NIGHTBITCH (DISNEY+) (2024)

SYNOPSIS: An artist who pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mum seeks a new chapter in her life and encounters just that, when her nightly routine takes a surreal turn and her maternal instincts begin to manifest in canine form.

MOVIE REVIEW:

First and foremost, kudos to Amy Adams for playing a woman who thinks she is slowly turning into a dog. She is at times primal, rageful and even edgy. After all, she has received six Academy Award nominations.

Writer and director Marielle Heller adapts the 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder into a full-length feature. We are not quite sure what to make out of this. Is this a movie made for parents to be? The newly-weds? The unappreciative husband who forgot totally about their stressful stay-at-home wives? Complicated for sure.

Adams plays “mother”, seriously her character is plainly named as mother. Her repetitive life revolves taking care of her toddler son, day in day out. Her husband (Scoot McNairy) is always on work trips. And even when he is back, he struggles to take proper care of his son without his wife.

We learned that mother sacrificed her art career to be a stay-at-home mom. But now, she is feeling frustrated, lonely and she frequently goes on a long angry tirade about her life in the supermarket, library but it’s all in her head. Worst of all, she finds that she is developing characteristics of a dog. In fact, she is slowly turning into one at night. Those dead animals on the doorstep? We aren’t sure who did that perhaps it’s their cat.

Whether it’s literally or metaphorically, Nightbitch never makes a clear stand. There’s intermittent flashbacks of mother’s mother having the same ability to turn into a dog at night. Again no satisfying answer. Some ongoing witchcraft perhaps? And if you are expecting Nightbitch to be some spinoff from Universal Monsters franchise, I’m afraid this is not a movie for it.

What meant to be smart, provocative messages about the demands and vulnerability of motherhood is totally lost in the movie adaptation. It’s neither funny nor a sly satire. The narrative is monotonous to the point of boredom. In short, Nightbitch has no feasible merits except a very gung-ho Amy Adams barking her way through.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee