HORSE GIRL (2020)

Directed By: Jeff Baena 
Written By: Jeff Baena & Alison Brie 
Cinematography: Sean McElwee 
Editor: Ryan Brown 


Cast: Alison Brie, Molly Shannon, John Ortiz, Debby Ryan, Toby Huss, Angela Trimbur, Paul Reiser, Aaron Stanford, Robin Tunney, Matthew Gray Gubler, Dylan Gelula, John Reynolds, David Paymer, Jay Duplass 

Sarah, a socially isolated arts and crafts store employee, finds herself more content in the company of horses and supernatural crime shows than people. But when a series of strangely surreal dreams upend the simplicity of her waking life, Sarah struggles to distinguish her visions from reality. A darkly humorous psychological thriller about a woman's search for the truth, however abstract it may be.


This is a very trippy movie that ultimately leaves you wondering and to interpret what you are seeing. Is there truth to what is happening? or is this all in the characters head? So that by the end the film is an intense look into mental illness.

Alison Brie who stars and co-wrote the film gives a devastating performance that shows her range and strength as an actress. One only wishes the film was as strong as her performance and rose to the occasion.

The movie starts off well but eventually paints itself into a corner. It wants to disorient the audience as much as the protagonist and makes the audience uncomfortable but presents it in a pleasent way that keeps getting more disturbing.

While the film settles for ambivalence letting the audience feel just as off center as the main character does throughout most of the film. Even when she believes she has figured everything out. We don't know if that is true or a delusion. As the film Refuses to give answers or really any clues that could help you find the answers.

The main character has our sympathy as she is so sweet, awkward and good natured but a little off at first. So that it is devastating to watch her breakdown. Even as she is never violent but as she seems to lose her mind she oddly stays nice just increasingly irate.

Even as she finds a romance during the time and is obsessed with a television show that is fantasy and science fiction that seems to tie in with when delusions or fate depending how you look at it. As it seems to be one of the few connections the film allows itself to explain. While others remain a mystery.

The film floats on an interesting idea that proves to have a tough follow through.

Grade: C