It sounds like a joke: a movie in which Amy Adams turns into a dog. (Or does she?) And in some ways it is – Nightbitch, with that provocative title, isn’t shying away from its satirical take on motherhood, and the physical and psychological changes that come with it. But there’s a power and potency to that story too – one which director Marielle Heller (previously behind Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood) hopes to extract in adapting Rachel Yoder’s novel of the same name.

“There was something so cathartic about being able to admit that there is a deep animalistic rage within us,” Heller tells Empire. “Societally, or in our own lives, we’ve just figured out a way to bury it.” In the film, Adams’ unnamed ‘Mother’ grapples with new motherhood, and finds herself undergoing a canine transformation. “For me, the...