Marielle Heller's "Nightbitch" is a well-intentioned film about the frustrations of early motherhood that doesn't really work. Amy Adams plays the unnamed, exhausted mother of a cute little two year-old son. Scoot McNairy plays her oblivious, uninvolved husband. Both of them are bad parents in different ways. Mom has given up her career as an artist to look after her kid, and has become a shell of her former self due to the mundanity and isolation of single parenting. Her son isn't especially difficult, never displaying behavior out of character for your average two year-old - the one exception being that he co-sleeps with his mother, so she hasn't had a decent night's rest in years. However, Mom is at the end of her rope. Mom needs to get out of her rut. Mom needs a wakeup call. Mom needs to embrace her inner wild animal and start acting like a dog.
Yes, you read that right. The idea of a woman embracing motherhood by getting in touch with her animal instincts is a promising one, but "Nightbitch" doesn't explore that metaphor nearly as much as I hoped it would. There are a few half-hearted scenes of new hair growth and weird pustules that parallel the unwanted bodily changes that happen postpartum, but nothing that could be called body horror. Instead, the Nightbitch is primarily conjured from Amy Adams' wild-eyed performance. She growls. She barks. She bites and devours. She's very committed, and I was never once tempted to laugh at her, but at the same time I wonder if it might have been better if I had. The movie is described in a few places as a black comedy. I expected "Nightbitch" to really lean into its protagonist's bad behavior, maybe get weird and unhinged. Instead, Mom's journey never struck me as unnerving, just odd. And it does that exasperating thing where it tells you what kind of movie it wants to be, and what messages it wants to get across instead of letting that all happen organically.
There are some things that it gets right, and Heller clearly made this film for the right reasons, but it never gels. It reminds me an awful lot of "Tully," a similar film about a struggling mother, but adding all the genre bits and flirting with Manimal-ism simultaneously felt like too much and not enough. I think "Nightbitch" makes for a nice conversation starter, especially for those struggling through the toddler years or contemplating parenthood, but there's not much here that worked for me.
"A Real Pain" is a stronger piece of work. Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed the film, and also stars as David Kaplan, an American Jewish man who goes on a Holocaust tour in Poland with his cousin Benji (Kieran Culkin). It's a small film about a very specific experience and relationship, with some fascinating facets. The central character is really Benji, who is simultaneously incredibly gifted and a walking disaster, who David both admires but often finds tough to tolerate. Benji is outspoken and insightful and can be incredibly charming. However, he's also not great with personal boundaries and prone to emotional outbursts and inappropriate behavior. The tour seems to bring out Benji's worst impulses. David does his best to cope while juggling his own complicated feelings about Benji, who he used to be close with when they were younger.
Kieran Culkin is the reason the movie works, and he deserves every ounce of praise that he's been getting. You can easily see this guy getting away with everything Benji does because he's just that charismatic. His criticisms of people are blunt and cutting, but don't come off as rude because he's so sincere in his convictions, and seems so genuinely hurt by what he sees as wrong. Jesse Eisenberg often takes a back seat here, but he also does a great job of playing the straight man, and helping put Benji into context. I like that both characters learn no great lessons or come to any epiphanies. However, they're both earnestly trying to get along and the potential for stronger reconnection is always a possibility.
It's nice seeing a movie where you can be reasonably sure that every character was based on someone the filmmakers knew in real life. There's the considerate British tour guide James (Will Sharpe), the soft-spoken African man who converted to Judaism, Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), and the other assorted tour participants trying to be polite as the incidents and disruptions compound. It's always fun to completely fail to recognize Jennifer Grey again. I noticed at the beginning of the film that "A Real Pain" is a Polish co-production, having been shot largely in Poland, and does a very good job of showing off the picturesque parts of the country. The Holocaust tour feels very incidental to the film, and those looking for something more substantive on the subject should probably try the recent "Treasure" instead. However, "A Real Pain" feels like exactly the movie it set out to be - a small, personal, affecting story about the enduring importance and irritations of family.
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