Warning: This article contains references to rape.
Agnes (Victor) is raped by her faculty adviser (Louis Cancelmi) while meeting about her thesis. Her roommate Lydie (Naomi Ackie) helps her in the aftermath.
Victor captures the difficulty people have even discussing rape. Lydie can't even say the word and talks around it.
A doctor (Marc Carver) has no problem saying it but is so abrupt, Agnes and Lydie can only mock him. School investigators (Naralie Rotter-Laitman, Liz Bishop) are also absurd offering lip service support while confirming they can do nothing.
Bringing humor without minimizing tragedy is a tricky balance. When it works it leads to masterpieces such as Robert Benigni's Holocaust movie Life is Beautiful and last year's Sundance hit A Real Pain.Victor achieved as much profound insight as those movies. Agnes is remarkably magnanimous stating she would rather the professor stop raping than have him punished for raping her.
The next three years see Agnes faced with reminders and new information. But, there are also strangers who offer kindness and don't press for details.
As director of her first feature film, Victor appreciates the value of a locked off shot. When the rape occurs, she films Agnes entering the professor's house and remains outside until day turns to night.
Victor also lets Agnes' uncomfortable drive home play in one uninterrupted shot. Later, a shot of Agnes scrambling around her living room in the dark also unfolds in a single frame.
A few scenes in her yard at night are also well-lit to showcase the actors but keep the sky vast and dark.
A movie can't say everything is going to be OK, and would be booed off the screen if it tried. The hope Victor finds in Sorry, Baby is the support and comfort of being there for loved ones.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.