Feast your eyes on Amy Adams as "a woman… an animal… a Nightbitch" in first trailer

Woof.

By Emma Keates | September 3, 2024 | 2:14pm

Screenshot: Searchlight Pictures/YouTube

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It’s literally impossible to be a woman. You have to be thin, but not too thin. You’re supposed to love being a mother, but don’t talk about your kids all the damn time. You can’t even think you’re turning into a literal dog without a man questioning why you’re running around in the dirt. How can anyone live in these conditions?

These are just a few of the questions facing Amy Adams’ character (and audiences, who aren’t any closer to understanding what’s actually going on) in Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch, which finally released its first trailer today.

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In the short clip, viewers are reintroduced to this movie’s strange but undeniably intriguing conceit, which it adapts from Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel of the same name. “I am never going to be smart, happy, or thin ever again. Oh and I’m pretty sure I’m turning into a dog,” Adams says, interspersed with clips of the six-time Oscar nominee eating lunch with her face, digging around in the backyard, and growling at fellow (human) customers.

It’s not clear from the trailer whether Adams is actually going canine Jacob-from-Twilight-style, or if the whole thing is just a very creative feminist allegory. Either way, the conceit lets the Arrival actor deliver some real bangers like “I could crush a walnut with my vagina” (she barks immediately after to really drive the point home), and “I am a woman. I am an animal. I am… nightbitch,” which is apparently a real line from this movie’s screenplay. Pair all of that with Miley Cyrus’ “Edge Of Midnight” (her “Midnight Sky” and “Edge Of Seventeen” mashup) and this one becomes a no-brainer awards contender. Whether that statue comes from the Oscars or the Razzies remains to be seen.

Nightbitch also stars Scoot McNairy, Arleigh Patrick Snowden, Emmett James Snowden, Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, Archana Rajan, and Jessica Harper. It opens in select theaters this December.