Not Another A24 Movie

For the most part, I like A24 movies, even if the movies certainly have a kind of house style. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein, 2025) — produced by A24 high priest Joshua Safdie — certainly adheres to the A24 formula. There’s lots of shouting, a handheld frantic aesthetic, memorable anecdotes, immersive and often grating sound design, a few trippy visuals, and finally, a totally meme-worthy cast. While “formulaic” is often used as a pejorative, I mean it in a positive sense here: here’s another A24 movie with another winning formula. 

A large part of that is down to powerhouse actress Rose Byrne, offering one of her career-best performances as Linda, a woman being whittled down to the bone by the impossible expectations of motherhood. Bryne’s work in the Insidious films (2010-) has prepared her for this, yet she gets a looser, more creative role here. She vacillates between caring deeply for her daughter suffering from a mysterious illness and wanting to completely break free of all conventional feminine duties, Byrne expertly able to hold contrasting and contradictory ideas within the same rounded performance. Without her brilliant command of the screen, this feature length anxiety attack simply wouldn’t work.

The Safdie Brothers’ Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019) are a common reference point here, replacing criminal activities with the far more realistic yet equally terrifying horrors of parenting. It begins with an intense close-up of Linda’s face, listening as her daughter tells a medical professional that her mother is like putty and often sad, able to be pushed around by her daughter with ease, unlike Linda’s husband, working far, far away, pushing Linda to the edge. In a bold structural gambit, the daughter’s face is never seen, imbuing her whiny and demanding voice (Delaney Quinn) with an extra level of menace.

While Byrne is basically made for the role, the meme casting of the supporting cast is a little distracting. Talk show host Conan O’Brien plays it downbeat and demure as her (frankly awful) therapist, completely unable to give her any closure. A$AP Rocky is rather effective and naturalistic as a friendly face in a motel, probably teeing himself for a decent acting career. And then there’s the third familiar face, which I will not ruin here. While I thought all those performances were good enough, it did seem more of a choice to provoke “hey-that-guy” conversation than perhaps finding the very best actors for the part, especially when compared to someone like Sean Baker’s pitch-perfect street casting for supporting roles.

Still, they don’t get in the way of what is essentially a fun awards play for Bryne, especially as If I Had Legs leans progressively into black comedy territory. And the most noteworthy moment is the one completely uncommented on. At a support group for parents with children suffering from this disease, no men are present. The thesis is obvious: when things go wrong with children, it’s women who have to deal with it. This is a fine portrait of one woman who is dealing with it very, very badly.