Nightbitch Debuts With 85% on Rotten Tomatoes

The latest film from Marielle Heller, the director behind A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Can You Ever Forgive Me? , is an adaptation of Rachel Yoder's 2021 novel Nightbitch , following a mother who has put her career on pause to be a stay-at-home mom, however, that domesticity swiftly takes a surreal turn.

Amy Adams leads, and the film has been hotly anticipated by cinephiles keen to see what's next from the six-time Oscar nominee.

The trailer (released last week) shows the film to possess an excellent combination of comedy balanced with grit – and Adams looks in her element as the flustered mother finding her power again.

Nightbitch has now had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the critics are eating it up in the first reviews, which have landed the film a fresh rating of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

"What was so surprising about this sweet, wise and glowing tribute to mothers everywhere..." begins Deadline's Pete Hammond, "is how down-to-earth and real it is. It is funny, touching and very real."

Fangirl Freakout's Lauren Bradshaw says, " Nightbitch is a funny, intelligent catharsis about female rage and the isolating experience of motherhood. Adams is brilliant, perfectly balancing comedy and furiosity."

There are only thirteen reviews live at present, but just two are negative, with Benjamin Lee at The Guardian saying, "the film is all bark and no bite", and C.J. Prince at The Film Stage saying, "It's the last third of Nightbitch where the film goes from mostly harmless to embarrassing."

However, most critics have nothing but praise for Nightbitch . Nestled in amongst many of the positive reviews is a wish for the film to be weirder, but that's no critique at all.

Nightbitch is heading to multiple film festivals in the coming weeks, including the Vancouver International Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, and the BFI London Film Festival.

It is then scheduled for a theatrical run from December 6, 2024.

Nightbitch Review Roundup

• The Daily Beast: Resembling a bonkers marriage of Young Tully and Teen Wolf, and led by a ferociously naked and unafraid performance by its star, it's an amusingly incisive howl of maternal pain, frustration, disappointment, resentment, and feral strength.
• Award Watch: Heller and Adams are content to reduce Nightbitch into a far more familiar, if still slightly edgy dramedy. A modern combination of Bad Moms with Kramer v. Kramer, with a series of dead animals on the porch and some serious growling mixed in between.
• The Playlist: The Nightbitch commentary about the drudgery of motherhood, unsupported by your spouse, is pointedly made, and many male and female viewers will see themselves in Adams and McNairy's characters.
• Variety: Heller intends to comfort more than to freak us out. This isn't a horror film so much as a healthy allegory for anyone who feels differently after having a child.
• Collider: Nightbitch might not be as strange as you'd expect, but it's still a top dog.