‘Nightbitch’: A Feral Amy Adams Roars With Suburban Fury at the Woes of Modern Motherhood

Alci Rengifo

The frustrated white suburbanite has become a staple of American fiction. Every society has its woes, and having the perfect home in a pristine neighborhood doesn’t guarantee happiness. “Nightbitch” is another parable of the middle class dream turning into middle class frustration, particularly when it comes to motherhood. Director Marielle Heller turns Amy Adams into a perspiring, anxiety-wrecked portrait of conformism. She takes a book by Rachel Yoder and transforms it into a mostly effective cinematic fable about a particular sector of society. It should come as no surprise to learn that parenting requires a lot of personal and physical sacrifice. What can make a mom heroic, if not feral, is balancing caring for a fresh human being with personal, human yearnings.

This is another one of those surreal narratives where characters are given representative names. Adams is Mother, who has become a housewife watching over a baby Son (Emmett Snowden) as her Husband (Scoot McNairy) spends a lot of time away on business trips. He is a good enough man but tends to get inattentive, as if he is already used to Mother taking care of everything at the house. Her only escape is to attend local public library children’s programs with Son, where other moms like Jen (Zoë Chao), Liz (Archana Rajan) and Miriam (Mary Holland), come off as a bit too cheery. At home, Son may be a normal baby, throwing food around, slapping paint on walls, but for Mother, he can at times take on monstrous dimensions. Nagging deep in her mind is also the awareness that Mother gave up her career as an artist for domestic life. There is a beast waiting to lash out at everything from the aloof husband to the dream that was left behind. 

The posters for “Nightbitch” are a bit misleading, hinting at the idea this is some kind of potential werewolf story. Yoder’s novel does step into more supernatural territory, but Heller wants to use the idea of Mother feeling a canine transformation into something more allegorical. Mother begins to notice soft white fur appearing on her lower back. Her canine teeth feel larger. More startling is how random dogs at the playground begin to group around her. Neighborhood mutts leave dead animal offerings on her doorstep. What’s going on? The screenplay by Heller, who also directed “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” never attempts definite answers. She’s not remaking Mike Nichols’ “Wolf.” What does come across is that all the anxieties and stress plaguing Mother are taking a toll. She’s getting in touch with a more primal side that comes alive in a wild moment where she runs off on all fours into the night. Later, it’s suggested this was a mere hallucination. Funnier is how Son’s baby antics take on apocalyptic qualities. When Mother is dead exhausted, the baby doing something silly can feel like the end of the world.

What exactly “Nightbitch” wants to say becomes a trickier prospect. Heller wants to convey various themes all at once. Mothers deserve more support, at least from the system. Our society infamously provides little maternity leave and other benefits common in developed nations. Yet, would any of that help Mother? She made the irreversible choice of having a child and delaying her artistic ambitions. Is another message here that you just shouldn’t have kids if you also want a career? We don’t get the sense Mother felt any major societal pressure to procreate, though it wouldn’t be surprising if Husband is the one who pushed for kids. Mother clearly does love her child, even when he becomes a miniature monster. Should Husband help out more? Most definitely. He also can’t necessarily afford to give up his job. It is clear whatever he does, it’s the reason they can live in suburbia. “Nightbitch” is a first world take on parental anxieties. This doesn’t make it invalid, but you are left wondering just what Heller’s conclusions are. What is clear and very true is that there is still a patriarchal order women have to deal with, only getting worse with motherhood. Husband really is puzzled when he’s called out for doing nothing at home and thinking childcare should only be Mother’s area. We cannot judge her for wanting some time to herself when her partner mistakes Mother for a maid.

Amy Adams is this movie. She undergoes a transformation similar to Charlize Theron in “Tully,” one of the great modern films about motherhood. Gone are the days when big names are supposed to look glamorous no matter the story. Adams is one big container of stress, with constantly baggy eyes and with believable weight. She looks at Son with love and later flips out during a dinner with artsy friends, biting into a steak like a feral beast. A key word for what she embodies is entrapment. Mother feels the air being sucked out of her life. Despite the script becoming hazy, Adams makes some brave choices with this role. She’s not going for pity for Mother, and at times can get mean. Scoot McNairy also exposes himself well, turning Husband into a nice guy who can also be pathetic. When he eventually snaps at Mother, trying to blame her for the tensions at home, McNairy captures that familiar human failing of not wanting to own up to anything. “Nightbitch” bites at a society that forces a woman to give up so much in exchange for little. These performances drive it all home by being so flawed and believable they hurt.

“Nightbitch” releases Dec. 6 in select theaters.