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‘Sorry, Baby’ Explores Trauma and Healing with Nuance
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This article contains discussion of sexual assault.
Eva Victor has dedicated much of 2025 to discussing their personal experiences with trauma.
The 31-year-old filmmaker, who uses both they/them and she/her pronouns, gained critically importent attention in January when their debut film, *Sorry, Baby*, premiered to enthusiastic reviews at the Sundance Film Festival in utah.
Written, directed, and starring Victor, the black comedy, loosely based on their own life, sparked a competitive bidding war among studios, with A24 ultimately acquiring the film, leading Victor to embark on an extensive press tour.
“It’s challenging to discuss, and it’s intense,” Victor told reporters.
“I invested years in crafting the film to articulate everything I wanted to convey in the manner I desired.”
Victor portrays Agnes in the film, a literary academic in her 20s residing in the scenic New England woods.
“I wanted to make a film about a person desperately trying to heal, everyday, and how painstakingly slow healing can feel,” Victor says. (Supplied: VVS Films)
Agnes’s narrative unfolds non-linearly, presenting a poignant and authentic depiction of life before, during, and after sexual assault. However, such direct references are infrequent in the film, with Victor often alluding to it as “the thing” or “the bad thing,” or allowing the event’s shadow to linger silently, intentionally safeguarding the audience.
“I genuinely aimed to create a film that wouldn’t cause someone’s body to shut down while watching it, or at least wouldn’t have shut down my body,” Victor explained.
“I was far more interested in the film conveying a sense of warmth.”
the Absurdity of Work and the Instinct of Support
Victor notes that some of the film’s humor arises from “the absurdities of what people’s jobs make them say, and how thoughtless and insensitive things are.”
“I just really liked the idea of this sweet boy who has no idea where she is, but, somehow he does,”
*Sorry, Baby* broadens its scope to examine the enduring impact on individuals who experience sexual assault. for Victor, this includes Agnes reclaiming agency over her sexuality with the help of her kind neighbor, Gavin (Lucas Hedges).
“I just really liked the idea of this sweet boy who has no idea where she is, but, somehow he does,” Victor says of the character of Gavin. (Supplied: VVS Films)
Their initial interactions are courteous and entirely dictated by Agnes, yet her facial expressions reveal her internal conflict regarding these developments.
“I really wanted to depict this quite nuanced experience of what sex is like in a dissociated body, like a body that doesn’t feel totally lived in,” Victor elaborated.
“It’s not portrayed as something inherently negative; it simply reflects her state at that moment.”
However, Gavin is not depicted as a savior, and Victor dismisses any notion of the two embarking on a conventional romantic relationship.Their connection is founded on a subtle understanding that aids Agnes’s journey toward healing.
“[By the end] she’s asking for sex,she is having it,and she is giving herself an orgasm,and he is just there and very aware,” Victor explains.
“I think he can pick up on the vibe that it’s something very significant happening, but he’s not the one doing it, and he’s just a witness to it.”
Victor emphasized the importance of the supportive male characters in the film during the writing process. near the film’s conclusion, while experiencing a panic attack in a parking lot, Agnes is comforted by a large but gentle stranger (John caroll Lynch).
Character actor John Carroll Lynch has a small but impactful part in Sorry, Baby. (Supplied: VVS Films)
“He is intuitive, and can pick up that something is happening but all they do in the scene is sit outside and eat a sandwich,” she says.
“Men can pick up on an energy without having to have it be said and a few men in the film pick up on it. So the idea that the professor can’t was very interesting to me.”
