In late January, HBO Max added the Oscar-nominated film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You right after the film’s lead star, Rose Byrne, received a nomination for Best Actress.
This film doesn’t neatly fit into either the drama or comedy genres, although it draws on aspects of both.
Writer and director Mary Bronstein has crafted a surreal look at one woman reaching her breaking point, and it may not be for everyone.
Still, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is one of Watch With Us‘ favorite Oscar-nominated 2025 movies, and we think you’ll like it, too.
33 Best Movies on HBO Max Right Now (March 2026)
Rose Byrne Carries the Film With Her Incredible Performance
It’s not terribly surprising that If I Had Legs I’d Kick You was largely shut out of the Oscar nominations. It’s not a film that holds its audience’s collective hands and gives viewers an uplifting experience. But the one thing no one could deny is the tour-de-force performance by Rose Byrne as Linda, a psychotherapist whose life is unraveling in front of our eyes.
Linda’s daughter (Delaney Quinn) has a serious medical condition that requires Linda to constantly monitor her. Meanwhile, Linda’s husband, Charles (Christian Slater), doesn’t offer her any emotional support as she loses their apartment to freak damages and encounters mounting misfortune. Is it any wonder why Linda feels like she’s losing her mind? There’s no one in her life that she can count on, and the cascading events that unfold in the movie are driving her to dark places. Through it all, Byrne delivers an intense and even funny performance that showcases just how great and versatile an actress she is — and always has been.
Conan O’Brien and the Supporting Cast Are Very Good
Conan O’Brien spent so much of his career as a late-night talk show host that it’s bizarre to see him in this film giving such a great performance as Linda’s therapist. The therapist really doesn’t seem to like Linda very much, and he treats her with visible disdain that’s hard not to laugh at. Arguably one of the reasons Linda is spiraling is because she doesn’t have a good therapist who has her back. She just has this snarky jerk.
7 Best Movie Performances of 2025, Ranked
Slater’s Charles spends most of the film phoning it in, which is to say that Charles is only really present for his wife and child over the phone. He’s never around to help, and he’s so quick to blame Linda for their troubles that it sure seems like the couple is heading towards a divorce. The one truly sympathetic ear that Linda has in this film is James (ASAP Rocky), but rest assured, she’ll find a way to wreck that connection, too.
‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’ Is Very Bleak and Darkly Funny
It would do a disservice to this movie’s best jokes if we simply repeated them here. But if you watch the now-infamous hamster scene above, it will give you a taste of this film’s dark sense of humor. Nothing ever goes Linda’s way, even when it’s time to bring home a new pet for her daughter.
The only proper response to any of this lunacy is to laugh at its audacious humor. For a film that’s not really a comedy, it’s quite funny if you don’t mind chuckling at someone else’s expense. If Byrne walks away with an Oscar for what she did here, it will be well-deserved.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is streaming on HBO Max.
