If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, dir. Mary Bronstein
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is the second feature from writer, director, producer, and actress, Mary Bronstein, who dons each of these hats in this invigorating film. The film follows Linda (Rose Byrne), a mother who is pushed to her physical and mental limit when she must deal simultaneously with her daughter’s mysterious illness, her ever-absent husband, her therapy practice and its complicated patients, her destroyed home, a prolonged motel stay, and a total lack of sleep.
Rose Byrne’s leading performance is incredibly engaging throughout the entire film; she maintains a manic and desperate energy that lets the viewer feel the weight of the world on her shoulders. Stylistically, comparisons have already been drawn between this film’s tone and Benny and Josh Safdie’s Uncut Gems, which harnessed a similarly malevolent and relentless energy that never gives the audience nor characters a moment’s rest. What frees If I Had Legs I’d Kick You from this comparison is how the film points its proverbial finger at the complexity of motherhood in the modern world.
Alongside Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch and Lynne Ramsey’s new release, Die My Love, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You explores the inherent horror of being a mother, losing one’s sense of self behind the label, and exploring a longing to free oneself from the shackles of the unreasonable expectations put on parents — especially women — and one’s own biology and body.
The film, despite being emotionally heavy and thematically rich, is also incredibly funny, utilizing its comedy to shatter the otherwise nerve-shredding tension being built. The casting of comedians like Conan O’Brien and the suddenly-everywhere Ivy Wolk lends the film an off-kilter comedic sensibility that runs both parallel to and convergent with the drama at hand.
The sound design is another notable aspect of this film’s ability to convey its goals, with an almost ever-present soundscape and score that surrounds and swallows the protagonist. It both overwhelms and envelops the audience within the film’s crushing ambience, yet leaves us smiling as it comes to a crescendo. Highly recommend!
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, dir. Rian Johnson
Wake Up Dead Man, the third chapter of the Knives Out series, saw its release this year at TIFF, continuing a tradition established by director Rian Johnson with the previous installment, Glass Onion, in 2022. Wake Up Dead Man turns its gaze towards faith, following Jud (Josh O’Connor), a former boxer turned priest who seeks to make a difference in his community, brushing up against the establishment and his congregation leader, Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin), who incites cruelty and zealotry among his followers. When an impossible death occurs, followed by several seemingly supernatural scenarios, detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is called in to investigate and situate the truth within this superstitious system.
Like the previous Knives Out installments, Johnson continues to surprise audiences with the twists and turns of his mystery scripts, spurring numerous gasps and speculative whispering from the viewers at my screening.
Performance-wise, the film belongs to Josh O’Connor as Daniel Craig takes a back seat to the younger star; yet, O’Connor’s moment in the spotlight also comes at the detriment of the rest of the cast. The Knives Out films typically relish their star-studded casts, assembling ensembles that play off of one another in the name of intrigue and comedy equally. However, in Wake Up Dead Man, I often forgot some characters even existed. The narrative focus on Jud and his struggle with his faith was compelling, but it frequently left the other characters too far in the periphery.
Wake Up Dead Man is much darker than the previous two Knives Out entries, both in subject matter and in visual style. The film draws much of its aesthetic inspiration from Gothic and religious iconography, sometimes even dipping its toes into horror. This direction is taken with such finesse that I can only hope that Johnson considers making a true horror film sometime soon, as he clearly has the muscle for it. The mystery is satisfying once the reveal arises, and I greatly encourage anyone interested in the film to see it in theatres during its limited release period, even though it is now available on Netflix. Recommend!
