Passes the Bechdel test

Nightbitch

Name: Nightbitch
Released: 2024

2024. Directed by Marielle Heller, written by Marielle Heller and Rachel Yoder.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
12 women characters. 11 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 5 scenes out of 139.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

A woman, thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a dog.

Released: 06 Dec 2024
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Rated: R
IMDb: 5.5 / 10
Metascore: 56 / 100
Awards: 4 wins & 12 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Mother 384 lines, woman
Husband 150 lines, man
Jen 35 lines, woman
Son 24 lines, man
Norma 18 lines, woman
Liz 15 lines, woman
Miriam 15 lines, woman
Freida 10 lines, woman
Naya 10 lines, woman
Young Girl 8 lines, woman

Full cast, 22 people

Amy Adams as Mother
Scoot McNairy as Husband
Arleigh Snowden as Son
Emmett Snowden as Son
Jessica Harper as Norma
Zoë Chao as Jen
Mary Holland as Miriam
Archana Rajan as Liz
Nate Heller as Book Babies Leader
Darius De La Cruz as Lemuel
Ella A. Thomas as Naya
Stacey Swift as Freida
Garrett C. Phillips as Server
Adrienne Rose White as Sally
Michaela Baham as Young Mother
Kerry O'Malley as Mother's Mother
Roslyn Gentle as Nana
Michael Andrew Baker as Man in Market
Judith Moreland as Midwife
Caden Green as Library Kid #1
Zarah Beverly as Library Kid #2
Marielle Heller as Mom at Grocery Store (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 139

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 3	8	1
4 to 6	27	8
7 to 9	8	2
10 to 12	5	2
13 to 15	23	19
16 to 18	7	4
19 to 21	3	2
22 to 24	3	8
25 to 27	9	7
28 to 30	11	1
31 to 33	16	7
34 to 36	2	0
37 to 39	3	0
40 to 42	17	2
43 to 45	4	0
46 to 48	5	0
49 to 51	6	0
52 to 54	4	1
55 to 57	15	1
58 to 60	7	0
61 to 63	12	11
64 to 66	4	3
67 to 69	5	0
70 to 72	37	0
73 to 75	9	6
76 to 78	2	0
79 to 81	6	5
82 to 84	31	16
85 to 87	10	11
88 to 90	3	0
91 to 93	45	10
94 to 96	3	0
97 to 99	9	9
100 to 102	1	0
103 to 105	5	2
106 to 108	17	0
109 to 111	15	16
112 to 114	8	0
115 to 117	6	6
118 to 120	36	0
121 to 123	0	0
124 to 126	2	6
127 to 129	14	8
130 to 132	6	0
133 to 135	6	0
136 to 138	32	22
139 to 139	5	1

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

MIRIAM: Yeah. LIZ: Me too. I used to live in the city and spent my lunch break at the modern like every day.

JEN/MIRIAM/LIZ: Oh totally/yeah/right? MIRIAM: I used to be a stripper. If you can believe that. MIRIAM: Just for a little while. But I just couldn’t feel further from that life now. JEN: The before times, right?

MIRIAM: And your sweater is cool too. JEN: You should join us for our Friday morning hike!

MIRIAM: You’re so funny. LIZ: I can’t hike very far these days. JEN: Yeah, how are you feeling? Can I?

NAYA: Oh Freida! Your application for the founders grant - did you do it? FREIDA: Barely! I turned it in at like two am. I’m such a fucking idiot. You? NAYA: Oh I turned it in weeks ago. Now we wait.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 72 are women's.

512 lines from women, 197 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

12 women and 5 men in the cast. 11 women and 4 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 6 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 79% of the words (6,920), men 21% (1,825). Women have 72% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 1 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

11 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 50% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Marielle Heller (woman)
Written by: Marielle Heller (woman)
From the novel by: Rachel Yoder (woman)
Produced by: Marielle Heller (woman), Christina Oh (woman), Sue Naegle (woman), Anne Carey (woman), Stacy O'Neil (woman), Amy Adams (woman)
Shot by: Brandon Trost (man)
Edited by: Anne McCabe (woman)
Music by: Nate Heller (man)
Production design by: Karen Murphy (woman)
Costumes by: Arjun Bhasin (man)
Cast by: Douglas Aibel (man)