By John Corrado

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5th to 15th, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.

The most basic descriptions of Nightbitch will probably be “that movie where Amy Adams is turning into a dog.” While partially reductive, these descriptions are also sort of correct; but the film is more a pitch-black satire of motherhood than it is transformative body horror (though there are a few nods to that as well).

The latest film directed by Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Nightbitch is going for a very specific thing, which is an unvarnished, darkly comic portrait of the darker side of motherhood. It’s ultimately a film that will probably resonate more with mothers and those who’ve already had kids, but is just out there enough to be mostly entertaining for everyone else.

Adams stars as the nameless Mother, who gave up her career as an artist to become a stay-at-home mom to her toddler son, while her husband (Scoot McNairy) keeps his job and often travels for work. Heller captures the rhythms of Mother’s sleep-deprived life, spending all day feeding and caring for her son, and attending Baby Book Time sing-alongs at the local library (the director’s brother and the film’s composer Nate Heller appears as the leader of the mom-and-tot group).

The stress of spending all day with a toddler does strange things to her, and she begins to believe she might actually be turning into a dog. Mother starts noticing changes to her body, from hair growing in weird places to a heightened sense of smell, and a sudden dislike of the family cat. Pretty soon she starts ditching utensils and eating like a canine, taking late night runs around the neighborhood, and even digging in the dirt.

Heller, who adapted the screenplay from Rachel Yoder’s book, is no stranger to taking films that shouldn’t work like her debut Diary of a Teenage Girl or even A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and elevating them with sensitive writing and good performances. And she sort of does the same thing with Nightbitch, even if a few elements of the film don’t quite work. Flashbacks to Mother’s own mother (Kerry O’Malley) aren’t fleshed out enough to fully work, and there is a vaguely supernatural side to it involving a book about women turning into animals that is hinted at but under-explored.

Despite its more absurd moments (such as a scene where she digs in the dirt in the middle of the night with her bare hands), Nightbitch can end up feeling somewhat middle of the road. The film is also not as campy as some will surely want, and there is probably a darker version of this material that leans even more into horror elements. At times it does feel like Nightbitch needed to go a little darker to justify some of the more unpleasant material (including some unfortunate stuff with the cat).

But Adams is good in the role, leaning into the physical aspects of the character, and showing a strong willingness to just go-for-broke at this point in her career. She delivers several acid-tongued monologues about the societal expectations placed on her as a mother, while her husband is largely let off the hook (Heller also does a fine job of illustrating Mother’s inner-dialogues that suggest a rich interior world for her character). For his part, McNairy brings some more nuance to what could have been a one-note role as the husband, who is more oblivious to what his wife is going through and the burdens she has taken on than he is uncaring to his wife’s plight.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

Public Screenings: Saturday, September 7th, 9:30 PM at Princess of Wales; Sunday, September 8th, 12:00 PM at Princess of Wales; Thursday, September 12th, 12:00 PM at Scotiabank Theatre; Friday, September 13th, 9:30 AM at Scotiabank Theatre; Sunday, September 15th, 3:45 PM at Scoitabank Theatre