PLOT: Along with her husband away for work, a working mom (Rose Byrne) whose daughter suffers from a persistent sickness finds her sanity hanging by a thread.
REVIEW: Whereas it’s not a horror film, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You was the scariest film enjoying at Sundance this yr. An outline of how motherhood can sometimes appear oppressive, that is the pitch-black nightmare model of the finally reassuring Nightbitch. Written and directed by Mary Bronstein, this intense, grim, but in addition darkly humorous movie will possible be a controversial launch for A24, with it enjoying out like a descent into insanity that provides no reassuring moments of catharsis.
Rose Byrne offers a tour-de-force efficiency as Linda. Regardless of working as a therapist, her sanity is hanging by a thread, along with her husband (Christian Slater) within the Navy and away for an eight-week deployment, which has left her juggling a myriad of weighty tasks. Her daughter, who’s unnamed and unseen all through the movie (aside from her fixed off-screen whining), is needy and likewise affected by a persistent sickness that has her hooked as much as a feeding tube. The truth that she’s unable to realize sufficient weight to get off the tube is handled by her medical employees as a sort of mortal failing of Linda’s, whose skills as a mom they continuously query. To make issues worse, the ceiling of her condo has collapsed, forcing her to relocate her daughter to a sleezebag motel. On the similar time, she additionally has a affected person (Danielle Macdonald) who’s vanished, forsaking her child.
Struggling to juggle her tasks, she turns to a fellow therapist (Conan O’Brien, who’s spectacular in a uncommon performing position), who appears as unable to assist her as she is to assist her personal sufferers. Byrne’s efficiency carries the complete movie, along with her by no means higher than she is because the sophisticated Linda. Regardless of her many questionable selections, together with her behavior of leaving her in poor health daughter alone whereas she will get drunk on comfort retailer wine, you are feeling plenty of sympathy for her. Her life begins to really feel like a horror film, as it doesn’t matter what she does, everybody round her views her as a failure.
Whereas it sounds grim (and it’s), If I Had Legs I’d Kick You additionally has some blackly humourous set items, akin to a bit the place Linda offers in and buys her daughter the hamster she’s been begging for, with grotesque outcomes. Conan O’Brien is great as her therapist, who treats her with a frustratingly skilled reserve, at the same time as she appears to him for the validation and love he is aware of it’s not his duty to offer. Rapper ASAP Rocky additionally pops up and steals some scenes because the superintendent of Linda’s motel, with whom she begins an unlikely friendship centred primarily round weed and browsing the darkish internet for medication.
Produced by Josh Safdie, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You has the identical sort of aggravating, nightmarish vitality evident in Uncut Gems and Good Time. Linda’s descent is excessive and by no means lets up. Mother and father may discover themselves cringing all through, whereas people considering of beginning a household may wish to keep away from this one, because it’s not probably the most glowing endorsement for parenthood I’ve ever seen. The film makes it seem to be a nightmare, however I’m positive it could generally really feel that approach for some individuals, leaving this as a film that ought to ring a bell for a lot of. It’s not a movie I’d name pleasant, because it’s a harrowing journey to go alongside on, but it surely’s difficult, immersive, and nicely value trying out.
