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‘Nightbitch’ Review: Amy Adams Ferociously Resists the Changes That Parenthood Imposes in Didactic but Welcome Ode to Moms
The allegory is a bit confused, but the message still has bite in Marielle Heller’s surrealistic statement about all that women are asked to sacrifice 'for the continuation of the species.'
Instead of expecting women to reinvent the proverbial wheel, “Nightbitch” ought to be required viewing “for all the moms.” Like Yoder’s book, Heller’s bitingly literal adaptation operates on the premise that motherhood is something primal and instinctive, a universal experience that binds humans to other wild animals. She feeds the boy, cleans his messes and accompanies him to the park and library, where she can hardly relate to the other moms — which is strange, since three of them (Zoë Chao, Ella Thomas and Mary Holland) are friendly enough and communicate with knowing looks, as if motherhood has inducted them all to the same cult. The next thing she knows, the neighborhood mutts are leaving offerings on her doorstep, where her son finds a dead rat and fresh “poop.” At times, though it was adapted from a supernatural fable, “Nightbitch” can feel more like a cross between a memoir and a self-help book, as when Mother recalls scenes from her childhood.
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