By Patrick Z. McGavin
The picture editors Randi Atkins and Alex O’Flinn have spent so much time together creatively the last couple of years, they are capable of finishing each other’s thoughts.
Their newest joint venture is “Sorry, Baby,” a drama that was a sensation at Sundance and Cannes. The movie is a first feature by Eva Victor, who wrote and directed, and also plays the protagonist, Agnes. It’s in select theaters now.
The story tracks the volatile emotional consequences of an English literary professor at a New England liberal arts school as she copes with the personal and professional fallout of a life-altering personal trauma.
The editing is crucial for a work that deliberately scrambles time and space. The two filmmakers recently talked about the difficulty of balancing themes of intimacy and power, and locating subtlety, grace and humor by confronting the darkest type of subject matter.
CineMontage: Did you know each other, personally or professionally, before this film?
Alex O’Flinn: I had the pleasure of working with Randi on Lulu Wang’s series “Expats” (2023). We got to work on that show together for a year and a half, and developed a great working relationship during that time. When you tell people you’re an editor, there is such a focus on the craft. That’s like 50 percent of the job. The other 50 percent is about how you communicate with each other, and work as a team. I think we’ve been able to develop a language with that over the years.
I worked with Barry Jenkins and his producing partners Adele Romanski and Mark Ceryak on “The Underground Railroad” (2021), and they are just wonderful people and are incredibly filmmaker-focused. When they reached out about “Sorry, Baby” which they were producing, I was so thrilled at the possibility of getting to work with them again. I read the script, and I immediately knew this was something that was going to be special. I met with Eva, and we just hit it off right there. We talked about the films we loved, and the script ideas, and it just bloomed from there. Then Randi was my first call.
Randi Atkins: I was obviously ecstatic when Alex called and asked if I wanted to cut this film with him because that was a huge opportunity for me. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Alex on “Expats.” He was a true mentor and colleague from the very beginning. So I was not only excited to work with him again, but to collaborate together as editors.
CineMontage: What was the creative dynamic like with you two and Eva Victor?
Alex O’Flinn: We’re such a small team. In the edit, it was me, Randi and Ava. The editing bays were so small. . .
Randi Atkins: We could not sit in them at the same time.
Alex O’Flinn: Working with Eva, she knew where she wanted to go at all times, and was simultaneously open to exploring many different things in the edit. As an editor that’s what you’re looking for. Yes, there’s the path we’re going down, but if something else comes up, is it cool if we explore that? What Eva talked about in our initial meeting was how excited she was about the idea of trying different things out, and excited about there being unknowns that are going to pop up in the editing room. When I heard that, I thought let’s dive in right now. I thought, “Could you shoot this film right now so that we can edit it?”
CineMontage: How did you divide your different creative responsibilities in the cutting?
Randi Atkins: We cut everything individually, at least initially, during production. On Fridays, Alex and I would get together and show each other our versions of the scenes. We’d say, “Ooh, I like what you did, or I like what I did,” or a combination of the two.
Alex O’Flinn: I do want to highlight a few sections that are like Randi’s children, especially the courthouse segment, and also the Lucas bathtub scene. Every time I’m in a theater, those two sections get enormous laughs. But, especially, at the end of the courthouse section, you go from this giant laughter to silence when the pathos kicks in. That’s all Randi.
I think something cool was that we felt the film was working emotionally early on. With the early cuts, you’re always looking for the film to work emotionally—on a macro level. That’s the dream. It’s not like the film is done yet or anything. But you’re like, “I feel something with this movie.”
When that happens you can take a deep breath. Again, it is not as if you’re done by any means, but the heart of the film is there. That allows you to spend all your time and energy on really dialing everything in and exploring different approaches within a scene or sequence.
CineMontage: The film is divided into non-chronological chapters with their own headings. Is it pretty close to the script, or did you experiment a lot with time and structure?
Alex O’Flinn; The chapters and the non-chronological structure was all in the script, and it was really cool to use that storytelling language in the edit. Even something like the fonts we used for the chapter cards, it’s granular, but all that stuff helped shape and create a tone for the film.
The film walks the line of comedy and serious subject matter, and something we were always asking ourselves was, “How can we give permission for people to laugh early on, but also make sure they connect with the heavier issues going on in the film?” We were always looking for things in the edit that could help communicate the tone we were going for
CineMontage: Did you alter the rhythm of the different chapters to separate one from the other?
Randi Atkins: It felt like each chapter did that on its own. Agnes is the anchor in each of these chapters and where she was in her emotional journey acted as a guide, it showed you when you needed to pick up the pace or have a joke or get serious. And we definitely did experience that in the courthouse.
That run of scenes went through a lot of changes and was originally much longer. There was a whole scene with these other two jurors taking a lunch break, and then we came back for more questioning, and then got into Agnes telling her story.
And while we all very much loved these two women, whom we deemed the “sandwich ladies,” we did notice that it was stalling things out. There were also a lot more jokes in the jury questioning area, but we had to figure out the balance of how many jokes are too many so that when it gets serious, it’s just as impactful. In the end I think we found a really good rhythm for that section.
CineMontage: I wanted to break down two connected scenes that I think are the most important in the film. The first is the traumatic centerpiece of what happens inside the house. Everything is offscreen, with a fixed camera position framed outside as the light moves from late afternoon to dusk and dawn.
Alex O’Finn: For me, it’s one of the most powerful moments in the film, and it was always like that in the script. We never went inside the house. In terms of the time passing, that came about because of both a creative challenge and a technical challenge. And technical challenges often open the door to exciting creative solutions. They only had one day to film the scene. I think, originally, Eva wanted to shoot that scene at magic hour. In order to do that, we’d need more than one day. So the idea to jump through time got brought up.
Then there was the realization that time can leap forward. That opened us up to the idea that we could have the time jump, as it goes from the afternoon all the way to night. The jump cuts there come like a shock. It’s the only time we do that, and it works within the language of the film. We also wanted to hold on the shots of the house a bit long, past the point where you feel like you should cut, as it creates a slight feeling of uneasiness. When Agnes finally comes to the door, you know something has happened.
CineMontage: Randi, immediately following that you have a very complicated tracking shot of Agnes that ends with her inside the house confining to her friend about what happened. The fixed camera position and the track are connected by the editing.
Randi Atkins: As we follow Agnes from the house, we had other coverage to use. But there was just something ominous about watching her walk to the car and hearing her boots through the leaves and just capturing that feeling, feeling the weight that something bad has happened. When something traumatic happens to you, I think you’re kind of paralyzed and not really processing what just happened. Then on her whole drive home, we’re watching her have this out of body experience.
And then you finally walk through that door and you’re home, you’re safe, your best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) is there, and now you can try and talk about what just happened. The bathtub was another scene where we had coverage to use, but you’re just so drawn to Agnes recounting what happened, that you just don’t want to leave her and you just want to hold that space for her.
CineMontage: Eva Victor wrote, directed and plays the lead. Did she really lean in on your own sensibilities and ideas when it came time to cut her own performance?
Randi Atkins: Echoing back to something Alex said before, when he first called and said Eva was going to write, direct and star, I wondered, “Ooh, is that good?” There’s always a little moment when you wonder, are they going to be precious about what they wrote? Are they going to be precious about their performance? Eva was really just so open to every single part of the process. They didn’t let anything from pre-production or production hold them back from trying things in the cutting room. It really was just such a wonderful experience working with them, because she was so open to trying everything.
Patrick Z. McGavin is a Chicago-based cultural journalist and writer. He writes on film for the Substack newsletter, “Shadows and Dreams” (https://patrickzmcgavin.substack.com/.)
