If I Had Legs I’d Kick You: Difference between revisions

 

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* [[Christian Slater]] as Charles, Linda’s husband<ref>{{cite web|title=”If I Had Legs I”d Kick You’ Review: Rose Byrne Falls Into A Mom Shame Spiral In Mary Bronstein’s Tense Dramatic Comedy — Sundance Film Festival|url=https://deadline.com/2025/01/if-i-had-legs-id-kick-you-review-rose-byrnes-mary-bronstein-sundance-1236260460/|website=[[Deadline Hollywood]]|first=Glenn|last=Garner|date=January 24, 2025|access-date=January 25, 2025}}</ref>

* [[Christian Slater]] as Charles, Linda’s husband<ref>{{cite web|title=”If I Had Legs I”d Kick You’ Review: Rose Byrne Falls Into A Mom Shame Spiral In Mary Bronstein’s Tense Dramatic Comedy — Sundance Film Festival|url=https://deadline.com/2025/01/if-i-had-legs-id-kick-you-review-rose-byrnes-mary-bronstein-sundance-1236260460/|website=[[Deadline Hollywood]]|first=Glenn|last=Garner|date=January 24, 2025|access-date=January 25, 2025}}</ref>

* [[ASAP Rocky|A$AP Rocky]] as James, motel superintendent

* [[ASAP Rocky|A$AP Rocky]] as James, motel superintendent

⚫ ⚫

* [[Ivy Wolk]] as Diana, a motel clerk

* [[Ivy Wolk]] as Diana, a motel clerk

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* [[Daniel Zolghadri]] as Stephen

* [[Daniel Zolghadri]] as Stephen

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* [[Ronald Bronstein]] as Caroline’s husband

* [[Ronald Bronstein]] as Caroline’s husband

* Lark White as Vanessa

* Lark White as Vanessa

2025 film by Mary Bronstein

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is a 2025 American psychological drama film, written and directed by Mary Bronstein. It stars Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald, Christian Slater and ASAP Rocky.

The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2025. At the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, Byrne won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance. It received a domestic release by A24 on October 10, 2025.

Linda is a therapist stretched to her limits while caring for her daughter, who is suffering from an eating disorder. The daughter must be fed through a PEG tube each night, and her demands add to Linda’s immense stress. The family’s situation takes a turn for the worse when the bedroom ceiling of their Montauk apartment collapses and floods the house. With her largely absent husband Charles away on a two-month work trip, Linda is forced to move with her daughter into a shabby motel.

Charles only calls to complain and criticize her, offering no genuine support. Professionally, Linda is surrounded by clients in crisis, including Caroline, a new mother who abandons her baby mid-session. Linda seeks help from her own colleague therapist due to her own personal problems. However, he is increasingly exasperated by her behavior and eventually declines her as a patient after she repeatedly crosses professional boundaries. While living in the motel, Linda meets Diana, a snarky clerk, and her neighbor James, a motel superintendent who becomes an unlikely source of comfort and chaos. James helps her score drugs online and offers emotional support to her daughter, but their relationship is complicated and ultimately strained.

Caroline later appears at her home but then slaps Linda and runs away after being refused help. Later, when told that her daughter cannot make the necessary weight for her PEG tube to be removed, Linda takes her daughter home and removes the PEG tube and then hallucinates the surgical hole closing. When Linda heads back to her apartment, she discovers that Charles has suddenly returned home and repaired the hole in the ceiling. She attempts to hide the fact that she left their child alone, but James tells Charles the truth. When Charles sees that Linda removed the feeding tube, Linda runs to the ocean and attempts to drown herself. Linda wakes up with her daughter looking at her and says that she will get better.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You began filming in August^[6] and September 2023^[7] in Montauk, New York after SAG-AFTRA granted an interim agreement for the film amidst the actors’ strike.^[8]

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2025.^[9] It had its international premiere in February 2025 at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival in competition for the Golden Bear.^[10][11] Rose Byrne won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance.^[12] It will be screened at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival,^[13] the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival,^[14] the 2025 New York Film Festival,^[15] and the 2025 BFI London Film Festival.^[16] The film was released by A24 on October 10, 2025.^[17]

It will be screened in the ‘Best of 2025’ section of the 20th Rome Film Festival in October 2025.^[18]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 154 critics’ reviews are positive. The website’s consensus reads: “Liable to leave audiences in a cold sweat, this fever dream immersion into parental stress connects with thunderous force thanks to Rose Byrne’s gutsy star turn and director Mary Bronstein’s uncompromising vision.”^[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating “generally favorable” reviews.^[20]