AFI FEST 2024: Amy Adams is Terrifyingly Ferocious in Nightbitch

Menopause, motherhood and postpartum depression make being a mother one of the hardest jobs on the planet.  Juggling home life with your own goals and dreams can prove to be problematic while making a woman question her very existence. This is why the opening montage of Nightbitch is absolutely brilliant,  as it illustrates the accuracy of the everyday routine coupled with brilliant monologues delivered by a raw and stripped down Amy Adams.

Adapted from writer Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel, the idea for the story had come to Yoder when she unexpectedly dropped out of the workforce as a new mother. “I was by myself, a stay home mom, something I never thought I’d be,” she had said. “I found myself in this sort of malaise, not knowing who I was, and having really lost myself. Nightbitch was born out of that silence.”

Directed by Marielle Heller, this film expertly taps into how motherhood is primal and one of the most violent acts simultaneously highlighting the selfishness, stupidity and how utterly clueless men can be when when it comes to understanding women or mothers.

Adams takes on the ferocious weirdness of this role with every fiber of her being layering this complex character with a little warmth, humor and sensuality providing a portrait of a woman whose emotional palette is full of contradictions.

Between the Mommy and Me library sessions and Adams ruling the night with her pack of ‘bitches,’ audiences with most certainly appreciate that motherhood is not portrayed in that glossed over Hollywood narrative. Mother  (Adams) proclaims herself a ‘saggy, middle-aged woman with nothing intelligent left to add to the conversation. Insignificant.’

One minute, she is making Baby sleep in a doggie bed, as a way to finally tame his acting outs. Next, she is taking control of her life in far more familiar ways, like getting a job, or telling her husband to eff off. It is one constant tease, as if the chain is being yanked violently every time.

As much as I enjoyed Heller’s adaptation, Nightbitch is a little weird and hard to keep up with at times, but the message is loud and clear.  There is only one top dog and that bitch rules the night and everything in it.