Pop Culture Happy Hour - Nightbitch And What's Making Us Happy

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

The new movie Nightbitch stars Amy Adams as an exhausted stay-at-home mom to a toddler. Missing her career and frustrated by her inattentive husband (Scoot McNairy), her woes begin to manifest in a bizarre way: She transforms into a dog at night. She enjoys tapping into her animal instincts. But eventually, she's forced to confront her resentments toward motherhood and the lack of support from her husband. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a gift at donate.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hey, it's Aisha Harris. And before we start the show, we're closing in on the end of another year. Wow, I can't believe it. And our team is looking back at all the great conversations we've been able to bring you in 2024 because of your support. We dove into the sleeper hits and the shows you shouldn't sleep on, the sequels and the prequels and our favorite binge watches. We stayed up all night to catch you up on the Oscars and the Emmys and debated the best fictional bands and the pop culture hills will die on. And it's all because listeners like you step up to support our work, either by giving to your local station or by joining NPR Plus. NPR Plus has grown a lot this year, and we want to say an extra special thank you to those supporters right now. You know who you are. If you don't know what I'm talking about, NPR Plus is a sweet way to support the independent public media you rely on from NPR.

So when you sign up for a simple recurring donation, you support our mission of creating a more informed public and get special perks for more than 25 NPR podcasts. like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, and even exclusive and discounted items from the NPR shop and the NPR Wine Club. So by donating now, you'll find not only NPR's award-winning journalism across the country and around the world, but also the stories that make you laugh out loud. The ones that might make you cry because they resonate so deeply, and the quirky ones that can only come from the wonderful world of public radio.

Join us on the plus side today at plus.npr.org. Thanks so much. Night Bitch. Yes, that is the actual title, stars Amy Adams as an exhausted stay-at-home mom to a toddler. Missing her career and frustrated by her inattentive husband, her woes begin to manifest in a bizarre way. She transforms into a dog at night. I'm Aisha Harris, and today we're talking about Nightbitch on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is entertainment journalist Christina Escobar. She's the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Latina Media Puyah.

Toccoe. Hi, Christina. Welcome back. Hi, thanks for having me. Great to have you. Also with us is Philadelphia Inquirer's Arts and Entertainment Editor and Film Critic, Badatri D. Chaudhry. Hey, Badatry, welcome back to you too. Hello, hello. Glad to be here as always. Great to have you here. So, Nightbitch, I love saying this word, sorry. Night bitch stars Amy Adams as mother, a stay-at-home mom who's put her career as an artist on hold to raise her toddler named son. Spending all day and night with son is exhausting and tedious and her feckless husband named, what else, husband, barely notices his wife is drowning. He's played by Scoot McNary. So one night, mother's body starts to undergo some shocking changes. She develops a tail, sprouts fur, and other animalistic qualities. Quite frankly, she becomes

an actual dog. And she enjoys tapping into her animal instincts, although eventually she's forced to confront her resentments towards motherhood and the lack of support she gets from husband. Nightbitch was written and directed by Mariel Heller. She also made a beautiful day in a neighborhood and can you ever forgive me, the latter of which I adore that movie. So if you haven't seen it, you should definitely go check that out for sure. And Nightbitch is in theaters now. So Christina, I'm going to start with you. What did you make of this very weird kind of fun body horror movie that we've got going on here? Yeah, I liked Nightbitch. I felt like, Like it was an apt metaphor for what motherhood can really feel like.

I thought that some of the pieces, like even just the opening sequence where there's a montage of her making the same breakfast in silence over and over and over again, that felt really resonant to me. There were other parts where there were mothers and conversations talking about their experiences and particularly giving birth and how it makes you feel like a wild animal, which I was like, I've actually said that. So it felt like, oh, this is interesting. I thought there were places where the movie was a little bit too on the nose. Like she gives sort of an opening speech where she lays out the thesis of the film and what's to come. And I was like, I get it. We've kind of been here before. But overall, I thought that the metaphor worked and the weirdness worked because it's a strange movie.

And watching it feels weird. There's moments out of time. There's the night bitch part. The dog part, right? Like, that's a big part of it. But overall, I felt like the journey worked. It had me thinking. It had me in conversation with my husband, who I watched it with.

We have two kids together. Thank God they're no longer toddlers. That was like my top takeaway. I thought it was a good ride with plenty to chew on afterwards. Thank you. Well, Bedatri, how about you? What did you make up this? Okay.

Firstly, like, disclaimer is I don't have kids. Same. So I might have had a very different experience. You know, I read somewhere one of the reviews say it's a better idea than it is a film. And I absolutely agree with that. I think I had the opposite problem. of Christina that I think the beginning was really good for me. Like, you know, the idea, the leaning into the body horror, I enjoyed it.

Even though as someone who doesn't enjoy body horror so much, I really enjoyed that first bit. But then, to Christina's point, a lot of there are like these monologues and they're like very trite. I think they try to be campy but are not. But then towards the end, I think the filmmaker felt, may have felt this very strong. strong pressure to have a neat ending to a story that I think would have been better off clumsy as this animal-esque thing. But I think it tries to get neat and that's where it started to lose me. Yes, yes. But Autri, I think you and I kind of fall on the same spectrum. And maybe it's not a coincidence that I also have never had a child. I do not know the experience of what the Amy

Adams character is going through. But I did really enjoy the way the first two acts or so of this story are told. I don't think this is necessarily a novel approach in a way. I think we've seen a lot of recent movies and TV and books that are really trying to focus in on what it means to be a mother or a woman in this age and thinking of like really fun and different ideas and ways that can manifest in fiction. There's like a whole montage sequence where mother like needs a break. And so husband decides, oh, I'm going to help. And of course it turns into it. thing where she's trying to rest and then he's in the other room and he keeps asking her, where's this?

Honey, I need it. And she's just like, well, this is supposed to be my break. And it made me think of this old I Love Lucy episode from, you know, way back in the 1950s. It's this episode where Lucy's pregnant. Ricky offers to make her breakfast. And the same thing essentially happens. She's in bed.

He's like, Lucy, where's the waffle iron? Where's the waffle mix? And she has to keep getting up and keep getting up. And, you know, that's how far back this idea of men not pulling their own weight goes. And I use that as an example, not because I feel as though it's a hackneyed way of looking at it because it's clearly still something that a lot of people are struggling with is that balance. But I also think that that's kind of like, for me, the limits of where the rest of the story winds up going because I kept thinking, oh, it's great that we're having this conversation. It's great that this is happening in a form of like body horror and a dog. But Christina, I'm curious to hear more about what you like because, again, me and Bedatria are coming from this as people who have not had children.

Yeah, for sure. So I want to say this mother character, Amy Adams' character, had no business being a stay-at-home mom. She was not cut out for it. And being a stay-at-home mom is like being an accountant. Like, maybe you can balance your own checkbook, but many people would be miserable being accountants, right? Like, it's not everyone's joy. And that doesn't make you bad at balancing your own checkbook to push the metaphor. And so she was a person. who should not have been a stay-at-home mom. It made her miserable. And there is still, and has been for, you know, decades, this pressure for women to feel like you should love this, it should be wonderful. You see the character having that being like, I should appreciate this time and it's a privilege. But it makes her unhappy, like not just unfulfilled, but it drives her a little bit nuts. And I want to say, although my kids are through this stage, like, I remember it. I was never a stay-at-home mom because I knew it was not for me. And that she doesn't, know that. You see some of the pressures from her mother's example and perhaps her husband's

example, his mom as well. Like, she makes the wrong choice and her husband supports her and making the wrong choice instead of pushing her. And that's the conflict of the film. And I felt like there was something interesting in that. Like, yes, maybe we've seen it before. There is trouble. But how far they pushed it into the magical realism, the metaphor of the night bitch and how crazy it can make you when you're not suited for it felt strong to me. And then to the end, when she recuperates her humanity, one might say, you know, she's able to honor who she is holistically. And I actually, I think why I perhaps liked the movie and you all didn't is that she was able to figure out a way to be a mom and a human. And she didn't have to be an animal, right?

She didn't have to forsake one for the other. And I think in older narratives, you had to pick, right? to either be a career woman or a mom. And that's no longer the case. And so I think the film pushed on that at the end and said she's taking a risk though, right? Like, is she going to go back to that dog state? We don't know. So to me, the ending didn't feel quite so neat.

It felt a little bit like she's going to try to have it all. But to me, there were still open questions at the end. And I think that's why it weren't. Yeah. I think I would have just wanted the animal part to have been. in one of the options, right? Like I said, I don't have children, but I know exhaustion. I know what a monster I can be if I hadn't had my meal on time.

I have felt may not be in the same intensity, but, you know, I have felt like an animal sometimes. And I don't think I necessarily need to deny that animal to be a better human being, better woman, better journalist, you know what I mean? And I was thinking, Aisha, this film, reminded me of this film, Charlize Theron film called Tully. Oh, Tully. Yeah, that's a great movie.

Yeah, where she is exhausted. And I swear that film, I love that film so much. And I think one of the reasons I still don't have children is that film. But jokes apart, you know, there is this fallacy that there is a community of mothers, that a mother understands another mother. And this is there's something sacred about it. And I'm not saying there isn't. Of course, you know, there are all these mom groups and group chats. I had to question that secret, sanctified mom halo that this film sometimes paints. That's interesting because I read that differently. I read it like, you know how there's the trope where you're like, I'm different from other girls?

That's how I thought the character started off. I'm different from these other moms. I'm not going to talk to them because I'm all these other things. I'm, you know, an artist or whatever. And then she grows towards building a community and seeing some similarities and actually celebrating the moms at the end. To me, that part really worked because I actually think it's very hard to raise a child in isolation. And it's a very unique experience that is hard to translate and not talk to somebody who's

going through it at the same time. Like I have friends who are kids are at different stages. And you actually need someone whose kid is like the exact same age as yours to be like, is throwing plates normal? Nobody wants to talk about that. And yet you need to have that community to talk about it. And so while I agree with you that the not all moms are bonded, there's not that sort of cross thing. But I do think there's something important to being able to say, I am like other moms. I am not different because I'm more intellectual or whatever.

And I need a community if I'm going to succeed at this. And that's where I saw the film going. Yeah. I actually kind of saw it in the same way that like the film is more so trying to complicate it in the way that you see a badotry. Like it is trying to say it's not all roses. In the end, I think it does sort of promote this idea that part of the reason why the Amy Adams character is struggling so much at the beginning is not just because her husband isn't doing nearly enough. It is not paying attention to her. But also because she doesn't have her own community.

And she's like not willing to let them in. She's very much like, I'm not like those other moms. I'm a cool mom who like actually kind of hates my job. And once she starts to like let them in and sort of embrace who she is as a mother and then also accept that these women also, they don't necessarily all love being moms even though that's what she thought that they were projecting. Like it seems like she found that community in the way. So here is the part where I think we're just going to get a little bit more into spoiler territory for the very last part of the movie. so if you haven't seen it yet or don't want to be spoiled, you've been warned. Now, I had seen this not too long after I had read that infamous, if you were online in August at all,

you might have seen like a New York Mag piece written by a mom who talked about basically like neglecting her cat for her. And the fact that this movie, I'd just seen it, obviously it wasn't influenced by that article. But the fact that this movie like makes a joke about how like motherhood, can not just turn you into an animal, but can also make you neglect actual animals because, I guess, the mommy brain they're calling it. But it makes a joke of it. And as someone who I'm not a mother, but I do have pets, it just kind of rubbed me the wrong way that this was kind of the conclusion that we have. And I didn't think of it as like a subversive thing. It felt like this is just the way things are. Again, this is my own biases here. I'm not saying that children aren't more important than pets. Like I fully acknowledge that. But I also think, like, huh, are we really going to go there with this and say, like, oh, it's kind of funny that we've all, like, neglected or may have killed our own pets because we turned into mothers? I don't know. That rode me the wrong way.

I also think the resolution or solution, whatever, you call it, is just so simple. Like, you know, you have a good talk with your partner and then things are better. And I'm like, if this was always an option, yeah, you're a miserable stay-at-home mom. And we get this idea they can't afford a sitter, which is obviously a very real problem. A lot of families have in this country. But in the end, they get a sitter. So I'm like, well, if you could get a sitter. Yeah, there's no talk about like, oh, I'm just going to work more hours.

Yeah, and then I'm like, and also the conversation she has with her partner is that you need to step up and be better. And I'm like, yeah, and why didn't you say this to him six months ago? Again, like, I'll pull that disclaimer again. Maybe these simple solutions just don't seem so simple when you're not getting a good night's sleep. But, yeah, the resolutions are just so simple that you almost ask that, oh, if this was an option, why didn't you do this before? Yeah. Yeah, I felt like the lack of talking about money was silly. Like, that was definitely a plot hole.

Like, the husband goes and gets his own apartment. It's like, well, how do they afford a second? an apartment if they couldn't afford a babysitter. Like that doesn't make sense. But I didn't think the solutions were so simple because she has to kick him out, right? He has to be fully parenting by himself for a few weekends. And they don't exactly talk about it, but he is a job where he travel. So like maybe when he's in town, he has the baby. And then when he's out of town, she has the baby, right? And if that's the case, he learns exactly how hard it is to be alone with a toddler. And it is very, very hard. And two is a pretty hard age. And so I felt like that,

time apart. Like she doesn't just have a conversation with him. She makes him leave. They have to co-parent in a totally different way for a while before they can start to reconnect. And he has to recognize and value her professional life. To me, that felt like the right amount of steps, the right amount of work. Although I do agree the money thing was a plot hole for sure. Yeah. I can see both sides of it because that is a drastic step if someone is moving out of the house. That's disrupting the household even more than it's already been disrupted by the mother not feeling like herself or not feeling like she has the support she needs. I think what it comes down to, for me, is this final moment of the film where we see she's actually decided to have another kid.

And this doesn't think is different from the book, which was written by Rachel Yoder. I have not read the book, but Mariel Heller, the director, has talked about how she deliberately changed the ending. In the book, she doesn't have a second child and here she decides to have another. one. And that was inspired by Heller's own decision to have another kid. Again, some people might claim that I do not have a right to speak on this. Look, I haven't had a kid. I have had a mother. I have had parents. And I think that decision to me was just kind of baffling after all she went through. And to get that far and to make that decision, that to me was where it felt, oh, yeah, I guess this is like how a lot of people think about it. It just felt like a safer ending than I. wanted it to be. I don't know. It didn't wrestle with it in the way that I necessarily wanted it to end. But Christina, I'm curious. I thought it felt true. I like how Christina is a token mother in this conversation. That's the thing. I guess that's for moms. Yeah. Yes, I'm sorry. I don't mean to put all of the pressure on you to be the soul. No, it's okay. Listen, I have two kids. It was wild to make that decision because it is hard to raise a baby. And I felt the ending felt true to me. Because anytime you make a human, you are taking a huge risk. You're taking a huge risk with your body, with your mental health, with your partnership, with your financial situation.

Like all of the things in your life change every time you make a human with your body, including your body itself. And yet, people do it. Right? People do it. Yes. No, for sure. I totally understand. It is true to so many people's experience.

I just thought for myself while watching this movie, I was like, oh, I really wanted the fictional narrative to take maybe a different turn. Even in that thinking, you were not going all in anamorphs like I was. I'm like, stay that way. It's beautiful. More women should yell and shout and scratch people's eyes out or whatever. Like, I love that.

I wish that was horrible. Yeah, would you have felt better if she'd had a litter instead of a human baby. Well, she seemed happier as a dog. Yeah. Yes. And then when she looks at the other dogs and then she nods her head and says, no, like, no, not today. And I'm like, no, go believe with them. You were so happy. You're played with them. Look, I've harped on this movie a lot, but I really did enjoy most of it. And we haven't talked about the performances, but I do think Amy Adams, like, oh my God. Yeah, she kills it. is doing such a mate. She is fully committed.

While she turned into a dog, you know, mostly at night, kind of like a werewolf turns at night. She does during the day, she is herself, but she's not herself. And I love seeing her making it into a game with her son and being like, there's a moment where she puts him in a dog bed. And I'm just like, this is great. It's a motherhood hack. She's sleeping. He's sleeping. It was beautiful.

See what I mean? Yeah, yeah. But also that child. I don't think we'll ever have a protein deficiency in his life. One thing I did think was a little strange. It was like the dog looked like it had just come from the groomer. Like it was like flouncy and beautiful. And I was like, shouldn't there be some like mud on this dog?

Like this woman hasn't showered in four days. Like why is this dog so like perfectly quaffed, you know? That was my one thing. Well, she was being her best self and maybe her best self as a dog is immaculately groomed. I feel like she should have been a little more wild. The dog itself should have been a little bit less like perfect pet and more like wild animal. That was my one artistic take. I think there's a lot to admire about it.

And then, you know, some things that might just come down to how you feel about certain aspects of being a parent or being a child of a parent. There's a lot to talk about here. It's a different movie and it's called Nightbitch. Well, we want to know what you think about Nightbitch. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com slash PCH and on letterbox at letterbox.com slash NPR pop culture. We'll have a link in our episode description. And up next, what's making us happy this week.

And now it's time for our favorite segment of this week and every week. What's making us happy. Bedadri, let's start with you. What's making me happy is that Mississippi Massala, the classic film, is streaming on Max. So Mississippi Massala was made by Mira Nile. who later made a Monsun wedding. And this stars Sarita Chaudhry, who plays Sima Patel in End Just Like That. And a very young and beautiful Denzel Washington, the film is set in the American South.

And the main protagonists are an Indian family who've moved to the U.S. And it's a rare love story between a brown female protagonist and a young black man. Yeah, and I think it's beautifully shot. in the American South and also kind of reclaims the narrative of the usual American South that we see in films. So that's Mississippi Massala, directed by Mira Nair, and it's streaming on Max. And my holidays are assorted. That's all I can say. Love it. Thank you so much, Badatri. Christina, tell us what is making you happy this week. What's making me happy right now is Como Agua for Chocolate or Like Water for Chocolate on HBO.

It's a Spanish language series. It is beautiful. It is all about family. and food. It is sumptuously filmed. Every episode features a recipe that really dives into so much so that I'm watching the credits where they just do like close-ups of the ingredients. Like it's so lovely. And I really recommend it. I feel like as a Spanish language show, it hasn't gotten as much attention as it should have here in the U.S. And for those who are familiar with the book or the adaptation that was like 30 years ago, this update has meaningful stuff in it. It better explains like what was happening in Mexico at the time. It talks about like the racial politics of the moment that continue to affect us to this day and does a more interesting job with the mother and daughter dynamic.

So I highly recommend it. So that's like Water for Chocolate, the HBO adaptation, the series adaptation, correct? Correct. Awesome. Thank you so much, Christina. Well, I finally caught up recently with Hussein Menages off with his head, his latest Netflix special. And I really, really loved it. Last year he came under fire a little bit for a New Yorker interview that he gave where he admitted that some of the stories he told in previous standard routines had been embellished for comedic effect. And this led to him losing the gig to replace Trevor Noah as daily show host.

He wound up posting a 20-ish minute rebuttal video. It was a little dramatic. But in this special, he is directly and also indirectly addressing the controversy. But he's also kind of taking a pricklier and more self-reflecting. approach than in his previous comedy. And look, comedians, when they feel as though they've been under attack, sometimes they often come back meaner, angrier. And he does that here, but not in a way to me that feels as though like it's a Chappelle or a, you know, a Louis C.K. situation. Like, I think he's offering very pointed observations of progressivism and in-group dynamics that, to me, at least,

like, don't read as scoldy, but more just like blunt and honest. You know, he has some choice words for Ruth Bader Ginsburg that I think a lot of people might share some similar ideas about. He cracks jokes about the financial diversity of the audience in San Jose, California, where if you're in the Bay, you know what that means. So I really enjoyed it. I think he's doing some really interesting things here. And while that New Yorker article clearly sort of changed him, I don't think it changed him for the worst, which is so refreshing. So that is Hassan Menages, off with his head, you can find it on Netflix. And that is what is making me happy this week.

If you want links for what we recommended, plus some more recommendations, you should sign up for our newsletter at npr.org slash pop culture newsletter. That brings us to the end of our show, Christina Escobar, Badatri D. Thank you so much for being here. It was fun parsing through this movie with you, but... It was. I wouldn't do it with anyone else. Thank you.

This episode was produced by Mike Katzif and Lenin Sherburne. and edited by Jessica Reedy. Hello, Kamin provides our theme music. Thanks so much for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Aisha Harris, and we'll see you all next week.