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01/30/2025

Review of "Nightbitch" - Motherhood is a Wild Act


By Sandra M Ríos U

Twitter: @sandritamrios

Review of "Nightbitch": Motherhood is a Wild Act | An artist abandons her career for motherhood, but when she begins to experience a strange physical transformation, a powerful metaphor emerges about the sacrifices and wild nature of being a mother. Marielle Heller directs and Amy Adams stars in this biting fable about modern motherhood.

There is no greater act of love than giving life, but it is far from the fairy tale that cinema, television, advertising, literature, religions, and society itself have perpetuated. In 2021, writer Rachel Yoder published a novel capable of discussing the dark side of this experience using surrealism and metaphor.

The film adaptation finds in Marielle Heller (director and screenwriter) and Amy Adams (co-producer and lead actress), an unmatched duo that shows the raw metamorphosis of a woman due to motherhood.

One of the things that has accelerated the feminist movement after the #MeToo of 2017 is the change in the model of female representation in the entertainment industry, due to the increasingly active and recognized participation of women in leadership roles and functions. This is reflected in the scripts that are now accepted for production, in the type of roles offered to actresses, and in the constructed imagination.

Actresses, for example, now not only star in films that were once reserved for men but can also portray villains without any hint of weakness. Little by little, the myth and romance around their image and roles in society have been demystified. In reality, beyond biological differences, there is very little that distances us from the opposite sex, and the level of evil and capacity for making mistakes are the same.

Last year, Coral Cruz wrote the excellent script for "El Castigo" by Matías Bize, where she refutes the idea that "every woman is a mother by nature," through a mother who laments her role. In 2023, Colombian director Esteban Pedraza in "Bogotá Story" broke down the idealism of the self-sacrificing mother who gives up her dreams after having a child. In 2017, the documentary "Amazona" highlighted the enmity between the concept of motherhood and freedom when it comes to being a mother.

The incompatibility between these two roles is an undeniable truth with several underlying realities rarely discussed in public or in cinema, and rarely acknowledged by those who experience it due to the guilt it generates. These uncomfortable realities are what this film addresses.

The family we follow in "Canina" (the Spanish title) is simply identified as mother, father, and son, emphasizing its universality. This mother decided two years ago to leave her job as an artist to fully dedicate herself to raising her little baby, supported by her husband, with whom she has been married for nearly two decades. The father is always traveling, visiting for just a few days before leaving again.

Not long after starting, "Nightbitch" shows us the unique path it will take. The mother begins to feel suffocated, she hates the activities of other nursing mothers, finds talking to them boring, despises those children's games and songs. At home, she finds her routine ridiculous, dictated by her baby's demands. But all these thoughts and what we see are contained, only appearing in her mind as she imagines expressing them to her child, husband, acquaintances, and neighbors when they ask how she's doing.

An unexpected event changes things. She develops a cyst at the base of her spine from which a dog's tail begins to form. Other strange events and changes in her body and sensations start to occur, increasingly feeling the need to let go of her transformation.

Heller exposes the complexities of being a mother and explores, like few films, what it entails, including a whirlwind of contradictions that affirm the human nature of giving life, finding in sarcasm and black humor the vehicle to navigate the immense sacrifices it involves, from physical changes, emotional turmoil, to lifestyle shifts. There's no way to remain immune to this act as a woman and as a couple, to which a significant part of the story is also dedicated, discussing sexuality, fatherhood, and shared responsibilities; those made consciously or by omission.

"Nightbitch" is a cathartic film that starts from the discomfort caused by the silence surrounding the topic. Amy Adams gives an impeccable performance filled with rage and frustration, but also love, vulnerability, desires, and dreams. A character expressed through a wide range of emotions but also through her physicality: baggy clothes, messy hair, no makeup, weight gain, and animal-like movements because, additionally, she undergoes a metamorphosis. The combined work of special effects makeup and CGI is very good.

While Coralie Fargeat with "The Substance" speaks in a raw and even scatological manner about a woman's crisis upon entering middle age, Heller manages the crisis of a mother weighed down by isolation and the loss of her professional identity differently.

Thanks to Adams' performance, there is an honesty and a warmth that borders on tenderness in this film. In the end, we have a fable, with an unforgettable closing monologue that honors the wildest side of motherhood, allowing for a humorous, entertaining, and irreverent reflection on female roles, but above all, it offers two clear pieces of advice: to accept and embrace one's animality and to never forget to put one's being first.

Its omission at the Oscars is inexplicable. You can find it on Disney Plus.

Technical Sheet



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