Linda is having a nasty day, a nasty week, possibly even a nasty life flashing earlier than her eyes.
In Mary Bronstein’s nonstop aria of managed chaos, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Linda is a Montauk psychotherapist in freefall whereas simply attempting to deal with her sick daughter, patch up that gap in her ceiling that’s gushing water, and plop down on the sofa for time together with her personal therapist. She’s performed by Rose Byrne in undoubtedly the perfect efficiency of the actress’ stellar profession.
However should you have been a “Damages” fan, you already know the dramatic pyrotechnics the “Spy” and “Bridesmaids” scene-stealer is able to, and with Linda, Byrne unleashes a whirl of oh-god-help-me (however please, don’t assist me) anguish.
A24 releases Bronstein’s second function behind the digital camera, which first premiered on the 2025 Sundance Movie Competition earlier than Byrne predictably (and deservedly!) gained the Silver Bear for Finest Actress on the Berlin Movie Competition, the place “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” made its subsequent cease in competitors. The film arrives in theaters October 10, and the primary trailer, which you’ll be able to watch beneath, is right here to offer you a style of Byrne’s unforgettable flip.
Linda’s relationship together with her personal therapist (Conan O’Brien) — whose workplace is simply down the corridor, thoughts you — is a fraught one. In the meantime, her daughter has a thriller sickness and a tube pumping meals into her abdomen, one Linda is keen to get extracted, although a healthcare skilled (performed by Bronstein herself) advises her to not. Linda’s husband (performed by an actor whose cameo I gained’t spoil) is MIA, and so whereas the sudden gap in her house ceiling festers, she’s pressured to stay in a motel operated by some surly sorts and in addition inhabited by a nosy, probably useful neighbor performed by A$AP Rocky. In the meantime, Linda is guzzling low-cost wine and smoking joints, simply attempting to make it by means of another day.
IndieWire’s David Ehrlich raved about this sensible film out of Sundance with an A-grade overview. “It spirals in the direction of the very backside of Linda’s soul with a terminal velocity that feels as incontrovertible and uncompromising because the legal guidelines of physics. They all the time say to place your individual oxygen masks on first, however what if you’re the emergency?” he wrote.
Certainly, Linda is spiraling uncontrolled, however we’re together with her circling the drain, as Bronstein vividly realizes the last word boss-level horror film of motherhood. The movie counts Josh Safdie amongst its producers, and comparisons to “Uncut Gems” are earned, although “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” is an emotional and sensory torpedo no references will help you see coming.
The movie subsequent performs TIFF and the New York Movie Competition, although we collect it is going to be at Telluride to assist stir momentum for Byrne’s awards-worthy efficiency. The Academy would make an egregious error to not honor her work right here.
Watch the trailer for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” beneath. The movie opens in restricted launch on Friday, October 10.