A24 is back in its groove, as the masters of tension and anxiety, courting dread like an art form from Uncut Gems to Beau Is Afraid. And now, writer-director Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You looks poised to join that exalted pantheon due to release on 10 October. At its centre? Rose Byrne as Linda, a Montauk-based psychotherapist mom who may have cracked.
Picture this: parenting as a town ablaze, armed only with a leaky water pistol. That’s Linda’s reality. The trailer thrusts us into her expanding crisis, an MIA husband, a mysteriously ill daughter, therapists who seem less helpful than passive-aggressive, a shady new friend (played by A$AP Rocky) procuring dark-web indulgences, and a literal hole growing in her living room’s ceiling. It’s a hilariously harrowing overload, and Byrne commits to every frantic note of Linda’s meltdown.
Byrne’s work here is definitely festival-worthy. She nabbed the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin International Film Festival for this role, and frankly, the trailer looks like she earned every second of it.
A24 has labeled this a “high-anxiety drama”which actually, feels like a million-watt understatement. Linda’s life is disintegrating around her. Her daughter is unwell, the creaking ceiling hints at structural (and emotional) collapse, and she’s navigating therapy that feels more like a hall of mirrors than a lifeline.
The supporting cast turns the tension dial to “too much”. Conan O’Brien takes a rare dramatic detour as Linda’s therapist, A$AP Rocky plays the deeply unsettling neighbour, and Christian Slater voices the runaway husband. Delaney Quinn who plays Linda’s daughter, is mostly off-screen, yet hauntingly present.
Bronstein drew from deeply personal material, caring for a sick child in a subsidised hotel room inspired the film’s emotional core and sense of claustrophobia. Through camera work, she forces us into Linda’s POV with extreme close-ups, no escape and no place to hide.
This isn’t just another A24 flick. It’s a visceral, unsettling and yes, darkly funny portrait of motherhood in a breakdown. Rose Byrne, known for her sharp wit in Physical or Bridesmaids, delivers something raw and raw-edged here. Critics are already calling it one of the most fearless depictions of maternal burn-out in recent memory.
Bronstein’s film asks the all important question, what happens when you can’t fix anything, not your child, your home, your mind, and the tools you’ve built a life with start to fail? If the trailer is any indication, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You might make you hold your breath.
If you’re craving a trippy, anxiety-laced cinematic trip with a gut-punch of emotional truth, A24’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You might be your October highlight. Rose Byrne’s Linda isn’t just on the edge, she is the edge, teetering beautifully between chaos and collapse.
