Fantastic Fest 2025: ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ Explores the Stresses of Motherhood
Our Fantastic Fest 2025 coverage continues with an unexpected gem. The movie If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You made its Texas premiere at the intimate Alamo Drafthouse venue in Austin, TX. The film grapples with an uncomfortable discussion about caregiving. And while there are many forms of care, this movie targets the stresses of being a single mother or a mother who is alone while the father is away.
From the cast, one might expect this movie to be a comedy, especially with such talents as Rose Byrne and Conan O’Brien as the main leads. And while there are humorous moments, If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You is actually a rather serious movie. Moreover, it features one of the best performances of the year, with a highly vulnerable depiction of motherhood by Byrne.
If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You: the story
Written and directed by Mary Bronstein, the movie centers on Linda (Rose Byrne), a therapist and mother who faces endless challenges in raising her daughter while her husband is deployed by the Navy. When we first meet Linda as a mom, we never see her daughter’s face. The camera primarily focuses on Linda’s reactions as her daughter requires increasingly more attention. Linda is also faced with the challenging circumstance of her daughter being ill, requiring a tube for feeding every night.
The internal struggles intensify when an excessive amount of water breaks through the ceiling in their apartment, forcing them to relocate to a different neighborhood temporarily. With Linda’s anxiety and stress building, she turns to alcohol and marijuana as a crutch for processing her emotions. And this is where Linda forms an unlikely friendship with her neighbor James (A$AP Rocky), who offers support by providing her with items from the dark web.
The one person Linda should be able to talk to is her therapist, played by late-night legend Conan O’Brien, but their sessions are frequently tense, one-sided, and less than helpful. Mainly because he is unable to offer what Linda needs, no matter how much she begs and pleads for answers from her therapist. Due to all these factors and her daughter’s increased care needs, Linda, as a whole, begins to respond to life as if she were one of her own patients.
Mary Bronstein’s drama has a unique sound design
One of the more surprising elements of If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You is its technical choices. In every scene featuring Linda’s daughter, the camera remains tight on Linda’s face, never revealing what her child looks like. We only hear her voice as Linda tries to navigate continuous stressful scenarios without any help. The reason for this choice is that it’s supposed to make the audience feel as distant from the child as Linda. And it’s quite effective in the moments where we hear the feeding tube beep over and over, in almost painstaking repetition.
The sound design is unlike anything that I can remember from a comedic drama. There’s a level of suspense at various times in the film, where atmospheric sounds convey the concept of someone losing grip. For example, there’s a discussion in one part of the film about the psychedelic effects of dying. The notion begins to manifest whenever she returns home and stares into the large, vacant hole in her apartment. One can interpret the scenario as she’s either dying inside or she feels like she’s dying as a parent trying to survive. In these sequences, Bronstein surprisingly incorporates a touch of surrealism into the grounded dramatic elements.
At other times, Bronstein injects a hint of influence from Uncut Gems and The Bear, where the manic nature of the environment keeps compounding. Bronstein expressed to the audience that she intended for the film to be seen in theaters because of the sound design. After seeing the movie, it does enhance the experience with surround sound at times.
Impressive performances from Rose Byrne and Conan O’Brien
During the screening, Mary Bronstein indicated that when she sent the script to Byrne, the actress, who is mainly known for her comedic roles, responded with confusion, stating to the director that no one in the industry ever sends her screenplays like this one. Thankfully, Bronstein has the right sense about Byrne, as the performance is undoubtedly award-worthy. The entire movie relies solely on Byrne to convey subtle resentment for her ailing child. There are moments, however, where the dialogue between them is absolutely emotional.
Delainey Quinn, as the credited “Daughter,” does a lot of work with the performance as a voice. One of the biggest gut punches in the movie involves the child feeling the frustration from the parent that she is not recovering. It’s a tender moment, but extremely realistic to the human condition.
Conan O’Brien, as Linda’s therapist, shares some of the most interesting parts of the film with Byrne. His character lacks the proper bedside manner to be a therapist. O’Brien demonstrates an expression of contempt for his work, which may also be interpreted as a possible contempt for Linda. One has to give credit to O’Brien for tackling a role that requires a lot of understated nuance. He’s a very animated public persona, but in If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You, he has moments of humor that are complemented by a lot of quiet unpleasantness.
Overall, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is one of the best I’ve seen from Fantastic Fest so far. It’s a compelling exploration of the mental stresses of caregiving as a lonely parent without answers. It’s a tremendous comedic drama that might be Rose Byrne‘s first Oscar-worthy performance.
Also check out Fantastic Fest 2025: The Black Phone 2 Finds Depth Through Nightmares
