If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Mary Bronstein
»There is an abyss between the mother and the child.« Julia Kristeva
Linda (Rose Byrne), mother and therapist, drifts through a feverish spiral of exhaustion, guilt and absurd obligations. Her husband (Christian Slater), a »captain at sea«, exists mostly as a disembodied voice on the phone; her chronically ill daughter is largely offscreen, reduced to body fragments and a relentlessly demanding register scratching at Linda’s psyche. Every attempt to do the right thing fails. Byrne – Golden Globe and Berlinale winner, Oscar-nominated for this role – carries the film with ferocious physical precision, her face and gestures registering strain before language ever can. Bronstein, herself actor, mother, screenwriter and author of feminist theory, shapes a hallucinatory »mother-on-the-verge« horror, where care becomes compulsion and love shades into self-erasure. With jittery camerawork, fragmented montage and unrelenting rhythm, motherhood becomes something both deeply familiar and alien: a bond so consuming it borders on madness. Surreal set pieces – a floating ceiling hole, Montauk’s foggy coastline, a wayward hamster – tilt reality into the uncanny. Balancing tragedy and dark humour, the film probes the grey zone between care, devotion and self-sacrifice – intensely personal yet universally resonant. Motherhood here is merciless, punishing, relentless, yet (com)passionate in its potential.
Awards for »If I Had Legs I’d Kick You«
Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance for Rose Byrne – Berlinale 2025, Golden Globe for Rose Byrne – Best Actress 2025
Mary Bronstein
Mary Bronstein, who was born in White Plains, New York, in 1979, is a filmmaker, writer and actor based in New York City. She trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. From her extensive experience as an actor, she has developed a performance-driven, auteurist approach to filmmaking. Her debut feature Yeast premiered at SXSW in 2008 and became a cult classic for its raw portrayal of female intimacy and emotional breakdown. Her second feature If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, produced by A24, premiered at Sundance and Berlinale in 2025. Bronstein’s work blends dark humour, psychological intensity and genre elements to explore motherhood, care and female self-sacrifice.
Films by Mary Bronstein
Round Town Girls 2009 | Yeast 2008
