Things get a little hairy for Amy Adams in this allegorical comedy-horror from Marielle Heller, the director of Can You Ever Forgive Me?.
How to watch Nightbitch in New Zealand
Nightbitch is streaming in New Zealand exclusively on Disney+ from January 24, 2025.
Nightbitch
What is Nightbitch about?
Based on the critically acclaimed 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder, Nightbitch sees Adams as our nameless protagonist (yeah, bit tired of that conceit), an artist who has put her career on the backburner in order to care for her toddler son. Isolated thanks to her husband’s regular business trips, burdened with parenting and running the household single-handedly, and increasingly angry at the position society has forced her into, she starts to imagine she’s turning into a dog at night. But is she imagining it or is it a real, physical metamoprhosis? It’s an angry feminist allegory (complimentary), but it’s also sort of a werewolf movie, and we’ve had a spate of those lately, haven’t we?
The cast of Nightbitch
Amy Adams is Mother; ubiquitous character actor Scoot McNairy is Husband; twins Arleigh and Emmett Snowden are Son; Zoë Chao is Jen; Mary Holland is Miriam; Ella Thomas is Naya; Archana Rajan is Liz; Jessica Harper is Norma; Adrienne Rose White is Sally; Roslyn Gentle is Nana; Stacey Swift is Frieda; and Darius De La Cruz is Lemuel.
Nightbitch trailer
Why we’re excited about Nightbitch
Well, the book is a hell of a read—do track it down if you get the chance. The film adaptation, however, has gotten decidedly mixed reviews, with many saying the surrealist concept is treated in a fairly pedestrian manner, but praising Adams’ ballsy (or perhapsy ovariesy is more appropriate) performance. But perhaps you need to be on the flick’s very specific wavelength to connect with it? Seems like this is a movie you mmight have to judge for yourself.
