In her latest feature film “Nightbitch,” director Marielle Heller explores the many facets of motherhood, with the epic tagline “Motherhood is a bitch.”
“Nightbitch,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Saturday, stars Amy Adams as Mother, an artist turned exhausted stay-at-home mom who cares for a rambunctious toddler while her husband travels frequently for work.
Increasingly isolated and overwhelmed, Mother begins hearing things in the night and seeing unusual patches of hair. Is she turning into a real dog?
Based on Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel of the same name, “Nightbitch” explores the many facets of motherhood — the wonder and joy, but also the darkness and exhaustion — with equal doses of comedy, drama and magical realism.
The film is sure to strike a chord with millions of women who have had to make difficult choices about education, career and marriage, and sometimes found themselves disappointed.
“We’re not very comfortable talking about female rage,” Marielle Heller said during a Q&A after the screening. “It felt good to make visible this invisible experience that many of us have had.”
The director is a regular at TIFF, North America’s largest film festival, which runs through September 15 and provides a showcase for films seeking Oscar attention, mainstream entertainment, independent films and current affairs documentaries.
In this film, six-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams, 50, embraces her role and could well be in the conversation for an award next year because of her gravitas and uninhibited performance.
She fearlessly delivers inner monologues about the frustrations and mind-numbing monotony of being a mother, rages at the screams of other children during story time at the library, and paws at the floor during one of her late-night outings.
For the actress, parenthood is “a shared experience and yet it’s not shared.” “So it’s a real privilege to be able to share that with all of you,” she said during the Q&A.
Scoot McNairy, who plays her husband, shared his takeaway from the experience: “Don’t explain motherhood to women.”
– Paradise lost –
Also in Toronto Saturday was the world premiere of Oscar-winning director Ron Howard’s “Eden,” a survival thriller set in the Galapagos Islands after World War I.
The film, which stars Jude Law and Sydney Sweeney, is based on the true story of a small group of Europeans seeking a new life away from the horrors and constraints of society.
Jude Law stars as Friedrich Ritter, who escapes to the island of Floreana with his girlfriend Dora (Vanessa Kirby) to enjoy solitude and write a manifesto.
But his letters, picked up by local boats, were published on the mainland and others followed his example by settling on the island.
A young German couple (Sydney Sweeney and Daniel Brühl) arrive, followed by Baroness Eloise (Ana de Armas) and her entourage, who dream of building a high-end hotel.
Although the weather and terrain prove challenging, the biggest obstacles to overcome come from the community itself.
“That’s what these people experienced, and I found it fascinating, and utterly human, and surprisingly close to human existence today and all its quirks and quirks,” Ron Howard said during a Q&A after the premiere.
Sydney Sweeney insisted it was “every actor’s dream” to work with the 70-year-old filmmaker, who won Oscars for best picture and best director for “A Beautiful Mind” in 2001.
Jude Law, for his part, was delighted to have had the opportunity to work with a group of actors, specifying that “it doesn’t happen often”.
sst/amp/eml
