“One thing unhealthy occurred to Agnes.” That is what the viewers is informed within the cryptic trailer for Sorry, Child, the debut characteristic from director, author, and star Eva Victor. The aforementioned “unhealthy factor” is not explicitly revealed till you truly watch the movie, as if viewers must earn protagonist Agnes’ profoundly upsetting private story — which is, sadly and maybe deliberately, unremarkable.
One may say it is a daring, if not barely controversial, option to abstain from unveiling the “unhealthy factor” in an official synopsis, particularly at a time when set off warnings are slowly changing into the usual, however Sorry, Child‘s non-linear story and lifelike characters are introduced with such painstaking care and compassion that it would not matter ultimately. What issues is that Eva Victor has arrived on the proper time, and their awe-inspiring strategy to black comedy, dialogue, and the sundry intricacies of being an individual has the facility to the touch each viewer.
Sorry, Child
4.5
/5
- Launch Date
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January 27, 2025
- Runtime
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104 minutes
- Director
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Eva Victor
- Writers
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Eva Victor
- Producers
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Alex Orlovsky, Michael B. Clark, Adele Romanski, Barry Jenkins, Duncan Montgomery, Carole Baraton, Jack Selby, Lia Buman, Tim Headington, Alex Turtletaub, Mark Ceryak, Neil Shah, Ana Leocha
Victor’s self-aware brazenness is what indie cinema wants, and Sorry, Child — winner of the 2025 Sundance Movie Competition Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award — is an unexpectedly hilarious introduction to an emotive filmmaker with a splendidly bizarre thoughts. The magnetism of Victor’s viral web skits blended with the vulnerability of their private expertise as a sexual assault survivor assist create a freshman work with lasting influence.
Trauma Is a B*tch, however Kittens, Infants, and Good Sandwiches Assist
Sorry, Child introduces viewers to Agnes, a college English lit professor, over three years after “the unhealthy factor,” which has concurrently stored her stagnant and adjusted her complete being. She is completely different now, issues are completely different now, however she is caught within the tiny city the place the unhealthy factor occurred, as if its maintain on her thoughts and physique is parasitic. That mentioned, Agnes is neither helpless nor a shell of a lady. Her ever-mature and constant greatest good friend, Lydie, is visiting from New York, and the 2 late-twentysomething ladies instantly decide up the place they left off, guffawing below a blanket on the sofa, laughing concerning the inherent ridiculousness that’s having intercourse with males. The fabulous Naomi Ackie performs Lydie with such sincerity, you will want for a Lydie in your personal life.
This era of Agnes’ life is titled “The 12 months With the Child,” as Lydie and her partner, Fran (E.R. Fightmaster), are welcoming their first baby. Lydie’s potential to maneuver to the Massive Apple, discover her real love and develop new life in her physique — milestones {that a} damaged Agnes has been unable to attempt for, not to mention ponder — has left Agnes feeling melancholy. She asks Lydie, “Do you miss me though you are married?” When Lydie questions if it is rather a lot to nonetheless be within the place the place the unhealthy factor occurred, Agnes responds that “it is rather a lot to be wherever.” Agnes’ ache rings of each naivety and cynicism, however her childlike marvel is not misplaced, which provides much-needed levity and hope to a narrative a couple of lady consumed by what a person did to her.
To tear the Band-Support off: Agnes was sexually assaulted by a person able of energy — her thesis advisor, Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi). Introduced as enticing and barely commanding in a scholarly manner, Preston’s presence is all the time looming, however he is simply an overview of an everyday divorced man. The viewers would not want a completely fleshed-out sexual predator, and Victor makes that crystal clear; Agnes, Lydie, and charming neighbor Gavin (a wonderfully solid A24 dream boy Lucas Hedges) are extra vital — although even Gavin’s each day whereabouts are left to the creativeness.
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Victor is assured in when to emphasise element, when to pause for a breath, and when to embrace subtlety. Zoë Kravitz’s 2024 directorial debut, Blink Twice (which additionally starred Ackie), rejected subtlety by bluntly together with temporary scenes of onscreen rape — although Amazon MGM Studios notably put out an official set off warning forward of the movie’s launch and included an identical disclaimer in a title card previous the opening scene. Blink Twice is a extra jarring movie altogether, with vivid colours, an outlandish plot, and a piercing script merging to type a nigh-overstimulating revenge thriller, whereas Victor makes use of muted colours and pure gentle to adapt a script crammed with quiet moments.
Comparisons between Blink Twice and Sorry, Child are solely related relating to Kravitz and Victor’s polar depictions of sexual assault. Within the section titled “The 12 months With the Dangerous Factor,” Victor opts for a prolonged, static large shot of the outside of Preston’s dwelling, the place he requests Agnes meet him for a thesis overview. Viewers are pressured to look at the skin of the home as day turns into night and night turns into night time, a haunting feeling penetrating the excruciatingly quiet scene. Context clues level to the assault, particularly when a raveled Agnes storms out of the home along with her footwear barely on. (Preston requested Agnes to take away her footwear when she entered, and he or she exited whereas frantically placing them again on.) Probably the most minuscule particulars, like the place and when Agnes can and may’t put on her footwear, evoke a sentiment Victor shared with the Los Angeles Instances: “the factor about this sort of trauma is it’s somebody deciding the place your physique goes with out your permission.”
Victor’s embrace of the artwork of subtlety in Sorry, Child is admirable — enlightened, even — in a post-Blink Twice and Promising Younger Lady world.
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This emphasis on the bodily nature of sexual trauma may be seen within the exhaustion on Agnes’ face, in her indifferent sexcapades with Gavin, and in her tendency to decorate and act like Twilight‘s meek protagonist, Bella Swan. When Agnes confides in Lydie concerning the assault — an astounding scene that sees the petrified protagonist decompressing in a bath — she says, “My backbone obtained chilly.” She even tells a form stranger, clever sandwich store proprietor Pete (John Carroll Lynch), that she will “really feel it in [her] physique that it was unhealthy.”
Agnes continues to be in a position to “do” life; she’s in a position to take steps ahead and benefit from the firm of excellent folks like Lydie and Gavin, however her assault lingers. She incorporates Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial traditional Lolita into her teachings. She works in a cramped college workplace that when belonged to Preston. Even listening to the phrase “extraordinary,” which he repeatedly used to explain Agnes and her work, provokes a wave of abdomen knots. Whereas Sorry, Child is eager on these plot-driven particulars, its satirical tackle how medical doctors and institutional leaders focus on sexual assault presents memorable dialogue. Intentionally obtuse traces like “these items are arduous” and “these questions are protocol” are delivered in such a comically aloof manner that they convey a strong message about society’s uncomfortable response to tales comparable to Agnes’.
Sorry, Child tells a non-linear story that is left unresolved, which in itself says an awesome deal about how folks course of trauma. It is gradual and inconsistent, and there’s no end line. The movie’s most lovely message lies within the energy of embracing life’s easiest joys. Kittens, infants, greatest mates, good sandwiches, form strangers, fulfilling intercourse, emotional intimacy, and heat hugs — over time, these items coalesce and have a therapeutic impact. For this, Sorry, Child is reasonably extraordinary.
From A24, Sorry, Child hit New York Metropolis and Los Angeles theaters on June 27, 2025. Its theatrical launch expands nationwide on July 18, 2025.