
2025
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Rose Byrne is astonishing as a working mother hanging on by the barest thread in this darkly comic dramedy. Therapist Linda’s 10-yearold daughter has some mysterious illness, is being fed by tube requiring constant care. At the same time Linda’s husband is away and the house floods.
Director
Mary Bronstein
Runtime
113 Minutes
Country
United States
Classification
Unclassified 18+
Premiering at Sundance, then the buzziest title at Berlin, Rose Byrne is astonishing in this darkly comic A24 title about a working mother hanging on by the barest thread.
Therapist Linda’s 10-year-old daughter has some mysterious illness, is being fed by tube and requires constant care. At the same time Linda’s husband is away and then the house floods causing a surreal hole in the ceiling. Mother and daughter (who you never see) then move to a motel.
At the motel, Linda becomes on talking terms with the guy (A$AP Rocky) in the room next door and quickly sinks into a state of adolescent resistance – drinking, smoking and disappearing for a bit while fighting with her analyst (Conan O’Brien), who may be operating as a father figure in this scenario.
Shot in close-up with limited if no establishing shots to provide perspective and a brilliant, unsettling sound design, we are living in Linda’s pressure cooker life. Nothing may ever have really captured the intensity of motherhood quite like this film – the clawing need of a child represented brilliantly by a disembodied voice coming from below. You really feel for Linda and just want that child’s voice to go away.
Therapist Linda’s 10-year-old daughter has some mysterious illness, is being fed by tube and requires constant care. At the same time Linda’s husband is away and then the house floods causing a surreal hole in the ceiling. Mother and daughter (who you never see) then move to a motel.
At the motel, Linda becomes on talking terms with the guy (A$AP Rocky) in the room next door and quickly sinks into a state of adolescent resistance – drinking, smoking and disappearing for a bit while fighting with her analyst (Conan O’Brien), who may be operating as a father figure in this scenario.
Shot in close-up with limited if no establishing shots to provide perspective and a brilliant, unsettling sound design, we are living in Linda’s pressure cooker life. Nothing may ever have really captured the intensity of motherhood quite like this film – the clawing need of a child represented brilliantly by a disembodied voice coming from below. You really feel for Linda and just want that child’s voice to go away.
“Hilarious and harrowingly brilliant … one of the rawest and most honest movies ever made about contemporary motherhood.”
IndieWire
Sundance, Berlin, Melbourne

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Film Credits
Director
Mary Bronstein
Year
2025
Country
United States
Language
English
Type
Feature & Fiction
Program Strand
Special Presentations
Producer
Sara Murphy, Ryan Zacarias, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Eli Bush, Conor Hannon & Richie Doyle
Writer
Mary Bronstein
Cinematographer
Christopher Messina
Editor
Lucian Johnston
Cast
Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald, A$ap Rocky & Ivy Wolk
Film Source
Vvs Films
Genre
Black Comedy, Drama, Psychological & Women
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