Nightbitch
Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: December 6, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 53 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
30
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 21, 2024
Adams is already a six-time Oscar nominee: it’s very possible that for this, she could finally nab one outright. From out of its sitcom-neat package, Nightbitch unleashes something primeval and wild – thought it might seem cuddly, hot spit flecks its jaws. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyMaureen Lee LenkerSep 8, 2024
It is piercingly honest, remarkably sardonic, and breathtakingly brave in the way it lays bare some of women's deepest struggles and truths. But it is not a film that is anti-motherhood. It celebrates it as well, in all of its primal, animalistic, savage contradictions and complexities. Read full review
80
Film ThreatJason DelgadoNov 14, 2024
Amy Adams delivers the knockout punch that will leave you floored by just how close it hits to home. Read full review
80
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 8, 2024
Resembling a bonkers marriage of “Young Tully” and “Teen Wolf,” and led by a ferociously naked and unafraid performance by its star, it’s an amusingly incisive howl of maternal pain, frustration, disappointment, resentment, and feral strength. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldDec 6, 2024
The film is an absolute triumph for Adams, who attacks her role like — yes, sorry — a dog with a bone. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 5, 2024
At its best, Nightbitch is many things at once: funny, unruly, bizarre, tender. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearDec 6, 2024
There is a sense that it could have gone farther out and pushed even more boundaries, especially before tying everything back up with a “happy” ending that feels mostly but not quite completely earned. But there’s still a bark and a bite here in the way that its allowing a specific strain of too-often stifled female rage to really bloom. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshDec 6, 2024
What always rings loud and clear and true is the formidable Adams. When given a red-meat role of physicality and nuance — animalized, her eyes swinging between adoration and primitive fire — she can handle whatever Nightbitch needs to be at any given moment: light and funny, dark and stormy, feral and furious, and all combinations therein. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 4, 2024
There’s a danger in critiquing the movie you wish a director had made instead of the one they did, but in this case, Heller did make a horror film and then backed off from the horror aspects. Read full review
70
Little White LiesJourdain SearlesDec 4, 2024
Heller skillfully portrays the repeated routines of motherhood – breakfast, lunch, dinner, bath time, bedtime – as both meaningful and exhausting. Read full review
70
Little White LiesJourdain SearlesDec 4, 2024
Heller skillfully portrays the repeated routines of motherhood – breakfast, lunch, dinner, bath time, bedtime – as both meaningful and exhausting. Read full review
70
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannSep 11, 2024
It's one of Adams' best performances in a career full of them, messy and feral and unwiedly, just like Nightbitch itself. Read full review
70
LooperReuben BaronSep 9, 2024
Adams' great performance aside, Nightbitch is just a good but not great movie — and oddly enough, its biggest obstacle to greatness might be that it's not quite weird enough. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 8, 2024
Sinking her teeth into Mother the way Mother herself might a bloody steak, Adams courageously embodies Mother’s exasperation, finding the comedy in every setback. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 8, 2024
Marielle Heller’s fourth feature is a gently observant comedy-drama about the perils of motherhood that could use a little more bite. Read full review
70
ColliderRoss BonaimeSep 8, 2024
Adams and McNairy give two fantastic performances that showcase the confused, overwhelming situation that first-time parents find themselves in, and Heller juggles this fantastical high-concept idea with very real emotions and powerful statements. Read full review
67
Original-CinLiam LaceyJan 22, 2025
The film’s star Amy Adams balances relatable comedy with dramatic empathy. In practice though, Nightbitch fails to converge their talents, resulting in a film of interesting moments that drifts to a tepid conclusion. Read full review
67
IndieWireKatie RifeSep 8, 2024
Marielle Heller’s version of the story — Yoder is listed as a co-writer — could have taken the magical realist element out entirely, and the film would have played exactly the same. The body horror is downplayed to the point of being functionally nonexistent. Read full review
65
Paste MagazineNadira BegumOct 21, 2024
Perhaps the film works better as a run-of-the-mill horror comedy about a woman who regrets sacrificing her career to start a family, but as a so-called revolutionary take on motherhood, Nightbitch is stagnant and spends too much time chasing its own tail to an unsatisfying conclusion. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 3, 2024
Nightbitch positions itself as an edgy, body-horror film with shock-value imagery, and there’s no denying the validity of its premise that even in 2024, the sacrifices of motherhood are taken for granted and underexamined. Read full review
63
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 9, 2024
Heller’s enjoyable film is not the cringe fest you walk in expecting it to be, even if the premise will be a hairy leap for some moviegoers. Read full review
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