As expected, Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch” looks justifiably insane. Here’s the trailer. In it, you’ll get a hot look at Amy Adams, quite literally, saying “I am Nightbitch!”
Can somebody get Amy Adams a new agent? The six-time Oscar nominated actress has been stuck in a rut. Her last full-blown great lead performance was in 2016’s “Arrival.” These last five years she’s starred in “Hillbilly Elegy,” “The Woman in the Window,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Disenchanted.”
A marked absence at last year’s fall fests, “Nightbitch,” starring Adams, has had a murky trajectory. Back in July of 2020, Annapurna Pictures won an auction and landed the rights to Rachel Yoder’s debut novel, “Nightbitch.” Then Searchlight acquired the film from floundering Annapurna. Heller was soon announced as the writer-director.
“Nightbitch” is set to world premiere at TIFF on Sunday. I have my ticket, and I’m willing to sit through this thing, but the trailer has completely deflated any kind of expectations that I might have had for this film.
The film’s plot is total dark absurdism. A neo-horror thriller comedy starring Adams as an overworked woman who is convinced that she's, quite literally, turning into a dog. However, the trailer seems to indicate that the film will be more of a straight-up comedy.
Searchlight has set up a December 6 release for “Nightbitch.” Last year, there had been some rumblings about a straight-to-Hulu debut. Regardless, it does look like the kind of idiosyncratic film that deserves to be seen? At the very least, it’ll turn out to be the most memed out film of the fall season.
Heller’s debut was Sundance sensation “The Diary of a Teenage Girl.” This was followed by the critically-acclaimed “Can You Ever Forgive Me.” She then dabbled into mainstream filmmaking with the mostly-enjoyable “A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood.”