Moving forward from anguish with laughs

AT THEIR BEST, MOVIES CAN BE SUBTLE EXPRESSIONS of feelings we’ve had but can’t fully articulate. Besides, when it comes to feelings, articulation might be overrated: one of the functions of art is to explore the undefinable, and sometimes it’s a relief to let a movie do some of the emotional heavy lifting for us.

- STEPHANIE ZACHAREK

That’s the function writer-director-star Eva Victor’s debut film Sorry, Baby strives to fulfill. Victor plays Agnes, an academic in her late 20s who has stuck around in the sleepy college town where she earned her graduate degree. That choice has seemingly paid off: she’s landed a full-time teaching job at her alma mater, following in the footsteps of the charming instructor who'd advised her on her thesis, a guy with a name straight out of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi). Shortly after Agnes starts the job, her closest friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie), an old schoolmate, comes to visit from New York. Lydie has big news of her own: recently married, she has just learned she’s pregnant. Agnes is happy for her, but she also feels abandoned. Lydie is moving on, reshaping her life after grad school in a way Agnes can't.

There’s a reason for that: it turns out that Agnes was sexually assaulted in her final year of graduate school.