⭐⭐
Rob Ryan
Nightbitch is based on a book by Rachel Yoder who seemingly coped with her frustrations with the challenges and expectations of motherhood by vetting them into words, the book is a magic realist story where a struggling mother who is given no name, starts to turn into a dog by night, from what I've read of the book by reading a bunch of reviews, it seems that it works better as a exploration of a state of mind rather than a literal story of metamorphosis, I imagine this plays well into book. Film on the other hand is a different matter entirely.
Amy Adams stars as the nameless mother who after sacrificing her art carrier and two years into raising her child, is finding it hard to keep it together, something she expresses through internal monologues as opposed to being open with acquaintances, her husband (Scoot McNary) is away on business trips constantly so all the responsibility is left on her. One day she starts to notice strange hairs growing on her back, which then reach to other parts of her body, this manifests into pimples and spots, soon stray dogs start standing in her front porch every night, leaving dead animals on her doorstep by morning.
The local librarian (Jessica Harper) lends the mother a book that more or less gives her an idea for what is happening to her body, further accompanied by flashbacks to her childhood of her old house with her mother (which oddly seems to resemble a reclusive Mennonite community) that indicate that she also went through the same struggles as her and used her inner animal to cope. Is all this real? Is this all in her head? I don't know and frankly I'm not sure if the movie knows nor cares.
Nightbitch combines two story motifs into one, the first is the magic realist / body horror angle, the second is a domestic drama about a woman deciding that the life she's chosen for herself isn't working anymore, had it decided on one angle it wanted to explore, or taken a more literal approach with the material instead of constantly toying with our expectations and having it only be bound by satire or metaphor, it might have been more honest and edgy, as it is Nighbitch has too much of its teeth pulled in order to leave any sort of impression, before it can properly explore any of its world building in any real detail it keeps holding back by flipping between horror, satire and drama.
The film was directed by Marielle Heller whose movies are filled with loads of warmth and empathy. 2015's The Dairy of a Teenage Girl especially was a colourful non judgmental look into a young girl and her sexuality, but this is a movie that never really takes off and left me feeling empty, I was especially befuddled by the happy ending which feels unearned, off the cuff and renders the films concept feeling very perfunctory. That's not to say that it couldn't have worked, but if you wanted to make a movie about someone deciding to properly pursue her carrier, why not actually show us the person doing it instead of having it being over in a quick montage?
The first act of Nighbitch shows some promise, there are some funny moments that will probably ring true for a lot mothers. Adam's performance is certainly on the target, right down to her physique which looks worn out from years of household labour eating her up, I also liked that they didn't take the easy way out in making the husband character a detestable human being with no redeeming qualities. He's ignorant to what his wife's been putting up with but even he eventually comes around and is at least willing to listen.
It feels unfair to pit one feminist esq film against another but having seen The Substance over a month and a half ago, Nightbitch suffers in comparison. Not saying it had to go completely over the top like that movie, but at least give the impression that your movie is at least going somewhere.
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