'Nightbitch' is a Forgettable Existential Dramady
What's it really like to be a parent? Is it bliss or a never-ending hell? Or is it something in between? According to Nightbitch, it's hell. Choosing parenthood means giving up all of one's hopes and dreams in service of raising a child. The film is at times absorbing, but most of the time, it's rather dull. It feels more like a series of self-loathing internal monologues and fantasies that don't do much to push whatever little story there is forward. It's a deep dive into a parent's mind that isn't as profound as the film lets out to be. It's more of a waste of a perfectly good performance for a film that feels half-baked.
The movie starts with a Mother (Amy Adams) strolling through the grocery store with her Son (Emmett Snowden). She notices a shopper struggling to keep her children under control as they throw items into their cart that the mom can't afford. The mom keeps trying to recorrect her children but is getting nowhere. Mother (yes, that's really her name in the credits) acts the opposite with her Son as she playfully asks him what grocery he wants. Right afterward, a fellow neighbor runs into her at the store. She asks Mother if she is still doing art and if she likes being a mother. Mother lies, telling the neighbor that she loves being a mother. Moments before she says that, Mother goes off in an internal monologue about how all of her freedoms are gone. Being a mother is nothing but pain and misery. She wishes she could be an artist again, but can't due to being a stay at home mom.
The film gives the impression that Mother is divorced. For a while, we don't see her Husband (Scoot McNairy) but when he shows up, we really see the dynamic in the relationship. Everything seems rosy. The couple hardly fight. The most their fights get to is when Mother moths off at Husband for not doing his daily responsibilities for their Son. Midway through the second act, Mother has Husband become a stay-at-home parent while she goes out to live her life. When that happens, Husband opens up in a rather corny monologue about how he never realized how hard it was for Mother.
The scene isn't corny because of what's being said but how it's delivered. It comes across as something every stay-at-home mom would like to hear but doesn't often in real life. As big of a revelation as the scene is supposed to be, it feels soapy. The scene does make its points. I've seen stay-at-home dads realize the same things Husband did in the film. But it's forced in this film rather than feeling organic.
There's no questioning about it. Kids are a full-time job. Although not a parent, I see how kids suck the energy out of their parents. When I have to babysit my little niece and nephew, I can't sit still for two seconds until the kids need me again. If I tried to write or edit footage with two kids around, I wouldn't be able to be a film critic. I don't see how the critics who are also parents to young ones do it.
Nightbitch challenges the societal norms of what a woman must do to be a parent. Eventually, Mother picks up a book about women being independent by finding their inner spirit animal so they can flourish in life. By connecting with dogs, Mother starts to behave like one. Running around the forest in her bare feet and feeding her boy like he is an animal begging for food. The film has a lot of scenes where it's difficult to discern if it's from real life or a fantasy. In one particular scene Mother has dinner with other moms in the neighborhood. She ends the dinner abruptly by springing to her chair and then barking at everyone like she's a canine. What the hell? Did that really just happen, or was that in Mother's head? The movie doesn't tell us.
Nightbitch is a mixed bag of a film. I don't know if I liked it or was bored by it. I wish the film had put some things at stake and had something happen in the plot more than just Mother complaining about parenting. I get it. The idea of the nuclear family is still as prevalent today as it was back then. We live in a society with a backward belief on what a woman should be. So Mother tries to fight against all of that but can't since she doesn't want to ruin her Son's life. The commentary for Nightbitch is strong, but the delivery is weak, making for a forgettable existential drama about parenthood.
