‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ Review: Rose Byrne Is Brilliantly Unhinged in a Chaotic Maternal-Meltdown Drama

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Most folks seek escapism when going to the movies, while others get off on seeing other people’s anxiety, drawing either catharsis or comedy from the idea that someone else has it worse.

Sporting a poisoned-fortune-cookie title like “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” there can be little question as to which category best describes Mary Bronstein’s stress-fueled second feature.

With her husband away and her daughter hooked up to a constantly beeping medical device, exasperated Linda (Rose Byrne) may be going out of her mind, but Bronstein puts us squarely inside it, as the walls close in, the ceiling collapses and the floor buckles beneath her.

An A24 release forged in much the same mold as “Good Time” or “Uncut Gems” (which Bronstein’s partner Ronnie co-wrote), the Safdie-esque — but refreshingly female-centered — indie movie could be “Mommy No-Legs” to those guys’ crazy-making “Daddy Longlegs”: a virtuosic portrait of mental unraveling that uses every tool in the director’s arsenal to re-create an end-of-the-world feeling on the most intimate of scales.