{"id":48105,"date":"2025-08-06T15:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/48105\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T15:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T15:18:08","slug":"rose-byrne-has-a-meltdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/48105\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose Byrne Has a Meltdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linda is having a bad day, a bad week, maybe even a bad life flashing before her eyes. <\/p>\n

In Mary Bronstein\u2019s nonstop aria of controlled chaos, \u201cIf I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You<\/a>,\u201d Linda is a Montauk psychotherapist in freefall while just trying to take care of her sick daughter, patch up that hole in her ceiling that\u2019s gushing water, and plop down on the couch for time with her own therapist. She\u2019s played by Rose Byrne<\/a> in undoubtedly the best performance of the actress\u2019 stellar career. <\/p>\n

But if you were a \u201cDamages\u201d fan, you already know the dramatic pyrotechnics the \u201cSpy\u201d and \u201cBridesmaids\u201d scene-stealer is capable of, and with Linda, Byrne unleashes a whirl of oh-god-help-me (but please, don\u2019t help me) anguish.<\/p>\n

\"'The<\/a> \"SUNSET<\/a> <\/p>\n

A24<\/a> releases Bronstein\u2019s second feature behind the camera, which first premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film<\/a> Festival before Byrne predictably (and deservedly!) won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival, where \u201cIf I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You\u201d made its next stop in competition. The movie arrives in theaters October 10, and the first trailer, which you can watch below, is here to give you a taste of Byrne\u2019s unforgettable turn.<\/p>\n

Linda\u2019s relationship with her own therapist (Conan O\u2019Brien) \u2014 whose office is just down the hall, mind you \u2014 is a fraught one. Meanwhile, her daughter has a mystery illness and a tube pumping food into her stomach, one Linda is eager to get extracted, though a healthcare professional (played by Bronstein herself) advises her not to. Linda\u2019s husband (played by an actor whose cameo I won\u2019t spoil) is MIA, and so while the sudden hole in her apartment ceiling festers, she\u2019s forced to live in a motel operated by some surly types and also inhabited by a nosy, potentially helpful neighbor played by A$AP Rocky. Meanwhile, Linda is guzzling cheap wine and smoking joints, just trying to make it through one more day.<\/p>\n

IndieWire\u2019s David Ehrlich raved about this brilliant movie out of Sundance with an A-grade review<\/a>. \u201cIt spirals towards the very bottom of Linda\u2019s soul with a terminal velocity that feels as incontrovertible and uncompromising as the laws of physics. They always say to put your own oxygen mask on first, but what if you are the emergency?\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Linda is spiraling out of control, but we are with her circling the drain, as Bronstein vividly realizes the ultimate boss-level horror movie of motherhood. The film counts Josh Safdie among its producers, and comparisons to \u201cUncut Gems\u201d are earned, though \u201cIf I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You\u201d is an emotional and sensory torpedo no references can help you see coming.<\/p>\n

The film next plays TIFF and the New York Film Festival, though we gather it will be at Telluride to help stir momentum for Byrne\u2019s awards-worthy performance. The Academy would make an egregious error not to honor her work here.<\/p>\n

Watch the trailer for \u201cIf I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You\u201d below. The film opens in limited release on Friday, October 10.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Linda is having a bad day, a bad week, maybe even a bad life flashing before her eyes.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[29193,64,63,134,1689,41028,344,41029,13293],"class_list":["post-48105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-a24","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-if-i-had-legs-id-kick-you","tag-movies","tag-rose-byrne","tag-trailers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}