Nightbitch | 2024 | R | – 6.6.6

Why is “Nightbitch” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language and some sexuality.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of sex scenes with partial nudity, a couple of kissing scenes, discussions of childbirth, a couple of scenes of non-sexual nudity, a few scenes of dogs killing and carrying dead animals with some blood evident, a few scenes of a woman transforming into a dog and running with dogs, people pretending to be dogs, numerous arguments, discussions of women in lore, and over 32 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

---

When a woman (Amy Adams) struggles to deal with sacrificing her career in order to be a stay-at-home mom, her attempt to find herself again takes a surreal turn when she may be turning into a dog. Also with Scoot McNairy, Arleigh Snowden, Emmett Snowden, Jessica Harper, Zoë Chao, Mary Holland and Archana Rajan. Directed by Marielle Heller. [Running Time: 1:39]

Nightbitch SEX/NUDITY 6

 – A husband and his wife have sex: she leans forward over a table and he thrusts from behind her, she pulls her shirt away from her neck and tells him to bite her, which he does and she moans (we see her cleavage). A woman stands in a shower (we see her bare shoulders), her husband opens the door (we see his bare shoulders and back) and asks where she had gone (she is covered with dirt); he joins her in the shower and they kiss and press against the wall (the woman moans as the scene ends and sex is implied).
► A husband massages his wife’s feet and asks for sex; she responds abruptly and they talk about some recent physical manifestations that make her feel that he will be repulsed by her. A woman tells her husband that she fears that he will be repulsed by her after she has developed teats. A woman talks about being hormonal. A woman says, “I used to be a stripper.” A wife asks her husband to get her some tampons because she is expecting her menstrual cycle to start (using a graphic description).
► A woman gives birth and we see blood on the floor as she pushes and yells. A young boy lifts the back of his mother’s shirt and says that she is fuzzy; the woman goes to the bathroom and lifts her shirt to reveal a patch of long white hair and as she scrutinizes herself in the mirror, she sees that her teeth are getting pointed and she has random hairs growing on her face.
► A woman stands in a shower and we see her bare shoulders. A woman takes off her shirt, we see her wearing a bra that reveals cleavage, and we see her bare abdomen with six teats. A woman wears low-cut tops and dresses that reveal cleavage in several scenes.

Nightbitch VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – A woman hears dogs howling and barking outside at night; she leaves her house, sniffs the ground and digs in the soil as we see her transforming into a dog (she grows a snout, fur and a tail) and runs into the night; she sees a rabbit and says that she will snap its neck; the dog lunges at the rabbit and kills it (we see it buried in a hole). A cat comes out of a house and when a dog sees it, it grabs it and thrashes it; we see the cat dead on the ground with blood pooling under its head later. A woman gives birth and we see blood on the floor as she pushes and yells.
► A woman finds a lump on her back and says ouch when she presses on it; she sterilizes a needle and pokes it causing white goo to pour out and when she pushes her finger under the flesh she pulls out a clump of hair (like a tail). A woman chokes on a mouthful of kale and spits it out (we see the kale come out of her mouth); she stands up abruptly startling other people at her table and growls and barks at them before charging out of the restaurant.
► A wife yells at her husband when he makes noise in the house saying, “If you wake him, I will rip your throat out.” A young boy wakes up in the night and his mother slaps his father on the arm to wake him to help the child go back to sleep. A wife tells her husband that she does everything to take care of their young son alone for four days a week, every week and the man doesn’t seem to understand the problem. A husband advises his wife to create some structure in her life and says, “Structure is a key to mental health. Happiness is a choice,” and the woman imagines slapping him hard in the face. A husband complains to his wife that they are out of milk and she becomes upset when he doesn’t seem to understand how this could happen. A wife asks her husband to get her some tampons because she is expecting her menstrual cycle to start (using a graphic description); we see blood pool and run down the shower drain. A young boy wakes up in the night and his mother finds her husband playing a video game; she tells him to go help the child back to sleep and he does so reluctantly. A husband voices his concerns about his wife encouraging their young son to act like a dog; he is alarmed when he realizes that the child and his wife are eating out of dog dishes. A husband and his wife argue about their relationship and the wife’s wish to not “lose herself”; she says that she feels trapped. A wife tells her husband that they should separate.
► Several dogs howl and bark outside a woman’s home in several scenes; she goes outside in one scene and the dogs jump on her growling and seem to be biting her when she falls down (this seems to be a dream and she is not shown with injuries). Several dogs carry dead animals and place them at a woman’s doorstep (we see the bloody carcasses). Three dogs (seemingly strays) approach a woman in a park; they sniff her and are very friendly; she and her young son run with the dogs when the dogs leave. A young boy carries a bloody dead rat into his house and runs outside where we see several dead animals with blood on them in a pile. A woman leaves her house at night, drops to all fours as she’s walking away and we hear growling and snorting as she runs into the shadows. A young boy is asked for his name during a library story time and he replies by yelling the F-word 5 times to the shock of other children and parents in the area.
► A man serves a young boy a large plate of pasta with sauce; the child stands up in his chair and throws the plate on the floor, breaking the plate and splattering the pasta around the room. A young boy cries and protests when it is time to sleep (repeatedly); he stomps his feet and yells at his mother when she tries to get him to settle down. A child cries loudly during a children’s story time in a library with other children. A woman reprimands her child for grabbing things off grocery store shelves and putting them in their cart.
► A woman tells several other women, “I killed the cat,” another woman describes letting her fish die, and another says that she left the birdcage door open so that her pet parakeet would fly away. Women describe the sounds that they made while in childbirth sounding “pure animal.” Several women talk about being gods and that they are so powerful because they create life. A woman asks a librarian for a book on mythology about women and motherhood; a woman describes people having a myth about “bird women,” and the woman imagines floating in the air among the trees like a bird. A woman talks about women delaying their greatness. A woman talks about being concerned about having another child and says that people in Germany get 2 years paid maternity leave. A man picks up his pet cat and says that he should throw him on the roof; a woman says that she wishes that the cat would be swooped up by a bird and dropped into a deep quarry. A woman says that a child’s first act is violence against the thing that created it.
► A woman worries about her young son hurting himself when she looks away, or is in the other room; she talks about him sticking a fork in an electrical socket. A woman has flashbacks to her youth and talks about her mother having died; we see a conversation where the child is fearful that her mother will go away and not come back. A woman remembers a scene from her childhood where a woman prepares a concoction in a large pot putting herbs and a chicken foot in it while reciting phrases in an unidentified language.
► A woman tells another woman, “I am not doing OK.” A woman imagines saying that she is “stuck in a prison I have created,” and “I’m dumb now and I will never be smart or thin again.” A woman is shown doing the same things repeatedly, every day while caring for her young son. A woman describes crying every night. A woman’s voiceover says that she doesn’t enjoy the company of other mothers. A woman feels like she is the “worst mother in the world.” A woman talks about being hormonal. A pregnant woman says that she threw up that morning from the smell of garbage. A woman describes children and that “you squeezed them out and they will [scatological term deleted] in your face without blinking.”
► People at a restaurant eat and one person pulls bones apart with his hands. A woman and her young son eat from dog dishes on the floor; the boy drinks from a toilet and the woman is alarmed and stops him. A woman and her young son eat from plates of food using their hands, then push their faces into the plates eating and growling, then bark at each other like dogs as people around them seem concerned and stare.
► A young boy dips his hands and feet into paint and smears them on a large piece of paper, a nearby wall, his mother’s face, his diaper and then runs out of the room getting paint all over; he slips at one point but is OK and the woman slips when she tries to stop him from leaving the room and she falls hard on her back (she’s OK Later). A woman is terrified when she cannot see her young son at a park; she finds him nearby sitting on the ground playing and he is fine.
► A woman tucks her young son into a dog bed on the floor and puts a blanket over him; the child falls asleep. A woman crawls on her hands and knees with her young son on her back playing that she is a horse; he lifts the back of her shirt and says that she is “fuzzy.” A young boy wakes his mother by saying “Poop,” and when she wakes up, we see that he is holding a clump of feces in his hand. A woman urinates in the bathroom while her husband stands at the sink (we hear trickling). A child sneezes and his mother wipes his nose with her bare hand.

Nightbitch LANGUAGE 8

 – About 32 F-words, 2 sexual references, 6 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 5 mild obscenities, name-calling (pathetic, idiot, hypochondriac, weird, the dog thing, awful, silly, self-absorbed, stuck, passive-aggressive, insignificant, stupid, stupid animal), exclamations (wow, oh goody, uh-oh, jeez, oh gosh, shut-up), 8 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, thank God, God no). | profanity glossary |

Nightbitch SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman drinks glasses of wine in several scenes, a man drinks from a bottle of beer and a woman drinks a glass of wine, several people in a restaurant drink wine and cocktails, and several people at an art gallery drink champagne.

Nightbitch DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Motherhood, societal norms, life before motherhood, surviving childhood, pain, equitable parenting, resentment, disappointment, objectivity, instinct, secrets, life choices, happiness, success, memories, sacrifice.

Nightbitch MESSAGE

 – Being a mother is a sacrifice well worth making but being given the opportunity to achieve additional goals can lead to the best of both worlds and a more satisfying life.