Nightbitch was a Missed Opportunity

If you’re a dog, be a dog

Mother runs as a human with her pack. Screengrab by author. Source

I finally watched Nightbitch starring Amy Adams, and I’m still uncomfortable.

The movie is tough to break down. When I read the pre-release online buzz about Amy Adams playing a frustrated mom who can shapeshift into a dog I thought, “Oh, I get it. Female rage, the pent-up frustrations after you have a kid, that sorta thing. I’ll watch that.”

But after I saw it, the movie left me wishing Amy Adams’ character Mother, (her only name in the movie), could have been more of a dog.

The film gives her an animal counterpart but misses all the beauty of that particular beast. Dogs exhibit wonderful traits that Mother desperately needs to get her life together. Yet the film focuses on feral actions, violence, and the chance to be a loner more than anything else.

In other words, there are a million missed opportunities for Mother to learn from her dog-self.

Here’s what I mean:

Dogs are always clear about what they want

Mother left a career as a successful artist, her full-time endeavor before she had her baby boy.

It’s made clear to us as we watch the movie that she made a huge sacrifice to stay with her son in the…