The book-to-Hollywood-movie pipeline can be, well, unreliable (Im looking at you,Hillbilly Elegynot that the source material in that particular case was so unimpeachably good to begin with), but I cant help being excited for the forthcoming big-screen adaptation of Rachel Yoders 2021 novelNightbitch.The film, which starsAmy Adamsas a new mom caught off guard by her sudden transformation into a dog, dropped its first full-length trailer on Tuesday; watch it for yourself below.
Yoders novel so expertly and visually illustrates theart monster tropeof a mother caught between her creative feral self and her domestic responsibilities that its hard to imagine a filmic representation hitting as hard as the writers original prose.
(I mean, wasnt the process of depicting therianthropywhich I just learned is a word for human-animal shapeshifting in narrativesalways going to look kind of CGI-ish and dispense with the subtlety of the writing?)
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
With that obvious caveat aside,Can You Ever Forgive Me?director Marielle Hellers adaptation ofNightbitchactually has me wanting to see the movie, which is really all you’re able to ask of a two-minute snippet.
Hellers debut feature,The Diary of a Teenage Girl, certainly proved that she can nail the balancing act of telling a truly offbeat story about womens lives onscreen.
The film seems vaguely in the mold ofTullyand early seasons of Joey SolowaysTransparentyoung-ish, reasonably affluent white artist turned stay-at-home mom alternately appreciating and despairing of her domestic circumstancesbut the feral, fable-esque twist that characterizes Yoders novel seems like it should translate reasonably well into Hellers dry, fantastical sensibility.
Even if this particular bookdoesntnail its big-screen evolution, I truly hope the film will do well enough to convince Hollywood that theres money in letting women be extremely weird onscreenand behind the camera.
