If I Had Legs I'd Kick You is a 2025 American psychological comedy-drama film, written and directed by Mary Bronstein. It stars Rose Byrne, Conan O'Brien, Danielle Macdonald, Delaney Quinn, Christian Slater, and A$AP Rocky.
The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2025, and a domestic release by A24 on October 10, 2025, to positive reviews, with Byrne's performance receiving universal acclaim, earning her the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance and a Golden Globe Award, alongside nominations for the Critics' Choice Award, Actor Award and Academy Award for Best Actress.[4]
Plot
Linda is a psychotherapist stretched to her limits while caring for her daughter, who is suffering from a pediatric feeding disorder. The daughter must be fed through a gastric feeding tube each night and eat enough during mealtimes to gain weight and recover. Her daughter is also enrolled in a day hospital program, which Linda must attend with her. The family's situation takes a turn for the worse when their Montauk apartment is flooded after the ceiling collapses. With her husband, Charles, a ship captain, away on an eight-week work trip, Linda is forced to move with her daughter into a shabby motel. While living in the motel, Linda meets Diana, a snarky clerk, and her neighbor James, the motel superintendent. Sharing a motel room, Linda struggles to sleep with the sound of her daughter's internal feeding pump. Sleep-deprived, Linda spends nights outside the motel, drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, listening to music, and eating junk food. During the night, Linda also leaves her daughter to check on the apartment repairs.
When Charles calls to check in on Linda, he continues to complain and criticize her, offering no support. Her daughter's doctor in the day hospital program, who is unsympathetic to Linda's struggles, tells Linda that if her daughter does not meet her weight goals, her daughter's "level of care" will be reassessed. Professionally, Linda is surrounded by clients in crisis, including Caroline, a new mother who abandons her baby mid-session. When Caroline's husband refuses to leave work to retrieve the baby, Linda is forced to call the police to report the baby abandoned and Caroline missing. Linda seeks therapy from her own colleague; however, he is increasingly exasperated by her behavior.
One night, James, the motel superintendent, attempts to bond with Linda. He helps her buy drugs on the dark web and offers emotional support to her daughter. Another night while smoking together, Linda brings James to her apartment to look at the collapsed ceiling, but James falls through the damaged floor and breaks his leg. After being told that her daughter cannot make the necessary weight for her feeding tube to be removed, Linda eventually causes a scene at the hospital program's group meeting for mothers in her situation, exhausted by being told that everything that has gone wrong is not her fault because she still does not feel supported. Linda later confesses to her therapist that she aborted her first pregnancy years before having her daughter, and becomes distraught about her failings as a mother. He declines her as a patient, after she repeatedly crosses professional boundaries.
One night, Caroline appears at the motel lobby, asking for Linda and appearing to be in a state of mental crisis. She confesses she abandoned her baby to make Linda "understand". As Linda tries to speak with her and provide help, she slaps Linda and runs away. Linda pursues, but Caroline ultimately disappears onto a dark nearby beach. Returning to the motel, Linda removes the tube herself. She 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 tries to hide that she left their child alone at the motel, but James tells Charles the truth. When Charles sees that Linda has removed the feeding tube, Linda runs to the beach. There, she repeatedly attempts to drown herself in the ocean, but is thrown back to shore by heavy waves. Linda appears to wake up on the beach a few moments later with her daughter beside her. Linda promises her “I’ll be better” and her daughter smiles.
Cast
- Rose Byrne as Linda[5]
- Conan O'Brien as Linda's therapist
- Danielle Macdonald as Caroline, one of Linda's patients
- Delaney Quinn as Linda's daughter
- Christian Slater as Charles, Linda's husband[6]
- ASAP Rocky as James, a motel superintendent
- Ivy Wolk as Diana, a motel clerk
- Mary Bronstein as Dr. Spring
- Lark White as Vanessa
- Daniel Zolghadri as Stephen, one of Linda's patients
- Ella Beatty as Kate, one of Linda's patients
- Mark Stolzenberg as a clinic parking attendant
- Ronald Bronstein as Caroline's husband
- Helen Hong as Eva
- Amy Judd Lieberman as Melanie
- Josh Pais as Brad
- Manu Narayan as Landlord
- Eva Kornet as herself
Production
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You began filming in August[7] and September 2023[8] in Montauk, New York after SAG-AFTRA granted an interim agreement for the film amidst the actors' strike.[9]
Release
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2025.[10] It had its international premiere in February 2025 at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival in competition for the Golden Bear.[11][12] Rose Byrne won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance.[13] It was screened at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival,[14] the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival,[15] the 2025 New York Film Festival,[16] and the 2025 BFI London Film Festival.[17] The film was released by A24 on October 10, 2025.[18]
It was also screened in the 'Best of 2025' section of the 20th Rome Film Festival in October 2025.[19]
Reception
Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 190 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."[20] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[21]
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