If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Psychotherapist Linda (Rose Byrne) is a mother on the edge as she grapples with a pre-teen daughter with an eating disorder, an absent husband, unhinged patients, her own nonchalant therapist, and even a screeching hamster for a minute.

If there’s anyone who can win over Jessie Buckley’s Oscar chances for Hamnet, it should be Rose Byrne for this career-best performance. The Australian actress has been in the industry for more than three decades now, often playing the voice of reason among the most chaotic people. Be it Bridesmaids, Insidious, or even X-Men, Byrne has perfected the art of straight-faced humour and sigh-heavy exhaustion. So, it only makes sense for her to deliver a tour de force performance in Mary Bronstein’s aptly titled dark comedy-cum-surrealist psychological horror, If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You. Buckle your seatbelt for one bumpy joyride with no speed breakers and no airbags. Even when Byrne’s tired-to-death protagonist tries to catch a breather with a smoke, a drink, or a pillow to scream into, the colorfully bizarre world around her slingshots such agents of chaos that you can’t help but crouch or squirm with discomfort. There’s Conan O’ Brien exchanging his wit for nonchalance as Linda’s uptight therapist, and the rapper A$AP Rocky playing Linda’s neighbor with his usual charm and cockiness. Such diverse performers and their unexpected intrusions allow Byrne to channel the dark depths of maternal rage and middle-aged angst, subverting all cliches. So, even when you see her indulge in familiar real-world routines like barking at a nagging child or downing a bottle of white wine or therapising quirky patients with quirky fears, Byrne acts with a certain muted rage that goes beyond the angry mums and escapist drunks that we’re accustomed to in the past. It’s like all those years of straight-faced roles are finally peaking to a new high for Byrne, entirely justifying her lead actress Oscar nomination (if not a win).

This is no sit-com (situational comedy), more like a sit-trag (situational tragedy). It’s easy to classify this as Uncut Gems or Marty Supreme for middle-aged moms. Much like those two Safdie Brothers films or a chaotic Coen Brothers caper, Bronstein also crams in some magical realism around a gasp-inducing bathroom flood and the ever-widening hole it causes in the ceiling. As Linda struggles to get her roof fixed while shifting to a motel, she also goes through some drug-induced visions of celestially divine light that passes through that hole. And even though Josh Safdie is one of the producers here (who himself toyed around with bathroom disasters in Marty Supreme), Bronstein’s direction is as singular and committed as her leading lady’s performance. Pair that with cinematographer Christopher Messina’s tight close-ups and anxiously rapid tracking shots from multiple angles, and you have perhaps one of the finest “uncomfortable comfort watches” of our times.