SORRY, BABY (A) - Eva Victor announces her grand presence as writer, director and star of this bleak comedy about an academic working through the PTSD of a sexual assault, through deadpan humor and the simple passage of time.
Victor -- tall, gangly and droll -- is captivating in this story told slightly out of order such that the actual assault has maximum impact, even though it is passively rendered from a cold distance. What is important here is how Victor's character -- Agnes, a literature professor -- copes in her own way, on her own schedule. (Three years have passed since the incident.) She mainly leans on her friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie), who soldiered through the Ph.D program with Agnes, under the creepy mentorship of the predatory author/professor Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi).
Lydie is patient with Agnes, even though Lydie is busy with her own partner and their plans to start a family. Agnes flails for emotional support, seeking a cure for the numbness that blankets her days -- she adopts a kitten; she starts sleeping with her nerdy neighbor, Gavin (Lucas Hedges); and she is blessed with the kindness of a random stranger (John Carroll Lynch), who talks her through a panic attack, which is triggered by another former classmate (Kelly McCormack) who lets slip that she had sex with Decker back in the day, too.
All of this might sound complicated or oppressive, but Victor makes sure that it is not. Her off-kilter dialogue and offbeat delivery makes this drily funny but not frivolous. It is moody but not glum. Agnes simply does not fit in with polite society, as exemplified by her awkward monologue in court explaining why she probably can't be unbiased as a potential juror. She is aimless but not hopeless.
You might identify with her futility in the face of a world -- her personal one, our shared dystopia -- knocked off its axis at the moment. What is the proper response?
This is assured storytelling. Victor hesitates a bit after the film's climax, fiddling with a couple of false endings, but you can't fault her for following the natural path of this unique character to whatever conclusion she sees fit. Victor and Agnes have earned that.
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