Nightbitch

Movie Name: Nightbitch
Year of Release: 2024
Director: Marielle Heller
Starring: Amy Adams, Scooxt McNairy, Arleigh Snowden, Emmett Snowden, Jessica Harper, Zoe Chao, Mary Holland, Archana Rajan, Ella Thomas, Stacey Swift, Roslyn Gentle, Kerry O'Malley
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 4
Watch it on Hulu

Synopsis and Review

Writer/director Marielle Heller has followed her two most recent solid endeavors, "Can You Ever Forgive Me" and "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", with the adaptation of the novel by Rachel Yoder, "Nightbitch", which was in a way being positioned as a return to form to Amy Adams, which sadly turned out not to be quite the case. The narrative focuses on a woman who has semi-recently become a first time mother. Her child is now two years old, and this person has decided to put a thriving artistic career on hold to be a mother full time. Her husband travels quite frequently, which means that it's always her overseeing the raising of the child. She's been having issues with sleeping, as her son also has unruly sleeping habits and patterns. To add further stress to the situation, she starts noticing unexpected physical changes, including patches of fur on her body, the growth of a tail and even additional nipples. The dogs in the neighborhood also appear more intently on her doorstep, as if lured by the proximity to one of their own. While initially she believes these to be symptoms related to perimenopause, she then has a realization that she's turning into a dog. She has fantasies about becoming one. In the meantime, she also dreams about her childhood in a Mennonite environment, and how that has connections with what she's currently going through (did her mother also go through the same). She starts connecting her young son with dog related activities, including getting him a dog bed, which seems to calm him down, though her husband questions more and more what is happening. These events eventually start wearing down the relationship between the couple.

This is indeed a film that had a ton of potential related to the richness of its subject matter: on one hand it has this whole aspect of body mutation and transformation, very reminiscent of what David Cronenberg did in the 1970s and 1980s (one only has to remember his "The Brood" with Samantha Eggar). It also had the potential of being a satire, something John Waters could easily tackle and give it a dark comedy spin similar to what he did with "Serial Mom" for instance. Instead what we end up having is a film that treats this phase of this woman's life, as an epiphany-type of moment for her, which somehow transforms her into a more authentic version of herself (it runs in the family). And in true Hollywood style, and much like many films do with any character who has an epiphany or a newfound sense of self, everything around them, including close relationships, friends, every day life, suddenly becomes grotesque and monstrous, as if for some reason the fact they feel more connected with their truer sense of self denies everyone else's equal permission of being who they are. Essentially this becomes the typical perspective of: I've had a spiritual epiphany, which means I've moved forward in the leaderboard of life, and everyone who's failed to do the same, is now an abject monstrosity. It's a cliché for so many scripts, and eventually it always land the central character at a junction where they have to decide what do they want to do with their own lives. Similarly that's the path that occurs in this film, but until we get to that point, we witness Amy Adams behaving both sensibly and also as a slightly deranged individual, and even a vicious one to those she's closest with, because she doesn't really want to verbalize what triggers her or her needs. It's a film with good questions, but one that is wrapped in bad character development, and an even worse development of the ballsy premise. When faced with topics such as these, it would be nice to have a point of view that is more visceral, similar to what Coralie Fargeat did with "The Substance". What's left of this is Amy Adams trying very hard to give some nuance to this central character, and if the film manages to be watchable is mostly due to her and her chemistry with Scoot McNairy. The production team is unremarkable, much like this film. Good premise, bad execution.