Post by Dracula on Oct 22, 2024 12:13:27 GMT -5
Nightbitch(10/18/2024)
As a childless bachelor there are limits to how much I can relate to this personally, but I read enough advice columns and feminist think pieces to know that these are definitely real concerns amongst middle to upper-middle class married people… that and I audibly heard some people in my audience whispering “so ture” at various moments in the movie. That having been said, I’m not sure the movie ever quite connects the dots about what any of this has to do with transforming into a dog. On paper I would think becoming a domesticated dog would suggest a state of subservience that would I guess match the concept of being trapped in motherhood, but that doesn’t seem like the vibe the movie is going for in the metaphor, instead looking at this dog transformation as a symbol for her desire to escape the confines of expectations and get away from her responsibilities. Not sure that a dog, an animal that has been bred to amuse humans makes sense as a creature transformation to make that point, and even if it was the connection just never seems to get made strongly enough. As such, it kind of just comes like a gimmick added to spice up what is otherwise not really a movie with much of a sales hook. The 2018 film Tully probably did the whole “magical realist metaphor for parenthood frustrations” thing a bit better, but I do think that Nightbitch is good enough in its more down-to-earth satire to sustain itself even if its hooky metaphor never quite works and there are probably a lot of audiences who will find this movie saying some things they’ve been waiting to hear.
***1/2 out of Five
The movie Nightbitch has quite the title. I remember first hearing that name and without even knowing anything about the movie assuming that it would be something pretty cool and edgy. However, I must say that that title may actually prove to have been a bit of a double-edged sword because it maybe leads you to expect something a bit more transgressive than what the movie is actually able to deliver. Ostensibly the title is a cheeky joke as a motif in the film are a handful of what are basically fantasy sequences in which the film’s protagonist, a mother of a toddler played by Amy Adams, transforms into a dog at night making her a literal “bitch” at night. So the movie is kind of invoking werewolf imagery a little but crucially this should not be thought of as a horror movie at all. You’re never really supposed to take these transformations literally and there’s very little sense that these transformations into a domesticated dog are meant to be much of a threat to her or to anyone else… it’s entirely symbolic. What it’s meant to be a symbol for, is less clear. The film is primarily a domestic drama and a satire about the pressures placed on young mothers in modern society. We see this woman struggle with the decision she made to quit her job to raise this child and the various ways that the childcare situation with her husband feels inequitable. These sections like pretty straightforward indie dramedy stuff of the kind someone like Noah Baumbach or Nicole Holofcener and for the most part it’s pretty well observed.
As a childless bachelor there are limits to how much I can relate to this personally, but I read enough advice columns and feminist think pieces to know that these are definitely real concerns amongst middle to upper-middle class married people… that and I audibly heard some people in my audience whispering “so ture” at various moments in the movie. That having been said, I’m not sure the movie ever quite connects the dots about what any of this has to do with transforming into a dog. On paper I would think becoming a domesticated dog would suggest a state of subservience that would I guess match the concept of being trapped in motherhood, but that doesn’t seem like the vibe the movie is going for in the metaphor, instead looking at this dog transformation as a symbol for her desire to escape the confines of expectations and get away from her responsibilities. Not sure that a dog, an animal that has been bred to amuse humans makes sense as a creature transformation to make that point, and even if it was the connection just never seems to get made strongly enough. As such, it kind of just comes like a gimmick added to spice up what is otherwise not really a movie with much of a sales hook. The 2018 film Tully probably did the whole “magical realist metaphor for parenthood frustrations” thing a bit better, but I do think that Nightbitch is good enough in its more down-to-earth satire to sustain itself even if its hooky metaphor never quite works and there are probably a lot of audiences who will find this movie saying some things they’ve been waiting to hear.
***1/2 out of Five
