Sorry, Baby + Oh, Hi!
In a time when the noble Oxford comma remains under attack, the creators of movie titles have taken a heroic stand and thrown not one but two films our way this week featuring the commonly used punctuation mark. However, instead of this commitment blessing these productions, it's acted as a curse — though to different degrees.
Written and directed by Eva Victor, the dramedy Sorry, Baby features mostly solid writing and directing. But Victor also casts herself as the film's protagonist, New England college professor Agnes, without considering her extreme limitations as an actor, and her terrible performance undermines what's otherwise a powerful little movie.
Told in nonlinear fashion, the film presents Agnes's multi-year journey before and after being raped. The film's sexual assault subject matter is kept a secret in the promotional material, which merely hints that “something” bad happened to her a few years ago. But considering the triggering nature of her experience, hiding it proves a poor decision for viewers who don't want that topic sprung on them. By “spoiling” it here, hopefully this group will feel better prepared if they choose to watch Sorry, Baby, and folks who want to approach this theme yet wouldn't otherwise have this indie on their radar will seek it out.
Those who do will be treated to a strong turn by Naomi Ackie as Agnes' housemate/classmate Lydie, a rare appearance by Lucas Hedges (playing Agnes' kindly neighbor Gavin), and film-stealing work by John Carroll Lynch as a sandwich shop owner who deserves — well, maybe not his own feature, but at least a short film.
Grade: B-minus. Rated R. Now playing at the Fine Arts Theatre.
Compared to its comma sister Oh, Hi!, however, Sorry, Baby looks like a Best Picture contender, if not the frontrunner.
Lacking any semblance of a script, writer/director Sophie Brooks’ relationship “comedy” loosely chronicles the first weekend trip for new couple Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) — one that quickly disintegrates when he reveals that they are in fact not a couple and that he's not looking for a relationship.
Thanks to the talented leads, the buildup to this bomb is pleasant enough. But the news throws Iris into a tailspin and, leaving Isaac chained to their vacation house’s bed after some wannabe kinky sex, she goes down an internet rabbit hole in hopes of proving to him that they indeed belong together.
Problematic sexual consent politics aside, Iris’ phone research session and subsequent implementation of her findings unmasks the thinness of Brooks’ material. If there was an actual, feature-length script, it's depressing that so many respectable performers agreed to partake in this dud. And even if such a completed document did exist, Oh, Hi! nevertheless plays like an outline that’s reliant on an ill-equipped cast to improvise.
As with other lazy would-be comedies, the film set was probably a blast for all involved, but that joy barely extends to viewers. There's probably enough here for a short film, but even at 90 minutes, Brooks asks too much of the talented cast to pad the runtime with a series of uninspired bits.
Despite traces of Misery and Gerald’s Game via a bed-imprisoned character, Oh, Hi! exhibits none of those Stephen King adaptations’ bite and wit. And as Iris' decisions further complicate the very dumb situation and implicate summoned friends Max (Geraldine Viswanathan, getting a rare chance to speak with her native Australian accent) and Kenny (John Reynolds, Search Party), whatever point Brooks had hoped to make feels increasingly distant.
Already an uncharacteristically poor year for Sony Pictures Classics, this latest failure marks a new low in 2025 for the distributor and suddenly makes their formerly appealing awards season slate look suspect.
Grade: D-plus. Rated R. Now playing at Carolina Cinemark and Regal Biltmore Grande.
(Sorry, Baby photo courtesy of A24; Oh, Hi! photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)
