A24 has dropped the trailer for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, a dark comedy-drama that’s been making waves on the festival circuit. Rose Byrne stars as a mother teetering on the edge of collapse, and the performance has already earned her Best Leading Performance at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Add a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it looks like this one’s heading into awards season with momentum.
Watch the trailer above and read on for more.
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Rose Byrne battles breakdowns and bad therapy
Byrne plays Linda, a woman whose life is rapidly caving in. Her daughter’s illness is getting worse, her husband is nowhere to be found, and the walls of her apartment are quite literally crumbling.
TV host Conan O’Brien goes a more dramatic route here and plays her therapist – someone she desperately wants answers from. “I’m asking you what I’m supposed to do. Can you hear me?!” she yells at him. His response: “I would like you to get a good night’s sleep.” With the snippets of her life the trailer shows, getting some relaxing shut-eye is clearly easier said than done.
The cast also includes Danielle Macdonald, Christian Slater, A$AP Rocky, Lark White, Ivy Wolk, Daniel Zolghadri, and Delaney Quinn.
The story behind the film and Byrne’s personal connection
“I’ve always loved the darker side of things,” Byrne said, speaking to Deadline at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. “The humor in these situations when they are incredibly heightened, these stories as a woman, I very much related to. As a mother, Mary’s script spoke to me… [It’s about] the experience of trauma of caretakers of any situation where you can’t get onto your life and something tiny will make it crumble.”
Writer-director Mary Bronstein (Yeast) based the story on her own experience dealing with her daughter’s health crisis. “The seed of it came from me having a very stressful experience with my daughter’s health when she was 7 years old,” Bronstein told Deadline. “The way I started dealing with it at the time was that I started writing this movie with no expectation of what it would be.”
It took seven years to bring the project to life—and Bronstein made it clear she was willing to wait. “I did have to wait for Rose… I had cast Conan O’Brien and A$AP Rocky, and I wanted Rose… we’re going to wait for Rose to finish her season [of Apple TV+ series Platonic] and have a rest.”
Awards season buzz for Byrne’s acclaimed performance
With Byrne’s Berlin win and a strong critical response, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You could be an unexpected player during awards season. Byrne’s performance has already turned heads; time will tell if the Oscars follow.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is set for an October theatrical release in the U.S (date to be announced) and will be released in Australian cinemas on November 13.
