They say that comedy is tragedy plus time—an oversimplification, yes, but a pretty fitting way to look at how we process traumatic events in our lives. 

In Sorry, Baby, writer-director Eva Victor is Agnes, an awkward but charming professor at a small college in New England where she was once a student. 

Her closest friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie), comes to visit, slowly revealing how much Agnes has struggled to move forward after a traumatic incident in her past involving her former professor (Louis Candelmi).

Throughout the story, we can infer what happened to Agnes long before we get glimpses of it, but the actual meat of the story is not in the incident itself. The most gripping, emotional, and surprisingly humorous aspects are in how Agnes has healed—or failed to heal—from the event. 

Victor is simply astounding, giving us trendously relatable awkwardness with a dry, dark sense of humor. Agnes’s relationship with her neighbor, Gavin (Lucas Hedges), is one of the funnier parts of the film. They’re both nervous around each other, not knowing how much vulnerability to show, but also very sweet. They’re navigating trust in a way that feels very natural and real.

The authenticity shines brightest in Agnes’s interactions with Lydie. The chemistry Victor and Ackie share makes us truly believe they have been friends for decades. Lydie is a ride or die, the kind of friend everyone wants when they’re going through something extremely difficult. Ackie plays her with so much heart that it’s impossible not to love her. 

The film does a masterful job of exploring the healing process, how there’s not one clear path forward to rebuilding after trauma. The people who come into her life, from her grad school rival Natasha (Kelly McCormack) to random strangers who show her kindness (John Carroll Lynch in a pivotal scene), help Agnes learn to trust and to find security in herself, and to grow beyond what happened to her. 

Victor’s screenplay and performance accomplish this with a sharp sense of humor, making the film both hilarious and meaningful. It’s a challenging tightrope to walk, to make one of the funniest films of the year about such dark subject matter, but Victor pulls it off with flying colors.