VIFF 2025 | Rose Byrne Breaks Down – 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You'

"I'm one of those people who's not supposed to be a mom."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2025—Australian actress Rose Byrne stars in indie filmmaker Mary Bronstein's stress-induced fever dream of a maternal psychological dramedy, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. After a gaping hole in her ceiling floods her home, Byrne's Linda is forced to relocate to a shabby motel room with her heard but unseen daughter, whose mysterious yet severe eating disorder threatens to break her will.

Byrne offers a tour-de-force performance as a mother-in-crisis at the end of her rope with no help or support. Beloved comedian and talk show host Conan O'Brien, hilariously stunt-casted as Byrne's ultra-serious and condescending therapist and colleague, only furthers Byrne's sky-high anxiety levels. It's a heightened conception of the stresses of motherhood as Linda is surrounded by mostly unhelpful men, including her out-of-town husband (Christian Slater) mostly heard over the phone and a motel cohort (A$AP Rocky) that helps her score drugs.

Byrne and Bronstein make If I Had Legs I'd Kick You such an anxious nightmare of a film. It's an unsettling drama about the punishingly low depths of parenthood that presents an upsetting vision of motherhood in the vein of Nightbitch. Much is to be said about the psycological interalization of its caregiver themes stretched to extreme lengths as an extended cinematic panic attack seen through Byrne's visceral performance.

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You screened at the 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival as part of the Panorama series at the Rio Theatre.


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