There are plenty of classic films about trauma. The writers of great works tell stories of traumatic inciting incidents and show how characters deal with those horrible situations, gracefully or otherwise. The struggle is what makes it fascinating. Sorry, Baby, from first-time director/writer/star triple threat Eva Victor, is the story of multiple years in the life of college student, then young humanities professor, Agnes. These one-year vignettes, each with their own humorous title card, are told out of sequence, as she experiences, then confronts, then deals with a traumatic sexual assault—but not in that order.
This is no harrowing drama, though: it’s a darker-than-black comedy. Agnes, finishing up her college education, writes a quite good dissertation, then is invited to review it at her professor’s house, where the assault takes place. Her immediate reaction is to borrow a big can of lighter fluid from her himbo next-door neighbor Gavin (Lucas Hedges), whom she may or may not have feelings for. She plans to use it to burn everything to the ground and recover from her trauma in an unhealthy way. Agnes’ best friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie), is on a journey of her own and is about to move across the country at the worst possible time. Of course, Gavin gives her the can and Lydie immediately supports Agnes, as best friends should, but they don’t go through with it.
Instead, Agnes has to figure out how to heal herself on her own, with the help of unusual and comedic situations that Agnes keeps finding herself in. One of the most powerful scenes takes place when she’s called to jury duty and has to say out loud to one of the attorneys something she hasn’t been able to speak about since the incident. Another scene involves a random sandwich shop proprietor named Pete (played by the great John Carroll Lynch), who contains multitudes of unexpected wisdom.
Another recent A24 movie, Bring Her Back, involves dealing with trauma in horrible ways and is an interesting contrast with this one. Thankfully, Agnes doesn’t resort to kidnapping or raising the dead to try and get her life back. Instead, she continues to live her life awkwardly and endearingly.
The point of the movie seems to be that everyone around her treats her like a fragile china doll that could shatter at any moment. What she needs from her friends is merely their presence, to have them be there for her until she has the strength to move on with her life. It’s a great lesson to take from a movie. Victor has an incisive understanding of the human condition, and I’m greatly anticipating where she’ll take her newly proven filmmaking and acting skills next.
