While memories of the film itself might fade all too fast, it’ll probably take a while to tire of repeating the phrase “Amy Adams is Nightbitch”. The six-time Oscar nominee, stuck on a limp, losing streak of late with anonymous try-hard misfires like Hillbilly Elegy and Dear Evan Hansen, has taken on a goofy, lightly gory role in a film with one of the silliest, most attention-securing titles of the traditionally self-serious Oscar season. If only it was as daring or as mischievous as its name and logline: malcontent suburban mother turns into dog. But the film is all bark and no bite, a shame for its lead – but moreso for its as yet infallible writer-director.
Marielle Heller had yet to really miss with The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood – a straight-out-of-the-gate trio of winners. But she can’t quite find a way to transform Rachel Yoder’s biting, absurdist novel into a worthwhile movie. It’s all smug pointing and nodding rather than anything smarter or more savage, its targets just and understandable – motherhood is hellish, husbands are thoughtless, wider society is misogynistic – but its overly didactic methods repetitive and ineffectual.
