Doggy Style — Nightbitch
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while, as I saw Nightbitch over a month ago at AFI Fest. The latest effort from writer/director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) debuted at Toronto back in early September, and the film made its rounds throughout the festival circuit until this weekend, when it was finally given its wide release. Clearly designed as a Best Actress Showcase for Amy Adams, the film is something of a mixed bag, evidenced by the fact that it’s hovered right around the “passable” 60% threshold on Rotten Tomatoes since it premiered (currently sits at 59% as I write this). But that doesn’t mean it has nothing to offer. In fact, I have to say I rather enjoyed it despite its pretty clear flaws. I’m not in favor of these obvious campaign flicks, but for what it is, it more than accomplishes its goal.
In what may be the most clever element of the plot and structure, this movie, which intentionally beats you upside the head with its feminist messaging, takes a pot shot at performative feminism by not even giving the protagonist a name. Amy Adams simply plays “Mother,” a former artist and stay-at-home caregiver to her two-year-old “Son” (twins Arleigh and Emmett Snowden), often handling all the domestic responsibilities while “Husband” (Scoot McNairy) is regularly away on business for days or weeks at a time. The only named characters of any note are four other women with whom Mother interacts as part of her routine errands and outings with Son. The first is an empathetic librarian named Norma (Jessica Harper), and the others are a trio of moms called Jen, Miriam, and Naya (Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, and Ella Thomas, respectively) who all participate in toddler activities with Mother and become her de facto friends. Apart from Norma, none of them is named more than once that I can recall, and every conversation is about either their kids or Husband.
In short, this feminist flick fails the Bechdel Test, and I’m pretty sure it’s on purpose. This is brilliant to me, because I’ve always found the Test to be arbitrary and overreaching. The comic strip it’s based on is almost 40 years old, and it was just a punchline, yet some people have taken it way too far, using it as a litmus to judge female agency in media, even though it’s never been a 1:1 correlation and it’s certainly not a measure of quality.
The biggest case in point I’ve seen for the last decade is Jurassic World. It passes, because Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire and Lauren Lapkus as Vivian have a conversation in the park’s control room (along with Jake Johnson’s Lowery) about all the shitty product placement and brand integration for the Indominus, as well as the eventual evacuation procedures to get as many people out of the park as possible once shit hits the fan. Does that stop Claire from having to outrun a T-Rex in heels? No. Does it stop her from machine gunning a pterodactyl like some fucked up macho fantasy right before making out with Chris Pratt? No. Does she even spare a thought for her assistant Zara (Katie McGrath) being brutally tossed about like a rag doll before being devoured by the mosasaur? Fuck and no! So what real feminist messaging was there? Two coworkers talking about work doesn’t change the fact that the women in the film were drastically shortchanged as characters. More importantly, no one cares because the picture is relatively well-made and fun, serving as the second-best in the franchise basically by default.
So yeah, I’m glad that Heller seems to have dispensed with that bullshit and instead focused on the quality of the writing and character than any posturing. As for those two crucial elements, things aren’t perfect, but on balance they do way more good than harm, especially Adams. If there’s any performer out there who can be forgiven for a naked attempt to grab some hardware, it’s her. She’s been nominated for the Oscar six times without a win, with absolutely stellar turns like those in American Hustle, Junebug, and Doubt going unrecognized. Further, of her six nods, only one has been for Best Actress (American Hustle), so it’s more than fair to give her this somewhat cynical front-facing marketing, because it’s not like she’s had to do it before now.
And honestly, if she can’t win for this, I don’t know what more she can do. I’m not saying she’d get my vote necessarily. There’s still plenty of contenders to get through before the year is out, but this is a role tailor-made for someone like Amy Adams. She plays Mother like a tortured cheerleader, doing everything she can to push forward and make everyone around her happy, reserving her constant frustrations mostly for herself in quieter moments. For example, the film opens with a clichéd but effective bit where she vents her insecurities to an old friend she runs into at the supermarket, only to have the scene smash cut back to the previous point in the conversation so that we know the release was just a momentary fantasy that she has to cover with a smile lest she scare this person off.
Really, this opening is a great microcosm for the entire film. The idea of an unappreciated, do-everything mom is pretty well-worn territory at this point. Hell, a couple months ago I joked about it in the TFINYW column when it came to Lapkus’ newest effort, Another Happy Day. It’s a trope that’s been done to death, mostly because there are endless avenues to explore with it, and to be fair, the grievances that Mother has aren’t exactly new. She misses her work. She’s exhausted. Husband would rather play video games than help out when he’s home. He wants sex when she’s not in the mood. She doesn’t feel attractive. She tries to balance her love for her child with her near-constant desire to strangle him because of his “Terrible Twos” behavior (the closest thing we get to a name for Son is one of the best jokes in the entire picture).
None of this is groundbreaking, but it works because of how well Adams executes it. She emotes without being maudlin. She’s physical, but in ways that make sense (until they knowingly don’t). She leans into the humor even when it’s devastating in the moment. Her line deliveries are funny, relatable, and alternately realistic and beautifully absurd depending on what the scene calls for. Essentially, she’s playing a person who feels very real, even though she has no name. If you present them the right way, even the oldest ideas can feel revolutionary.
All of this is before we get to the magical/body horror twist that drives the story. As Mother continues to feel ignored, as she becomes more disheveled and annoyed, she notices some odd changes to her body as well as the environment around her. Her sense of smell becomes more attuned, to the point that she can tell when groceries go bad in advance. She begins seeing white hairs crop up on her back and side. Neighborhood dogs start to gather around her and show affection. Before long, she has become feral alpha female.
Again, this is not a fresh trope. Animalistic changes as a metaphor for different stages of life have been done plenty of times before, from Teen Wolf to Brave to Turning Red. Hell, at last year’s AFI Fest I saw Tiger Stripes, which was Malaysia’s Oscar submission, pretty much cover this exact same ground, only for puberty rather than adult sexuality. I didn’t really like that film, mostly because it cared more about twerking for social media than character development, but also because the transformation plot didn’t really bring anything new or exciting to the table.
This film, however, in a weird sort of alchemy, does. The “tired mom” and “beastly transformation” beats aren’t compelling on their own anymore, but combined, they offer something intriguing and entertaining, forming this odd sort of symbiotic dynamic where each feeds into the other to enhance both. Mother’s metamorphosis is awesome because Heller and Adams took the time to make sure I care about her as a character, and I care about her more because I can see how her canine instincts allow her to reclaim her zest for life and remember the goddess that she is.
The cycle keeps repeating and escalating as it goes. When Mother finds herself in an amorous mood, she becomes a fully realized sexual being again, and you can see the surprise in McNairy’s face as she gets more and more aggressive. She finds a new way to bond with Son, playing a game where he’s a puppy, right up to the comic extreme of letting him sleep in a dog bed… and it actually helps him sleep more soundly through the night. She stocks up on meat but forgets to buy milk, and when Husband complains, she rightfully bites his head off (figuratively). The local dogs make offerings of dead animals at her porch step, which is a hilarious dark gag that has an even better payoff.
Yes, some of the writing is admittedly hackneyed. Husband is far too much of a stereotypical spouse taking his wife for granted, though he is allowed a grace note or two. The trio of other moms talk like they’re on a lazy daytime chat show. Son’s oblivious bratty nature is laid on incredibly thick. Mother’s desire to get back into artwork feels too snooty to really gel with the more grounded nature of the rest of her character, and her artsy friends just pull you right out of the picture with how obnoxious they are. So many of these people are designed to be one-note so as to enhance Adams’ profile by contrast. It’s a common tactic with films like this, and I wish Heller had done a bit more with the material to make it not so transparent.
Again, I can see why this isn’t getting great reviews. At the same time, I’ve seen so many Best Actress Showcase movies over the years that it’s hard for me to even get remotely invested. For Nightbitch, I was invested. That’s how great of a performer Amy Adams is. She took a very conventional plot with thinly-drawn characters, and played it for all it was worth, elevating the more trite moments almost entirely on her own (while the plot isn’t great, Heller does write some excellent and humorous dialogue for Adams to spin into gold). As these types of films go, you could do so much worse. Will it be enough to get Adams over the line for the Oscar she’s deserved for almost 20 years now? It’s far too early to say, but I have a hard time coming up with a reason why she shouldn’t at least have a shot.
Grade: B+
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Originally published at http://actuallypaid.com on December 9, 2024.
