Nightbitch
When a new mom (Amy Adams) with her little boy sitting in her cart is stopped by a friend in the supermarket, her outwardly polite reaction to the typical 'You must love spending time with him' is completely different from her interior one, an aggrieved litany of all she's given up and is enduring tending to her child. And when her husband (Scoot McNairy), who is largely absent traveling for his job, returns home, he's flustered by his wife's anger, which she acknowledges by calling herself a "Nightbitch."
Laura's Review: B-
Writer/director Marielle Heller ("Can You Ever Forgive Me?"), whose adaptation of Rachel Yoder's novel feels a little toothless, is blessed with a committed performance from her star, who fearlessly exhibits the physical and mental downsides to maternity. Perhaps because while this new mother finds joy in primal urges, literally becoming a dog that runs with her pack at night, the film just doesn't take Yoder's ideas to their biological extremes, despite Adams growing a tail and an additional six nipples. And, we'll learn, this is something that has happened for generations, the young woman remembering her own mother's abandoned artistic dreams along with her inclination to run off into the woods to 'let off steam.'
We're plunged into a relentless grind with a montage of pats of butter being added to a cast iron pan from which morning eggs and noontime grilled cheese sandwiches emerge; of days filled with Book Babies at the library, tyke hikes and other child-focused activities. 'Sometimes I feel like I'll never be smart or happy or thin again,' our protagonist ponders, while also expressing her disdain for making friends with the other new moms she crosses paths with, even though they express interest in her that goes beyond her child. They know this new mother was once an artist whose work received major media coverage and was exhibited at museums, and it will take her own recognition that she needs this outlet in order to restore her equilibrium.
She hasn't lost all of her baby weight and when her husband comes home and she's able to take her first shower in four days, he comes in demanding to know why they are out of milk. Husband appears pretty clueless, if well meaning, offering to take on bath time, then constantly yelling for wife to bring him various things. He even suggests sex after she's just entered the room clutching a hot water bottle to her abdomen. Something's gotta give...
One of the most surprising premises of "Nightbitch" is that that pack of dogs mom begins to run with appear to be those very same three new moms, Jen (Zoë Chao), Miriam (Mary Holland) and the very pregnant Liz (Archana Rajan) our mom doesn't want to engage with. But after her little boy notes that one of the dogs smells like strawberries, she laters remarks 'strawberry shampoo' standing close to Jen. And when she tries to reconnect with her old artist friends
Freida (Stacey L. Swift), Naya (Ella Thomas) and Lemuel (Darius De La Cruz) on a rare night out, she can no longer relate to them, thinking herself uninteresting. Horrified after discovering she's killed the family cat after one of her canine outings, she'll admit this guilt to the mom group, only to be embraced in a wave of commiseration, Liz telling of letting pet fish die from benign neglect, Miriam 'accidentally' allowing a parakeet to fly out a window. The film's climax will cement this reversal, our heroine's true friends not the ones she'd thought.
Heller leaves us to figure out just what is real and fantasy, but does so in a way that lets her have it both ways, a bit of a muddle that can make her protagonist appear unhinged. Has Amy Adams really turned into a dog and if not, how to explain those flashbacks to mom and grandma (who we see cooking up potions)? There is also the case of Norma (Jessica Harper), the woman in a bookstore who points her to 'A Field Guide to Magical Women: A Mythical Ethnography' and offers relatable child coping advice. But later she's revealed to be a librarian who doesn't appear to know what our overworked mom is referring to. And while mom's reemergence as a complete individual is beautifully staged, everything comes together a little too neatly, even as in achieving life balance, the world she flourishes in is harshly critiqued while the one she needed to escape provides sisterhood.
Amy Adams, however, throws herself into this with conviction (in several interviews, she's proudly admitted to growing her own chin hair for the role) and is always a pleasure to watch, her ability to switch between socially acceptable behavior and what she really feels exhibiting strong control of craft. "Nightbitch" can be a little murky it its execution, but Adams shines brightly.
Robin's Review: C+
Searchlight Pictures releases "Nightbitch" in theaters on 12/6/24.
