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Nightbitch
I thought I had seen everything that cinema had to offer after watching The Substance, but found out I was wrong as I still collect my thoughts regarding another 2024 oddity called Nightbitch whose inexplicable 180 turn from black comedy to science fiction is almost legitimized by a performance from the leading lady that could earn her a seventh Oscar nomination.
Amy Adams commands the screen as a woman who has gone into a complete meltdown since the birth of her son. Post partum depression is a masterpiece of understatement regarding what this woman is going through. She absolutely adores her son and wants to be the best mother she can possibly be, but she resents the sacrifices she has had to make in order to become a mother. She resents she had to give up her job, she resents the inability to lose the baby weight, she resents the 24 hour demands that motherhood requires, and probably most of all, the lack of support she is getting from her husband. Frighteningly, the emotional turmoil that this woman is going though has manifested a physical transformation within her that is literally turning her into something that is not human.
Director and screenwriter Marielle Heller, who directed Melissa McCarthy to an Oscar nomination in Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Tom Hanks to a nomination in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, has crafted a story that starts off as what could be a thoughtful and detailed look ag the effects of post partum depression, a subject that hasn't been addressed a lot in mainstream cinema. Unfortunately, like a 2018 film called Sorry to Bother You, the film starts off as a near brilliant black comedy and then takes a dramatic turn into what can only be referred to as science fiction as no other explanation is offered to this reviewer's satisfaction.
We get subtle hints to what is going on through this mother's inner dialogue which, despite being from her gut, is not always heard by the other characters in her orbit. We see childhood flashbacks that don't really offer any clues to what's going on either. We do get to see the first actual transformation, which reminded me of David Naughton's first transformation in An American Werewolf in London, but it's only temporary as we see her return to human just as quickly with no explanation, not to mention her attracting all of the animals in the neighborhood, who are not only drawn to her but seem to have appointed her their grand poobah. We're at a loss though when she starts raising her son like an animal and we're not sure whether he's transforming too or just accepting what's going on.
Despite the bizarre story, we stay invested because Amy Adams delivers an absolutely dazzling performance in the starring role that could work her way to an Oscar nomination the same way The Substance might for Demi Moore, though this film is not nearly as good as The Substance, we remain invested because Adams demands it of us.
I thought I had seen everything that cinema had to offer after watching The Substance, but found out I was wrong as I still collect my thoughts regarding another 2024 oddity called Nightbitch whose inexplicable 180 turn from black comedy to science fiction is almost legitimized by a performance from the leading lady that could earn her a seventh Oscar nomination.
Amy Adams commands the screen as a woman who has gone into a complete meltdown since the birth of her son. Post partum depression is a masterpiece of understatement regarding what this woman is going through. She absolutely adores her son and wants to be the best mother she can possibly be, but she resents the sacrifices she has had to make in order to become a mother. She resents she had to give up her job, she resents the inability to lose the baby weight, she resents the 24 hour demands that motherhood requires, and probably most of all, the lack of support she is getting from her husband. Frighteningly, the emotional turmoil that this woman is going though has manifested a physical transformation within her that is literally turning her into something that is not human.
Director and screenwriter Marielle Heller, who directed Melissa McCarthy to an Oscar nomination in Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Tom Hanks to a nomination in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, has crafted a story that starts off as what could be a thoughtful and detailed look ag the effects of post partum depression, a subject that hasn't been addressed a lot in mainstream cinema. Unfortunately, like a 2018 film called Sorry to Bother You, the film starts off as a near brilliant black comedy and then takes a dramatic turn into what can only be referred to as science fiction as no other explanation is offered to this reviewer's satisfaction.
We get subtle hints to what is going on through this mother's inner dialogue which, despite being from her gut, is not always heard by the other characters in her orbit. We see childhood flashbacks that don't really offer any clues to what's going on either. We do get to see the first actual transformation, which reminded me of David Naughton's first transformation in An American Werewolf in London, but it's only temporary as we see her return to human just as quickly with no explanation, not to mention her attracting all of the animals in the neighborhood, who are not only drawn to her but seem to have appointed her their grand poobah. We're at a loss though when she starts raising her son like an animal and we're not sure whether he's transforming too or just accepting what's going on.
Despite the bizarre story, we stay invested because Amy Adams delivers an absolutely dazzling performance in the starring role that could work her way to an Oscar nomination the same way The Substance might for Demi Moore, though this film is not nearly as good as The Substance, we remain invested because Adams demands it of us.