It’s looking like a pretty tame Sundance Film Festival in terms of buzzy titles this year. We’re currently on Day 4, and the consensus seems to be that Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” produced by A24, is the best buzzed title (81 on Metacritic). There’s still another day left for world premieres so, hopefully, they saved the best for last.
‘If I Had Legs,’ which is also supposed to screen, in competition, at the Berlin Film Festival next month, is said to feature a career-best turn from Rose Byrne, an incredibly underrated actress who finally gets her due here.
In the film, Byrne plays Linda, a woman who attempts to navigate her child’s mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist. In a nutshell her life, and mental psyche, are crumbling before her very eyes. No surprise, the film is being compared to another film with similar themes, John Cassavetes’ “Woman Under the Influence.”
It’s only this coming week that I’ll start catching up to the some of the other buzzy Sundance titles, and I’ll most likely post a “best of the fest” recap by next Sunday. My ambitious plan is to watch 30 films, including “Twinless,” “The Perfect Neighbor,” “Plainclothes,” “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” “The Things You Kill,” “Omaha,” “Predators,” “Seeds,” “Two Women,” “Train Dreams,” “Come See Me in the Good Life,” “Sunfish,” and “The Ugly Stepsister.”