Diractors is an ongoing series in which Hassle writer Jack Draper examines films, new and old, whose directors are better known for their work in front of the camera.
Maybe it’s becoming tired to declare anything with a clever screenplay and sharp direction as “personal becomes the universal feeling,” yet Sorry, Baby gets there. At the same time, it’s amazing to make your first movie, let alone as a diractor, look as easy as Eva Victor does. What is effortless isn’t a genre exercise like we typically see for first movies like horror or thrillers, but Victor staying authentic to themselves. The comedian turned diractor is someone who is at ease being themselves despite trying to make their persona on stage work now on screen. Victor is at such an advantage to being a low-key enough name to create their kind of humor and directorial identity that is brand new to us. Sorry, Baby is filled with laughs despite being about a life-altering event.
We meet Agnes (Victor, in a deeply human performance) in her home, greeting her best friend from grad school, Lydie (Naomi Ackie), as she decides to live in New York City. While Agnes still lives in rural New England, she’s isolated herself from her fellow alumni (such as a spiteful Kelly McCormack) and has a situationship with their neighbor Gavin (Lucas Hedges) From here, the movie ping-pongs back and forth from one moment in Agnes’ life to the next as we see the lead-up and fallout from a traumatizing night of abuse experienced with her trustworthy writing professor (Louis Cancelmi). This evening is framed with a frightening shot as the camera lingers outside the professor’s home, showing how much time has passed and reminding us how time moves on. I love this screenplay, these moments following her experience existing like memories.
Memories feel significant. Agnes, an emotionally intelligent person, goes through life while repressing these memories that will always linger. For example, that time Agnes had a panic attack and a kind stranger shared a sandwich with her, or that day she was put in an uncomfortable position during jury duty, thus hinting that she could not be an impartial juror due to a time she was involved in a crime. Victor loops the movie back around with another visit from Lydie, and in return is a lovely way to see the Ackie and Victor friendship, which is the heart of the movie. There’s such deftness with everything outside of exploring Agnes’ interiority, like how Victor smartly uses New England as a sense of place. Reader, this is a very chilly movie from the briskness felt in the air but the warmth comes only from Victor’s careful time to still process.
It’s how Sorry, Baby can strike a performance balance amid the crop of indie films of 2025. Funny without being cringe, warm without being saccharine, entertaining despite the frightening event at the film’s center. Even in the moment when Agnes begins to trust a man again in Gavin, there’s no moment when Victor makes a grandiose statement of loneliness and repression, as there’s so much that’s left unsaid. I’m really intrigued to see where Eva Victor goes from here as a diractor; I wouldn’t be upset if they decide to make a couple more movies about female friendship or millennial angst. They’re voice of wit and curiosity is enough to make for a fun career ahead.
Below is a brief conversation between myself and writer/director Eva Victor, conducted at the film’s red carpet premiere at the 2025 Independent Film Festival Boston
BOSTON HASSLE: How did your time on Dating and New York and Shithouse help your debut?
EVA VICTOR: Both of them have a sort of “let’s just fucking do it” mentality, and I think I have a different mentality that’s a little bit more… I always felt a little more cautious around the job of director, and a little bit more worried. Their confidence is something I admire, and I’m working towards that.
BH: Has your time at Reductress helped the sense of humor of your movies?
EV: The thing that working on a comedy website taught me was how to punch up towards institutions that harm us and not punch down towards victims, and how comedy can work to support people who are out of power and hit people who are in power in an effective way. Making sure those rules apply to the film was something that mattered a lot to me.
BH: Any insights you had during the production from an actor now directing?
EV: I learned everything about being on set from being on TV. That show was so well-oiled, and I got to spend a lot of time [there]. When you’re acting they take very good care of you, and you get a lot of downtime, so I got to spend a lot of that time hearing over people’s shoulders and watching the directors there work, which was really cool. Making an indie film after that was a completely different scope of making something, but everyone was so kind there and really happy to teach me. So I loved the transition. It was an intense one, but it was good.
Sorry, Baby
2025
dir. Eva Victor
104 mins
Screened as part of the 2025 Independent Film Festival Boston
Opens in limited theaters Friday, 6/27, and nationwide Friday, 7/18
