NIGHTBITCH
(director/writer: Marielle Heller; screenwriter: based on the novel by Rachel Yoder; cinematographer: Brandon Trost; editor: Anne McCabe; music: Nate Heller; cast: Amy Adams (Mother), Scoot McNary (husband), Kerry O’Malley (Mother’s mother), Zoe Chao (Jen), Ella Thomas (Naya), Mary Holland (Miriam), Arleigh Patrick Snowden (son), Emmett James Snowden (son), Archana Rajan (Liz), Jessica Harper (Norma); Runtime: 98; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Marielle Heller, Amy Adams, Anne Carey, Sue Naegle, Stacy O’Neill, Christina Oh; Searchlight Pictures; 2024)
“Allegory to moms, a mix of comedy and horror.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”/”The Diary of a Teenage Girl”) is director-writer of this allegory to moms, a mix of comedy and horror, that has some surreal touches to its otherwise straight-forward story about giving up a career to be a stay-at-home mom. It’s based on the 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder, a book praised for being a credible feminist fairy tale. Too bad the script never goes far enough to allow its wacky premise to register as a relevant family drama or witty black comedy or as a weird horror fairy tale that points out the complexities of motherhood.
Its strange premise has Amy Adams, only identified as Mother, believe that she’s so pressured at home she’s transforming into a barking, wild dog.
Amy’s one-dimensional perceived husband (Scoot McNary) is absent from the home for days because of his traveling job, while she raises her 2-year-old twin sons (Arleigh Patrick Snowden & Emmett James Snowden). The active kids keep her constantly busy whether cleaning-up after them, taking them to the park or library. At the library she makes contact with three other young moms (Zoe Chao, Archana Rajan & Mary Holland). Unfortunately Adams can’t relate with them because she sees them as airheads, which leaves her isolated. She only communicates with the librarian (Jessica Harper) by asking her to do research for her on the library computer.
Before being a suburban mother, Adams was an artist and worked in a city art gallery. The complaint she always gripes about is that she has to give up her career to raise a family while hubby doesn’t.
The harried woman bitches about doing everything around the house. In a cringe-worthy sequence, she turns literally into a dog through magical realism.
The film retreats from its wacky premise to straight to a dramedy about angry moms growling. I respect Adams for giving a valiant effort to pull off this absurdity with an unhinged performance while offering a predictable message that mom is the one who keeps the family together as she’s expected to do so by society.It played at the Toronto International Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 9/18/2024 GRADE: C+
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