Amy Adams thrives in movies like “Nightbitch,” even if they don’t win her an Oscar

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I felt the strangest urge pulling at me. The temptation wasn’t to skulk to the kitchen at midnight to shovel a warmed-over melange of leftovers into my maw, or to spend Black Friday carelessly charging items I don’t need onto my credit card under the guise of “getting more points!” (Though I fell victim to both of those things, too.) Rather, I felt called to wrap myself up in the comforts of a mid-budget dramedy.

Not just any mid-budget dramedy would suffice, either. I was hungry for the kind of film that you could see if you strolled into a multiplex at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday in 2006, world-weary and uninterested in being further numbed by whatever blockbuster fare crowded the marquee outside. If the film starred a well-known actor pursuing creative fulfillment with a smaller project, even better; think Will Ferrell in “Stranger than Fiction” or Steve Carell in “Dan in Real Life.” And though I have a very soft spot for both of those movies, neither of them would sate my spiritual hunger. What I needed was a new Amy Adams film. What I needed was “Nightbitch.” 

“Nightbitch,” the latest installment in Adams’ respectable collection of mid-budget films, sings with the kind of accessible, everyday realism that moviegoers rarely see anymore. It may sound strange to say that about a movie that, for all intents and purposes, centers on a new mother who fears she’s turning into a dog, but it’s true. Within the first 12 years of her acting career, Adams made a name for herself in this niche subgenre of modest dramedies like “Nightbitch.” She scored her first of six Oscar nominations for the 2005 film “Junebug,” where she played Ashley, a young North Carolina woman receiving her brother’s art dealer wife with wide-eyed, outsider fascination and remarkable warmth. “Junebug” kicked open the door for Adams to explore similarly complex characters in unassuming yet unforgettable films like “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” and the sensational, perennially underrated “Sunshine Cleaning.” These films — ones that use their tact and wit to wrestle with massive, complicated themes on a relatively small scale — are few and far between in theaters these days. They’re typically dumped onto streaming services, where they are left to fend for themselves amidst algorithms, trending features and a deluge of pure, grade-F garbagio. 

“Nightbitch,” adapted from Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel, almost met this same fate. The movie was originally slated to be released on Hulu, where it no doubt would’ve had a humble but unexceptional performance before trickling down watchlists, never to be seen again after it left the platform’s landing page. Lucky for us, Searchlight Pictures ultimately opted for a theatrical release, no doubt to give Adams another shot at Oscar glory. But it’s here where “Nightbitch” and its place within Adams’ career in its broadest sense begin to gnarl. The film is classic Amy Adams material, harkening back to those wonderful mid-budget dramedies that showcased substance over spectacle. It’s a perfectly enjoyable feature that cleverly elucidates the trials of motherhood and the degradation of autonomy and freedom that come with it. And though it may bag Adams her seventh nomination, “Nightbitch” will probably not earn Adams her first Oscar, and that’s a mutually exclusive sacrifice that must be made to truly enjoy the work at all.

Amy Adams in “Nightbitch” (Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures)

That’s not to say that Adams’ turn in “Nightbitch” is at all mediocre, only that it’s stacked against fierce competition among her industry peers. As the otherwise unnamed character Mother, Adams turns in a performance that is stripped-back yet undeniably fierce from her very first scene. Viewers are thrust into the dissonance between Mother’s scattered mindset and the repetitive monotony of her everyday life as a stay-at-home mom. Mother loves her son more than anything, but she can only take so many mommy-and-me singalongs at the local library and tepid conversation among the other parents afterward. As she becomes continually harried, Mother sees herself reflected in the animalistic parts of daily life, indulging her id by playing the protector and the caregiver — not supermom — to satisfy the way her brain has changed since giving birth. Mother finds comfort in rebuking matriarchal standards mandated by a judgmental society, relating more to her neighborhood’s friendly stray dogs who defy domestication without abandoning their pack. She’s not reducing herself to something smaller. Rather, Mother is accessing a power that had been untapped until she had a child, and Adams is superb and blisteringly real as she moves into that newfound confidence.

The film itself is less moving than Adams’ performance, but not without its merits. Writer-director Marielle Heller crafts a strong script, especially considering that the movie’s source novel doesn’t exactly lend itself to adaptation so easily. “Nightbitch” is simple and a little unstylish, but it’s entirely unafraid to tackle a thorny subject and does so with grace and confidence. That much was admittedly hard to tell from the film’s trailer, which lit up social media when it dropped in September. The preview was perfectly in line with the movie’s mid-budget charm, but it chafed all of those who have been gunning for Adams to take home Oscar gold for years, wanting to see a more concrete display of her talents in the clip. “What were we thinking?” one user posted. “I can collectively hear everyone dropping this from their Oscar boards as we speak.”

When “Nightbitch” premiered at TIFF in September, reviews were embedded with similar sentiments, wondering if the film could garner Adams another nomination despite Heller pulling some punches by making the film a direct dramedy as opposed to something as strange as the novel. On the TIFF red carpet, Adams was even asked if she thinks the film could earn her another Oscar nomination. Naturally, she replied, “It’s not something I think about when I approach a role or when I walk on a red carpet.”

What a strange thing to ask someone at all, never mind that the question of whether or not a film like “Nightbitch” could get an Oscar is utterly reductive. The movie is certainly straightforward, but there is no shortage of meatier, more curious things embedded in its narrative to ask its star about. It’s disappointing that couch punditry has become so popular that the conversation surrounding “Nightbitch” is centering not on the movie’s moving thematic revelations, but on whether or not it will be an awards contender. How ironic that Adams is now staring down her “Hillbilly Elegy” costar Glenn Close’s amount of Oscar nominations (Close has eight, while Adams sits at six) given that, whenever either actor has a new movie out, the buzz inevitably becomes about its chance at nabbing the big prize. 

Adams’ career has become the subject of unfair scrutiny as both amateur pundits and legitimate publications analyze her roles based on how much voter attention they might garner, as opposed to her performances themselves. It’s an unjust measurement of success and one that Adams — who has turned in so many remarkable, important performances in films that never stood an Oscar’s chance — doesn’t deserve. If all we’re focused on when frequent nominees release a new movie is their shot at fleeting awards glory, it’s impossible to appreciate the art in and of itself. Watching a film just to make a mental checklist of potential Oscar clips is no way to go about life, and it certainly doesn’t beget a real admiration for the work onscreen. And we wonder why the mid-budget fare like “Nightbitch” is almost always thrown onto streaming!

Conflating the inclination to judge a film based on its Oscar chances with the studios’ and financiers’ reluctance to back mid-budget, theatrically released filmmaking may seem extreme, but it’s no big secret that people want to put money toward guaranteed success. On that front, we’re lucky that we can see “Nightbitch” in theaters at all. That alone is one major reason you should spend your money to see it at your local cinema — to remind the suits that stories like this don’t just matter, but that they have an audience too. There’s power in seeing characters who look like us, and who have the same problems as we do, on the silver screen. It’s a good sign that Adams’ breadth of roles has attracted so many fans who want to see her performances honored for their excellence. But it’s important to remember the value that the work has at its core, considering films for their own merit instead of merely brushing them off because they don’t stand a chance at an Oscar. 

When we look for interesting actors, we should seek a diversified portfolio of roles; big swings, clear risks, and even a fair share of complete critical and commercial flops. Adams has them all, and that’s what made her into such a contender in the first place. “Nightbitch” might not be among her absolute finest work, but it’s something that’s almost even better — an affecting, unpretentious performance that doesn’t need any flash to get the job done. Get off social media, away from the awards pools, and into the theater. You may even find that an honest, mid-budget dramedy film that picks up no nominations is your favorite movie of the year.