We’re just over halfway through the year, and Sorry, Baby has planted its lead flag in the race for the award for “best movie to be ruined by sound bleed in the multiplex.” It’s a prize that distributor A24 has been dominating over the past few years, with last year’s winner being Janet Planet, and the year before that being All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. It’s the price one has to pay to experience a bit of counterprogramming during the height of summer blockbuster season, a reminder that the quantity of noise and flashing lights has little correlation to the overall cinematic experience.

Sorry, Baby opens gently with Lia Ooyang Rusli’s piano over cinematographer ​​Mia Cioffi Henry’s soft image of light snow flurries against a rural New England house. Never mind that the roar of a dinosaur in Jurassic World: Rebirth and the thundering of Superman encroached on the walls of the small auditorium that housed this film; I was immediately locked into the world that writer/director/star Eva Victor was creating. The confidence of that frame continued throughout the rest of the runtime, with the fact that this is Victor’s debut making the whole feat even more astonishing.

It’s a bit of a paradox in itself. It’s funny, yet not a comedy. It’s dramatic, yet not a drama. It’s unique, yet tells a painfully standard story. By that logic, I guess you could describe it as a semi-relatable dramedy. But that doesn’t feel correct either, with Victor striking a near-perfect balance between all those poles. I laughed, cried, and a little bit of everything else.

The story is simply described as “Something bad happened to Agnes.” That bad thing is the focal point for the structure, with everything happening either before or after. Agnes was a promising grad student who was about to receive high marks for her thesis. That burgeoning cycle of evolution during the period before has been replaced by mere survival in the period after. Agnes is stuck in her place, which is where the second sentence in the description comes into play: “But life goes on - for everyone around her, at least.”

Sorry, Baby is least concerned in the pivotal bad moment, and more interested in how everything changes, both in foreseeable and unforeseeable ways. Authorities say, “We are also women,” as if that blanket statement solves everything. Agnes has been psychologically changed, with no escape from the multitude of mundane ways that the memory of said bad thing can reintroduce itself at any moment.

Victor assembles a great cast, with theirself nailing the offbeat humor and deftly emotional moments. Lucas Hedges continues to be one of the smartest young actors working today, trusting directors like Victor in supporting roles rather than seeking the spotlight. He plays Agnes’ neighbor Gavin, a little aloof but completely charming in his own way. Naomi Ackie is great as Agnes’ best friend, Lydie. She has moved on from college and wants Agnes to do the same. This is a movie also about the power of friendship, how it lifts us out of the bad times and makes us into the best version of ourselves.