Eva Victor's film debut Sorry, Baby is a slow-burn treat
Following last year's handing of the opening night honours to a home-grown film – The Outrun, set and filmed mostly in Orkney – the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) turns for this year's curtain raiser to another story in which a young woman works through and deals with trauma and emotional turmoil. This time, though, we're in the north-east corner of the United States.
Sorry, Baby is written and directed by actor and comedian Eva Victor in their feature debut. They also star as Agnes, recently appointed professor of English Literature at an unnamed university in a small, leafy town. Victor wrote the script in Maine and the film was shot over three weeks in Massachusetts, two states which are home to multiple private liberal arts colleges in multiple picturesque locations. Let's assume we're in one of them, close to a beach and a lighthouse (it features, a Virginia Woolf reference).
We open on a chapter heading – The Year Of The Baby – and the arrival for a weekend stay of Agnes's former housemate, Lydie (British actress Naomi Ackie). Given that introduction, the news that Lydie is pregnant doesn't come as a surprise.
But what starts like a mash-up of Alex Ross Perry's Queen Of Earth (gilded New Yorkers Elizabeth Moss and Katherine Waterston falling apart in a weekend cabin up-state) and pretty much anything by Whit Stillman or Greta Gerwig fast becomes its own thing as Victor draws us through Agnes's story by means of further chapter headings introducing flashbacks to her and Lydie's time as graduate students. The Year Of The Sandwich, for instance and, crucially, The Year Of The Bad Thing.
Read more Barry Didcock
The Bad Thing is a sexual assault by Agnes's PhD supervisor Preston Decker (the preternaturally creepy Louis Cancelmi). It's neatly and innovatively done through a series of static external shots of Decker's house. Agnes goes in, to discuss her thesis she thinks. The afternoon light fades, night comes on, a shaken-looking Agnes re-appears and stumbles to her car. Then an intense journey home, shot from a dashboard mounted camera. We only learn what has happened when Agnes tells Lydie in detail later, the camera hardly leaving her face as she squats in a bath.
This decision not to show the assault (or is it a refusal?) but to concentrate instead on the aftermath, the fallout, the responses (from men and women) and the coping mechanisms required has seen respected film journal Sight & Sound fold Victor into a movement it's calling The New Reticence. Identified fellow travellers include American pair India Donaldson and Eliza Hittman, and Australian Kitty Green, who made acclaimed #MeToo drama The Assistant. It isn't a snappy label, though that's not the point.
But into the mix Victor throws an element which should unbalance the film but somehow doesn't: humour. Agnes can't resist quips and one-liners, even when the circumstances seem inappropriate, even when the subject is awful. Meanwhile Victor-as-director is happy to throw their character into comic situations. It's laugh out loud funny at points.
In the hands of another film-maker that inciting incident – the assault – would be used to provide propulsion and generate anger. Instead, Victor deploys a deliberately languid pacing in keeping with the overall indie feel. Not all the male characters are awful, either. Agnes meets a kindly sandwich shop owner during an anxiety attack (John Carroll Lynch) and falls into a sexual relationship with sweet and totally unthreatening neighbour Gavin (a welcome turn by Lucas Hedges). So perhaps we should add nuance, subtlety and complexity to Victor's implied reticence. These are strong foundation and bode well for the future.
An under-stated opener for the EIFF then, to be sure. But Eva Victor's debut is a slow-burn treat which still packs a punch – even as it poses questions with no easy answers.
Sorry, Baby screen as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Friday August 15. It is released in the UK on August 22
For tickets for Edinburgh Festival shows, click here
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Four stars Following last year's handing of the opening night honours to a home-grown film – The Outrun, set and filmed mostly in Orkney – the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) turns for this year's curtain raiser to another story in which a young woman works through and deals with trauma and emotional turmoil. This time, though, we're in the north-east corner of the United States. Sorry, Baby is written and directed by actor and comedian Eva Victor in their feature debut. They also star as Agnes, recently appointed professor of English Literature at an unnamed university in a small, leafy town. Victor wrote the script in Maine and the film was shot over three weeks in Massachusetts, two states which are home to multiple private liberal arts colleges in multiple picturesque locations. Let's assume we're in one of them, close to a beach and a lighthouse (it features, a Virginia Woolf reference). We open on a chapter heading – The Year Of The Baby – and the arrival for a weekend stay of Agnes's former housemate, Lydie (British actress Naomi Ackie). Given that introduction, the news that Lydie is pregnant doesn't come as a surprise. But what starts like a mash-up of Alex Ross Perry's Queen Of Earth (gilded New Yorkers Elizabeth Moss and Katherine Waterston falling apart in a weekend cabin up-state) and pretty much anything by Whit Stillman or Greta Gerwig fast becomes its own thing as Victor draws us through Agnes's story by means of further chapter headings introducing flashbacks to her and Lydie's time as graduate students. The Year Of The Sandwich, for instance and, crucially, The Year Of The Bad Thing. Read more Barry Didcock The Bad Thing is a sexual assault by Agnes's PhD supervisor Preston Decker (the preternaturally creepy Louis Cancelmi). It's neatly and innovatively done through a series of static external shots of Decker's house. Agnes goes in, to discuss her thesis she thinks. The afternoon light fades, night comes on, a shaken-looking Agnes re-appears and stumbles to her car. Then an intense journey home, shot from a dashboard mounted camera. We only learn what has happened when Agnes tells Lydie in detail later, the camera hardly leaving her face as she squats in a bath. This decision not to show the assault (or is it a refusal?) but to concentrate instead on the aftermath, the fallout, the responses (from men and women) and the coping mechanisms required has seen respected film journal Sight & Sound fold Victor into a movement it's calling The New Reticence. Identified fellow travellers include American pair India Donaldson and Eliza Hittman, and Australian Kitty Green, who made acclaimed #MeToo drama The Assistant. It isn't a snappy label, though that's not the point. But into the mix Victor throws an element which should unbalance the film but somehow doesn't: humour. Agnes can't resist quips and one-liners, even when the circumstances seem inappropriate, even when the subject is awful. Meanwhile Victor-as-director is happy to throw their character into comic situations. It's laugh out loud funny at points. In the hands of another film-maker that inciting incident – the assault – would be used to provide propulsion and generate anger. Instead, Victor deploys a deliberately languid pacing in keeping with the overall indie feel. Not all the male characters are awful, either. Agnes meets a kindly sandwich shop owner during an anxiety attack (John Carroll Lynch) and falls into a sexual relationship with sweet and totally unthreatening neighbour Gavin (a welcome turn by Lucas Hedges). So perhaps we should add nuance, subtlety and complexity to Victor's implied reticence. These are strong foundation and bode well for the future. An under-stated opener for the EIFF then, to be sure. But Eva Victor's debut is a slow-burn treat which still packs a punch – even as it poses questions with no easy answers. Sorry, Baby screen as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Friday August 15. It is released in the UK on August 22 For tickets for Edinburgh Festival shows, click here
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