Sightlines · reception
How Sorry, Baby was received
2025 · Eva Victor · Sorry, Baby on Sightlines
The arc
Premiered as the word-of-mouth sensation of Sundance 2025 — Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, an $8M A24 bidding war — and unlike many festival darlings it held: by year's end it was the consensus debut of 2025, with Victor winning Best Directorial Debut from the National Board of Review and a Golden Globe acting nod.
What’s debated
The split is quiet-vs-slight: devotees call its deadpan, low-key register the whole point, while a chunk of Letterboxd finds it too muted and shapeless to earn the acclaim.
Its footprint
The John Carroll Lynch sandwich scene became the film's calling card — the moment reviews and best-scenes-of-the-year lists kept circling back to — and 'kindness from a stranger' became shorthand for the film itself.
Where it stands
An instant Letterboxd darling and already the standard-bearer for the 2025 debut class — the 'have you seen Sorry, Baby yet?' film of its year.
Did you know? Barry Jenkins discovered Eva Victor through their viral Twitter comedy videos and reached out directly — his company Pastel (Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak) then produced Victor's first-ever film, which A24 bought for $8 million against a budget of roughly $1.5 million.
Named by the director
- Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) — Victor cited it for how it captures having a friend who carries you through everything.
- In the Mood for Love (2000) — Named by Victor among the films they studied while figuring out how to write their own.
- Certain Women (2016) — Kelly Reichardt's understated rendering of mundane places was a key visual reference.
- Burning (2018) — Victor put Lee Chang-dong's fishbowl close-up — a character dissociating from his own body — on the shot list.
- Kelly Reichardt — Victor cited Reichardt's quiet, observational style as a guiding visual influence.