Nightbitch, 2024.
Written and Directed by Marielle Heller.
Starring Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy, Arleigh Snowden, Emmett Snowden, Zoë Chao, Jessica Harper, Ella Thomas, Mary Holland, Kerry O’Malley, Adrienne Rose White, Stacey Swift, Archana Rajan, Darius De La Cruz, Kerry O’Malley, Marielle Heller, and Nate Heller.
SYNOPSIS:
A woman pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mom, but soon her domesticity takes a surreal turn.
With the premise of a stressed-out mother slowly going crazy and burning inside with simmering rage, gradually transforming into a dog, one would presume star Amy Adams would have one of those meaty, fearless roles that stuns and attracts awards attention. However, Nightbitch (from the usually terrific writer/director Marielle Heller and based on a novel by Rachel Yoder, but really, this is a campy, sillier, more bluntly message and metaphor-driven version of Bitch from roughly seven years ago) plays like everyone is scared to commit to the premise or do something crazy with it. If anything, the body horror metamorphosis suddenly disappears, leaving behind more metaphors and broad family drama where every character is thinly written and randomly becomes whoever and whatever the story calls for them to be and do.
That’s not to say Nightbitch is a failure because it doesn’t embrace its horror framework. The film is going for laughs in the form of an exhausted, broken down Mother (Amy Adams, certainly looking the part of a suburban mom with no Hollywood star sheen here, often looking messy and unkempt from her character rarely getting a chance to shower) holding in opinions on everything from the patriarchy to motherhood, yet come out in imagined bursts of renting that is probably relatable, but also comes across entirely forced and cringe here. There are brilliant, nuanced, thoughtful, and creatively refreshing takes on empowering women. Then there is Nightbitch, which preaches what some women and moms might want to hear in a ham-fisted way that doesn’t necessarily feel genuine, inspiring, or cutting.
In addition to not being creepy or funny (aside from the use Mother finds for a dog bed and possibly a couple of other smaller comedic bits that engage with the premise), the tone is all over the place, which is fine if a filmmaker knows how to make those seamless transitions or tie everything together. Marielle Heller doesn’t here.
Often stuck at home with her young boy (played by Arleigh and Emmett Snowden) and tending to his understandably endless needs, Mother is happy to be a mom but also burnt out and broken inside, regretful that the life choice ended up causing her to quit being an artist. She has become a stay-at-home mom while her husband (also unnamed, played by Scoot McNairy) frequently travels for work. He is also portrayed as a clueless doofus oblivious to not only how much his wife does but how she accomplishes getting it all done alone when he can’t give the boy a simple bath without asking her to get off the couch multiple times to bring something in the bathroom (of course, one of those times he is sitting on the toilet messing around on his phone.)
There is nothing wrong with making him a comic punchline who doesn’t realize what he has in life or his wrongdoings in encouraging his wife to give up her artistic ambitions, but the third act takes the character in a serious route, serving as another example of these characters being twisted into whatever they need to be, even if it’s hard to buy what the story is selling.
This uneven relationship and parental dynamic naturally lead to arguing, further transforming Mother into a dog. It starts with fur spots on her back and continues with a heightened sense of smell, a taste for kale, and full-on shapeshifting at night, which leads to some hunted, dead animals on the porch in the morning. However, when one thinks the film will escalate that metamorphosis into something shocking or visually exciting, the narrative pulls back and slips into ruminating on mythology and metaphors. The third act is almost entirely family drama; if someone had walked into the movie during it, it’s reasonable to assume they would have no idea it’s a film about a woman becoming a dog and tying elements of that transformation into motherhood being a beast.
For a while, Nightbitch admittedly works since the performances are strong across the board; Amy Adams also has wonderfully sweet chemistry with her child co-stars, namely in a painting scene that is cute and moving because it’s about her trying to share her passion with her son, which also gets messy and goes amusingly off the rails. There is also an element of uncertainty regarding where it will all go. The answer to that question is what truly disappoints and sinks Nightbitch.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
