Nightbitch (15, 98 mins)
Verdict: Amy unleashed
A female friend of mine is a member of a film ‘club’, made up of what some, even she, might call ‘middle-class women of a certain age’. They all go to the cinema once a month and afterwards repair to a nearby restaurant to discuss the movie they’ve just seen before moving on to what their grown-up kids are up to, doddery parents, what’s good on telly, the state of the nation, that sort of thing.
I could hardly wait to get out of Nightbitch to text her. Marielle Heller’s film, starring Amy Adams as the harassed mother of a toddler, will be perfect for her group.
It speaks to mums everywhere — and maybe even some dads. I should think that any woman who gave up full-time employment to stay at home with her child will laugh through about half of it, and wince through the other half.
Adams is exceptional in the, erm, title role. An acclaimed artist whose professional life now feels like a limb that has been severed, she is never named, simply appearing in the credits as ‘Mother’, with Scoot McNairy as ‘Husband’ and a pair of very cute twins sharing the role of ‘Son’.
Amy Adams stars in Marielle Heller’s film Nightbitch. The film speaks to mums everywhere — and maybe even some dads. I should think that any woman who gave up full-time employment to stay at home with her child will laugh through about half of it, and wince through the other half
Adams is exceptional in the, erm, title role. An acclaimed artist whose professional life now feels like a limb that has been severed, she is never named, simply appearing in the credits as ‘Mother’
Adams as Mother, Scoot McNairy as Husband. The film is based on a 2021 novel, which I haven’t read, so I can’t say whether it cleaves to the original story. But after all that has come before, the third act feels sentimental, a cop-out
This is plainly intended to underline the universality of her predicament, and we are left in no doubt what that ‘predicament’ is. When a friend asks how she’s doing, she launches into a diatribe about the trials of motherhood, lamenting that she is ‘never going to be smart, or happy, or thin, ever again’. But quickly we realise this monologue is only playing in her head. What she actually says is: ‘I love being a mom!’
This is conventional stuff, slick but safe comedy, out of the same tin as classy British TV shows such as Outnumbered and Breeders, with McNairy playing almost a caricature of the ostensibly empathetic partner who, in fact, doesn’t begin to understand what his wife feels she’s left behind, every time she sings The Wheels On The Bus.
But then Nightbitch takes a lurch towards something darker, as the neighbourhood dogs begin to gravitate towards Mother and Adams’s character starts to metamorphose into one of them. ‘If you wake him up I will rip your throat out,’ she says to Husband, after she has finally got her hyperactive child to sleep, and for a moment you wonder whether she actually might, given she seems to be developing distinct canine traits.
But could this too simply be in her head? Is it intended merely to symbolise the primal side of womanhood? Whatever, as the marriage comes under strain, Nightbitch seems to step back from its flirtation with animal metamorphosis and full-on body-horror.
Nightbitch takes a lurch towards something darker, as the neighbourhood dogs begin to gravitate towards Mother and Adams’s character starts to metamorphose into one of them
The film is based on a 2021 novel, which I haven’t read, so I can’t say whether it cleaves to the original story. But after all that has come before, the third act feels sentimental, a cop-out.
Heller has made some excellent films, including The Diary Of A Teenage Girl (2015) and Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), and this is nearly another of them.
Certainly, Adams gives a hugely watchable performance. I look forward to hearing my friend’s verdict. But for me, Nightbitch has more bark than bite.
Merchant Ivory (12A, 112 mins)
Verdict: Insightful documentary
The films produced by Ismail Merchant and directed by James Ivory, by contrast, had more bite than bark. The likes of A Room With A View (1985) and Howards End (1992) were sometimes sneered at as pretty but anodyne period drama — ‘Laura Ashley film-making’ in the dismissive estimation of some — but a splendid new documentary reminds us that they were anything but. They were glorious adaptations of classic works of literature; occasionally even improvements on them.
The unambiguously-titled Merchant Ivory is a long-overdue appreciation not just of the two men who gave their names to what more or less became a cinematic genre, but also to the other two people vital to their success: writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins.
Merchant Ivory is produced by Ismail Merchant and directed by James Ivory (pictured). The unambiguously-titled Merchant Ivory is a long-overdue appreciation of the two men
Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave and Hugh Grant are among those who pop up to describe what it was like being in a Merchant Ivory film, with lots of contributions from Ivory himself.
There are some fabulous stories, particularly about the stunts Merchant (who died in 2005) used to pull to get the movies made when money was tight, which it nearly always was. There is also a fascinating personal element, much of which was news to me. Ivory and Merchant were partners in life as well, but both had affairs — the latter with Robbins, with whom Bonham Carter was also in love.
It’s heady stuff but ultimately this is about the work — and what work it was. If he were ever asked to show someone what ‘perfect film acting’ looks like, says Grant, he would show them Anthony Hopkins in The Remains Of The Day (1993). Amen to that.
Also Showing
A one-legged champion wrestler? That’s beating the odds!
Unstoppable (12A, 116 mins)
Unstoppable is an unashamedly formulaic sports drama about a triumph against the odds. But what odds!
In 2011, despite being born with only one leg and refusing to wear a prosthetic, Anthony Robles won a US national wrestling title against able-bodied opponents.
He is very nicely played by the Moonlight actor Jharrel Jerome, with one leg removed by editing-suite trickery.
Unstoppable is an unashamedly formulaic sports drama about a triumph against the odds. But what odds!
In 2011, despite being born with only one leg and refusing to wear a prosthetic, Anthony Robles won a US national wrestling title against able-bodied opponents. He is very nicely played by the Moonlight actor Jharrel Jerome, with one leg removed by editing-suite trickery
Jennifer Lopez plays his mother, with Michael Pena and Don Cheadle as two of the coaches who helped
him reach the top, and Bobby Cannavale as his wicked stepfather. So the cast is illustrious enough and behind the scenes it’s just as starry: the film was produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, with the latter’s split from Lopez adding a bit of gossip-column spice.
But all that aside, it’s a genuinely inspiring story that’s reliably, if rather stolidly, told.
Rumours (15, 104 mins)
Rumours has a fine cast, too, led by Cate Blanchett as the German Chancellor in Guy Maddin’s quirky, uneven satire about the leaders of the G7 countries having to deal with decidedly unpredictable events at a summit.
If I add that these ‘events’ include millennia-old, bog-preserved corpses coming to life then you’ll get only some idea of how weird it all is.
Rumours has a fine cast, too, led by Cate Blanchett as the German Chancellor in Guy Maddin’s quirky, uneven satire about the leaders of the G7 countries having to deal with decidedly unpredictable events at a summit
Alicia Vikander appears as secretary-general of the European Commission, with Charles Dance as the US President, speaking in his usual perfectly modulated English accent for reasons that are never really explained. It’s that kind of film.
I think we’re meant to find it funny. I just found it tiresome.
Grand Theft Hamlet (15, 89 mins)
Grand Theft Hamlet also gets a little wearing, outstaying its own ambitious concept despite lasting less than an hour and a half. But it’s fun to start with, a documentary following a pair of English actors, Mark Oosterveen and Sam Crane (who wrote and directed with his wife Pinny Grylls). Without work because of the pandemic lockdown, they decide to stage an entire production of Hamlet within the online action-adventure game Grand Theft Auto.
Perchance to dream? Chance would be a fine thing with helicopters being shot down in the background.
Grand Theft Hamlet also gets a little wearing, outstaying its own ambitious concept despite lasting less than an hour and a half. But it’s fun to start with
If you’re on intimate terms with either Shakespeare’s play or Grand Theft Auto Online then this might be for you.
If you’re familiar with both, find a spare hour and a half as soon as you can.
Certainly there are some bizarrely uproarious and unexpectedly poignant moments, as something very wacky indeed unfolds in the state of Denmark.
All films are in cinemas now.