Do impressive performances and haunting imagery overcome a muddled theme?
Horse Girl
Likes: Really wonderful performances, especially by Alison Brie, great dialogue, surreal and creepy imagery that stays around after you finished watching.
Dislikes: Is there a deeper meaning to this film? Or is it just here for its own sake?
Bottom Line: Why am I willing to give David Lynch obtuse non-thematic weirdness a pass but get hung up on the messaging in this movie?
4 out of 5. ◆◆◆◆◇
(If spoilers are like horsepies to you, then take another canter around the stable before reading this review.)
“Horse Girl” feels like a millennial phrase that the generation has yet to spotlight or really reclaim in the same way “Nerd” has been reclaimed. (Although doing research does reveal a segment of people referring to “Horse Girl energy” like “Big Dick energy”, sooooooo, does that count as progress?)
To me, “Horse Girl” still seems like a cruel term that people use to describe young girls who are obsessed with horses. Just type in “Horse Girl memes” into google or urban dictionary and you’ll get an idea of the depths people go to. For example, a common trope is “Horse Girls” will neigh and jump around on their hands and feet on the playground. They probably want to be a horse.
(Terminology like that is doubly heartless if you interpret that behavior as indicators of the autism spectrum, a real issue that is underreported or misdiagnosed in female populations.)
But I digress. My main point is that the phrase “Horse Girl” has a lot of negative energy to me, so hearing about a film with that as its title, I’m assuming it’s a downer of a time.
Which is mostly accurate for the Alison Brie helmed Horse Girl. It is a tension-filled trip through a slowly deteriorating mind or alien abduction or something else entirely. It left me feeling uneasy for the rest of the day and thinking about it a week later.
The first half of the film introduces us to Sarah (Alison Brie). She fits the meme mold of a “Horse Girl” in a lot of ways. Sarah is quiet and introverted, has few relationships outside of her job at an arts and crafts store (Molly Shannon as Joan is great in her role at the store), is obsessed with a Supernatural/Lucifier/Evil/CW fantasy show pitch perfect ripoff titled Purgatory, checks in on a horse she formerly rode, much to the annoyance of the stable staff and current rider, feels guilty toward an accident her friend and fellow “Horse Girl” Heather (Meredith Hagner) experienced, and she dances a mix of Zumba moves and galloping motion when she gets drunk.
She also is still grieving for her mother and has a distant relationship with her (kind-of) stepdad Gary (Paul Reiser). It is heavily implied that her family has history with some kind of mental illness which remains unnamed throughout the film.
Things really start to take a turn after Sarah’s birthday. After a painfully awkward (and relatable, oof…) sequence of Sarah failing to draw up the courage to ask anyone to celebrate with her, her roommate Nikki (Debbie Ryan) invites Darren (John Reynolds) over to their apartment. Its clear that Nikki and her boyfriend Brian (Jake Picking) are exasperated with Sarah and look to pair her up with Darren as a night of drinking and marijuana ensues.
(I just need to insert here that the dialogue at the party scene is among the best at quickly and humorously getting across everyone’s characters. From Brian’s horrible rap album to Nikki’s increasing annoyance but attempted good nature toward Sarah, to Darren’s complaining about an ex-girlfriend, it’s all very well done. This movie was partly produced by the Duplass brothers so dialogue feeling natural but witty is par for the course.)
Sarah dreams after the party she is in a white room with black indiscernible creatures with a man and woman as well as an illuminated platform over the ocean reaching up into the night sky. She wakes to claw marks on the wall and progressively stranger and stranger events. Sarah teleports and loses her car, she imagines people talking in her apartment, she sleepwalks and experiences time loss, she hears the future. After a late-night internet search Sarah becomes convinced she is a clone of her grandmother and that aliens are experimenting on her.
She tries to protect herself using the energy of colors and burning incense, but the incidents keep occurring. Eventually the events crescendo and cross the Rubicon into fully surreal and horrifying imagery. Each of those could, in themselves, be theorized about further, and especially the ending, which at best is ambiguous and at worst obscures the deeper meaning of the film.
Which is where I feel conflicted about my enjoyment of the film. I’m not sure about the message behind this movie. It does certainly feel like a trip through a mentally ill person’s mind, but does it have anything else to say about that? Or is it just here to torture Sarah? Like, weird stuff keeps happening, but if Sarah has no agency or we can’t be sure of her reality, then what’s the point?
Part of me thinks I just haven’t given Horse Girl enough thought yet and maybe there is a deeper meaning to the story. In the week since watching, I have been going over events and symbolism in my head, trying to find something to latch on to and that’s the mark of an interesting movie. So even though the themes are confused, I will recommend watching this movie. Maybe after you’re done, we can discover its meaning together.
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