A blatant absence at this year’s fall fests was Marielle Heller’s upcoming “Nightbitch,” starring Amy Adams. What’s been even murkier are Searchlight's release plans for the film. Three years ago, they spent $25 million in a competitive bidding war for the film and now it’s completely disappeared from our radar.
What I‘m hearing is that a HULU debut is not out of the question for “Nightbitch.” It does sound like the kind of idiosyncratic film that deserves to be seen on the big screen, but is it any good? “Nightbitch” test-screened in March. The two reactions I had received were polar opposites:
Reaction #1: I liked it a lot. Surreal feminist fable that somehow worked. Not sure how to describe this movie, other than despite the outrageous concept I found it had a lot of insight about motherhood and shattered the preconceptions we might have about it. Amy Adams kind of owns this movie. It doesn’t strike me as an “Oscar movie,” but neither did EEAAO. Definitely veers into genre territory.
Reaction #2: I’m still not sure why someone decided to make this movie. I love Amy Adams and she’s great as always here but it’s super strange just for the sake of being strange. Some odd storytelling and unnecessary subplots. She literally feels and turns into a dog and it’s supposed to tell us something about motherhood. It’s also a very ugly movie to look at.
Back in July of 2020, Annapurna Pictures won an auction and landed the rights to Rachel Yoder’s debut novel, “Nightbitch”. Then Searchlight Pictures acquired the film from floundering Annapurna, Heller was then announced as the writer-director.
The film’s plot is total dark absurdism. A neo-horror thriller starring Adams as an overworked woman who is convinced she's literally turning into a dog.
Here’s a more descriptive plot synopsis:
“Exposing the absurd and feral truths of motherhood, Nightbitch is a darkly comedic telling of an unnamed woman and former artist, thrust into stay-at-home domesticity after the birth of her son, who becomes increasingly worried and convinced that she may be turning into a dog.”
Heller’s debut was Sundance sensation “The Diary of a Teenage Girl.” This was followed by the critically-acclaimed “Can You Ever Forgive Me.” She then dabbled into mainstream filmmaking with the mostly-enjoyable “A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood.”
His reasoning is simple: Cregger sees himself first and foremost as a writer, and he has little interest in shaping stories around the predetermined “data points” that come with established IP.