‘Nightbitch’ is for the Canine Within All of Us

December 3, 2024

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

The Nightbitch Cometh (CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures)

Starring: Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy, Arleigh Patrick Snowden, Emmett James Snowden, Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, Archana Rajan, Jessica Harper

Director: Marielle Heller

Running Time: 98 Minutes

Rating: R for The Messiness of Family Life While Raising a Toddler

Release Date: December 6, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Amy Adams plays a Mother who’s been feeling a little suffocated at home lately. That’s because she’s taking some time off from her art career to raise her toddler Son (played by twins Arleigh Patrick and Emmett James Snowden), while her clueless Husband (Scoot McNairy) goes off each day and does a business. And it’s not just the sleepless nights and the constant messes that are driving her feral. You see, when the moon comes up, she becomes someone, or something, else. During the day, she is a human woman, but when the sun goes down, she is Nightbitch.* Yes indeed, the rumors are true, this Mother regularly transforms into a canine and stalks the neighborhood on all fours. (*I don’t remember her ever actually referring to herself as “Nightbitch” in the movie, it might’ve just been in the trailer. But either way, it is the name of her movie, after all.)

What Made an Impression?: Don’t Give Up on Yourself: A lot of the pre-release buzz about Nightbitch has dismissed (or celebrated) it as a 30 Rock gag come to life, but what’s most striking about the actual movie (based on Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel of the same name) is how gentle and almost timid it is with its central metaphor. It’s just a dollop of magical realism rather than a whole course, as the Mother only fully surrenders to her canine side just a couple of nights. Or it’s possible that she transforms every night but doesn’t always remember it. Either way, the final cut is not filled beginning to end with nonstop doggone antics. But that makes sense, because that untamed version of the Mother has been suppressed so deeply ever since she started staying at home. But as the bitch begins to emerge, she mostly keeps it hidden from everyone else, even though it’s one of the most attractive things about her. Her husband, for example, certainly never sees the complete dog version, but what he can sense is a major turn-on. You wouldn’t have expected this sort of performance out of Amy Adams if you’ve only seen her in Junebug and Enchanted, but she has no qualms about getting down and dirty.
Thank You for Being a Friend: While Nightbitch makes its central point viscerally and unmistakably, it’s hardly revelatory. The Mother’s dilemma about losing herself is the same nightmare that pretty much any woman who is thinking about having kids faces. In these kinds of stories, the harried mother protagonist too often finds herself disappointing all womankind. But fortunately in this case, the Mother has a wonderful support system in the form of three lovely, rambunctious friends (Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, and Archana Rajan), as well as a wise, mysterious librarian (Jessica Harper). At a certain point, you have to wonder: are these women also nightbitches? The evidence points to no, but also… maybe? Either way, this is a wonderful story about letting the people in your life in to see the real you, whether or not that includes turning into a dog.

Nightbitch is Recommended If You Like: Admitting the things you’ve been too afraid to say for far too long

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Magical Women

‘Greener Grass’ is the Next Great Surreal Masterpiece

October 25, 2019

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

CREDIT: IFC Films

If you asked a group of outer space aliens to observe humanity and then recreate suburbia on film, Greener Grass would be the result. Just about everything that is said or done in this movie are words and actions that real people say and do, or at least could do, but pitched ever so slightly off. When added up together, those many off beats result in a stunning new surrealist vision. Being purposely surreal for a feature length amount of time is a tricky task, as you run the risk of being too bizarre to handle without ever being clever. But Greener Grass has perfected its formula. Each strange decision and every little deviously outrageous bon mot is delivered with such perfect timing.

This is the work of Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe, who co-wrote, co-direct, and co-star as devoted soccer moms Jill and Lisa. They have given us a sort of domestic fantasy in which all the adults wear braces, the candy color scheme is lusciously hot pink-heavy, golf carts are the only transport that anyone needs, a weird dad can lick a popsicle made from frozen pool water, and a woman can stick a soccer ball up her dress and declare that she’s pregnant and everyone will happily go along with it. You get the sense that DeBoer and Luebbe are saying, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could live in this world?” And honestly, if we all really wanted to, we could! As far as the laws of physics are concerned, everything that happens is theoretically possible (save, perhaps, for one delightfully golden twist halfway through). Gandhi said (or was misquoted as having said), “Be the change you wish to see in this world.” Greener Grass shows us the power of doing so.

Greener Grass is Recommended If You Like: David Lynch, Tim and Eric, John Waters, Too Many Cooks, Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney’s sitcom parodies, John Carpenter music

I give Greener Grass My Full Stamp of Surreal Approval.