Nightbitch

 

“Motherhood, it changes you.”

Empathetic, absurd and feral, Nightbitch takes its odd premise and delivers a heartfelt examination of the pain and privilege of maternity with a fantastic Amy Adams, and a script sizzling with raw primal polemics around motherhood, femininity and identity sure to resonate with its target demographic, and those externally as well. 

Discussion Points:

Did not expect to enjoy this and resonate with it as much as I did. I’m not a woman. I’m not a mother. I’m not a parent at all. And yet, I have seen the sacrifices of my own mother. And the sacrifices of other mothers in my life, to know that it is oft a thankless task - both a deep privilege that brings pride and also that causes pain.  thing comes from us, she would explain in interviews. Adapted from the novel of the same name - one particular monologue stood out to me “[Giving birth is one of the most violent things.] It rips its way out of us, literally tears us in two, in a wash of great pain and blood and shit and piss. If the child does not enter into the world this way, then it is cut from us with a knife. The child is removed, and our organs are taken out as well, before being sewn back inside. It is perhaps the most violent experience a human can have aside from death itself.” And yet, a mother deeply loves, cares for and defends her child - even when it has committed this violence against her - because the primal maternal instinct cannot be denied. And so the film runs with this primal premise to explore the deeply felt experience of mothers which form a collective consciousness of empathy and compassion. Amy Adams fully commits to this emotionally dramatic yet comedically playful concept and is wonderful. A film I think many had written off as too bizarre and kitsch but which I think is broadly appealing yet particularly applicable and resonant with mothers.