Archive for November, 2025

Film Review – If I had Legs I’d Kick You

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , on November 14, 2025 by Reel Review Roundup

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (MA)

Directed by: Mary Bronstein

Starring: Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Review by: Julian Wright

Linda’s (Rose Byrne) life is utter chaos at the moment.

She is a full-time therapist, her young daughter is being fed through a tube into her stomach and needs constant medical attention, her husband Charles (Christian Slater) is working out of town, and the ceiling in their apartment has just collapsed forcing them to live in a motel.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Linda is barely keeping it together – she displays the patience of a saint around her demanding child, but at night she retreats with a bottle of wine and a joint to disassociate.

Not even her therapist/colleague (Conan O’Brien) seems equipped to help.

The first thing you might do after watching If I Had Legs…is book a holiday because it feels like you have been on this exhausting rollercoaster blur of life events with Linda.

Director Mary Bronstein keeps the level of hectic consistently high, keeping the viewer on the verge of a a panic attack.

Linda is juggling so many balls in the air, it is just a matter of time until something has to give, right?

It isn’t just that a lot of things are going on in a short period of time, we are feeling how this impacts a person and how they deal (or not deal) with it.

It is all so scarily relatable.

Rose Byrne is astounding, her frustration and desperation always just bubbling under the surface as the fatigue slowly sets in and her eyes get heavier.

Just keeping up the level of energy required to film this is impressive in itself, fortunately she is skilled enough to bring levels of nuance to the performance.

The trippy interludes around the giant hole in the ceiling are a slight detour that cements its arthouse cinema status and are not entirely necessary.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick you is highly recommended viewing.

Not recommended is watching this in a double feature with Die My Love – give the two some breathing room.

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Film Review – Die My Love

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , on November 14, 2025 by Reel Review Roundup

Die My Love (MA)

Directed by: Lynne Ramsay

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Review by: Julian Wright

The stifling nature of domesticity and a growing mental illness sends a young mother into a nightmarish spiral in the harrowing Die My Love.

When New York creatives Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and Jack (Robert Pattinson) move into their inherited cottage in the middle of Montana, it is supposed to be a beautiful new chapter in their lives.

Grace becomes pregnant and the couple begin raising their son – except Jack mostly works away, leaving Grace alone with the baby, no family, friends, or neighbours.

As the isolation and writer’s block takes its toll, Grace’s behaviour becomes erratic – but soon it appears that it is something much deeper that is affecting her.

Grace goes through the gamut of emotions associated with new motherhood: fatigue, low self-esteem, isolation, but it is compounded with this new lifestyle change that does not agree with her.

She is dying to express herself but doesn’t know how – it is frustrating and upsetting, for her and the viewer.

Lawrence is completely fearless and uninhibited in her portrayal of Grace, behaving child-like at certain times and then animalistic in others.

It is a performance that is fascinating to watch.

Die My Love is one of the best made films that captures exactly what it intends to and creates a mood and feeling that it intends to – the thing is it that the mood and feeling is dire.

Director Lynne Ramsay has such a strong hold and focus on the material that it is borderline documentary levels of realism.

This is a wonderful example of women telling stories about a woman’s experience, one that deserves to be told and explored, to allow visibility for those who have experienced it and educate those that have not.

And while it is definitely not a film intended to be enjoyed, it can certainly be admired, if one can endure the feeling of being different shades of frustrated, depressed and miserable for two hours.

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