sobering work that remains a joy. He praises its deft blend of sardonic humor and melancholy, which lets Agnes be a whole person beyond her trauma. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/sorry-baby/sorry-baby-review-eva-victor-grief-comedy-themes-melancholy-naomi-ackie) - **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (8/10): Bonaime calls the film a fantastic debut and Victor an exciting new filmmaking voice. He praises Victor’s deft, often humorous handling of trauma and the tender friendships that support Agnes. [Read](https://collider.com/sorry-baby-review/) - **Eye for Film**, Jeremy Mathews (80/100, inferred): Mathews finds the film a moving, ultimately celebratory portrait of resilience. He praises Victor’s quiet, thoughtful storytelling and its focus on Agnes’s life beyond her trauma. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/sorry-baby-2025-film-review-by-jeremy-mathews) - **The Skinny**, Carmen Paddock (★★★★): Paddock finds the film poignant and well worth seeing, though it never quite realizes its potential. She especially praises the honest performances and the rigorous, non-exploitative treatment of sexual assault and its aftermath. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/sorry-baby) - **The Playlist** (64/100, inferred): The page is blocked, so the critic’s verdict cannot be determined. The URL identifies it as a Sundance review focused on Eva Victor’s perspective on sexual assault. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/sorry-baby-review-eva-victor-confronts-sexual-assault-from-a-different-perspective-sundance-20250129/) ## Details - **Director:** Eva Victor - **Director:** Eva Victor - **Writer:** Eva Victor - **Cinematography:** Mia Cioffi Henry - **Editor:** Alex O'Flinn, Randi Atkins - **Music:** Lia Ouyang Rusli - **Production design:** Caity Birmingham - **Costume design:** Emily Costantino - **Producer:** Adele Romanski, Barry Jenkins, Mark Ceryak - **Cast:** Eva Victor as Agnes; Naomi Ackie as Lydie; Louis Cancelmi as Preston Decker; Kelly McCormack as Natasha; Lucas Hedges as Gavin; John Carroll Lynch as Pete; Hettienne Park as Eleanor Winston; E.R. Fightmaster as Fran - **Runtime:** 1h 43m - **First release (the US):** 27 January 2025 - **Genres:** Drama, Comedy - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $2 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDfxLAGPRrE ## Where to watch in Ecuador Not streaming, renting or buying in Ecuador at the last check. Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HR, HU, IE, IL, IN, IT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, RO, RS, SE, SI, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *I May Destroy You* (2020), Fi1m 88: Michaela Coel’s series on the same subject, faster, angrier and just as funny — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/i-may-destroy-you.md) - *Frances Ha* (2012), Fi1m 82: Two women who share a language, and what happens when one of them leaves — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/frances-ha.md) - *Never Rarely Sometimes Always* (2020), Fi1m 84: A quiet American film that trusts a held face over a speech — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/never-rarely-sometimes-always.md) - *The Souvenir* (2019), Fi1m 84: Joanna Hogg’s student years, remembered at the same careful distance — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-souvenir.md) - *Certain Women* (2016), Fi1m 84: Small-town lives, low light, and nobody saying quite what they mean — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/certain-women.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/sorry-baby