TIFF 2024: Nightbitch (and Amy Adams’ Feral Escape from Her Flop Era)
Amy Adams turns into a dog because motherhood is a bit...
They do say that motherhood is a bitch.
She (Amy Adams) is Mother, and not in the drag sense. Every day, she makes the same breakfast for her toddler, plays the same games, and sticks to the same chaotic routine, more or less. Her husband (Scoot McNairy) works away from home but isn't exactly a present parent when he returns. Her friends don't keep in touch and she has nothing in common with the other mothers at the endless array of mama-baby activities beyond their shared status as mothers. She was once an artist but now cleans up poop. That she may or may not be turning into a dog is perhaps the least surprising part of this trial.
Nightbitch, based on the novel by Rachel Yoder, is the latest film by Marielle Heller of Can You Ever Forgive Me and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood fame. The real hook, at least to TIFF audiences, is Amy Adams. She's beloved, talented, a six-time Oscar nominee, and everyone is rooting for her to win it. Adams devotees like myself have been crying out for her to get a meaty role to for her to truly sink her teeth into. It's been a rough few years for her filmography, from the tedious Vice to the misguided Dear Evan Hansen to, well, we can't even begin to get into Hillbilly Elegy, not right now. Nightbitch gives her one of her best-ever roles, but also a welcome opportunity to be a weirdo.
Her character isn't even given a name. Her identity is that of mom, mama, mommy, mother. She's tired and sore, a tight smile forever on her face as she avoids the endless temptation to word-vomit her bottled-up rage to whoever will listen. There's a schism between what she wants to say and what actually comes out of her mouth. The only person who seems to truly listen is herself through long monologues that seek to answer the riddle of what it means to be a woman.
Nobody spends their entire career on top. Even the most talented and savvy-minded actors of impeccable taste fall foul of egos, bad advice, and sheer stupidity. Daniel Day-Lewis made Nine. This is a money and glory-minded business and that can steer you wrong. One of the reasons that TIFF can be so interesting is because you get to see first-hand how failed Oscar Bait happens. You see these achingly crafted publicity narratives form, the time and money required to set them afloat, then the awkward fallout when the reviews don't pay off as expected. I was here when The Goldfinch crashed and turned, guys.
One of the reasons that Adams’ so-called flop era hits so hard for fans is because those kinds of projects define it, those baity projects that felt like safe bets for the awards season roadshow. They weren't edgy or risky. Nobody expected Hillbilly Elegy to be like a Michael Haneke drama. It was meant to be a middle-of-the-road mainstream inspirational drama your grandparents would love. The Woman in the Window was supposed to be a classic thriller. We were crying out to see Adams do something weird, the kind of oddity that Nicole Kidman does. Imagine Amy in something like Destroyer or Birth. She could do it! But when she was inexplicably not Oscar-nominated for Arrival, her greatest performance, it felt like a shift had taken place.
Hollywood is defined by its wasting of actresses over 35. It's not all that surprising, alas, that Adams' slump hit as she got older. TIFF has been a festival of underestimated women for me, between The Substance and The Last Showgirl. Weirdly, the film where a woman might turn into a dog is the most mainstream-friendly title of the bunch.
I saw someone on Twitter say that Nightbitch had a similarly straightforward and middle-of-the-road relationship to feminism as Barbie. I don't know if they meant it as a compliment but it felt fair to me, as someone who very much liked Barbie. Sometimes, when you’re dealing with a large and not always-online audience, it’s the smart thing to be blunt with your messaging. If Barbie is Feminism 101, Nightbitch is 102: the motherhood module. There are many narratives about the dissatisfaction many women feel about motherhood but it’s rarer to see ones where women are allowed to admit that it’s a crappy job with little societal support and that being forced to give up your very self to rear a whole other human being from conception to adulthood is an unfair swap. Mother has to do bedtimes. Father gets to play video games and complain that they’re out of milk. They get to call looking after their own kids “babysitting.”
While Nightbitch isn’t the slapsticky comedy the trailer makes it out to be, it is a softer version of what could have been far pricklier. It’s not as gross as the book, but it does have some moments of candour, such as when Adams menstruates mid-shower, or when she inspects the odd changes to her body (so many nipples!) I wanted it to go gooier, to be honest. Maybe The Substance has warped me, but I did hope to see more of Adams as a dog, tearing into steaks and digging holes in the garden. Adams is wonderful in those moments of canine physicality when she decides to embrace her animal nature. She shines brightly when bottling it all up, however. The rictus grin that wanes to reveal her sadness when she attends a dinner with old friends who are transparently uninterested in her life as a mother feels especially potent.
Adams came to prominence in Junebug, an indie drama where her wide-eyed optimism made her an instant one to watch. Her best roles play on that guilelessness she seems to radiate like it like the rays of the sun, but not without a hint of darkness. It’s what made her so excellent in Enchanted as the Disney princess who decides it’s more fulfilling to be a real-world woman with problems and unpredictability. She seems so Nice, but as Into the Woods taught us, nice is different from good. In The Master, one of her nerviest roles, she is the wife of a cult leader who slowly reveals herself to be the real power player. It’s that smile: it could comfort you or kill you depending on how she feels.
The obviousness of Nightbitch might wear thin for some. Even for me, I wanted moments where didactic gave way to cryptic, especially as the voiceover became too much. This is still a very privileged view of motherhood, that largely of suburban white families where the pressure of money is barely discussed and an array of facilities seem open to all (even if it is a library sing-along that embodies a special kind of hell for Mother.) Still, it is good to hear the obvious said out loud because it so often isn’t in pop culture. But it makes you wish that the ideas tied more into the monstrous set-up. Motherhood is an animalistic instinct, we get that. It’s fun to eschew civilization once in a while. Show more of that literalism in the film!
I still think Marielle Heller is four for four, even if Nightbitch ends up feeling like her weakest and least cohesive effort (in fairness, she has set the bar very high for herself.) She continues to show herself as an excellent filmmaker who has a sharp understanding of outsider women and how a little empathy can go a long way. There are great moments of cheekiness here, like a montage set to a Weird Al song, and Mother’s weirdly blase attitude to finding a tail growing out of an abscess on her back. She should be allowed to make whatever effing movie she wants.
If I must sink into cliche, Nightbitch is more a sheepdog than a werewolf, but it’s still a hecking good pupper. I’m so sorry I wrote that. TIFF has ruined my brain.
Nightbitch had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. It will be released on December 6.