Horse Girl Review

February 8, 2020 at 9:09pm
By Jason Stettner

Horse Girl is a Netflix Original film that follows a socially awkward woman as she tries to engage with regular life, and finds herself slowly slipping into madness. It’s a very interesting look at mental illness, from a singular perspective and the continuously frustrated people around her. Not every one of course, but it gives you an idea of a sudden breakdown or perhaps even more beyond that.

It’s certainly one that makes you think, or you just find wildly bizarre. It plays around with the concept of time, and placement of an individual during this sort of crisis. A darkened history, and a lack of resources to keep someone completely composed. That aside, it also is a sort of wild tale as it deals with possible elements of the beyond. Sarah (Alison Brie) is largely lonely, but she gets by despite tragedies that continue to reveal themselves.

There’s some level of support from a close work colleague Joan (Molly Shannon). Her roommate is also fairly understanding, but you can see a vanishing support there from Nikki (Debby Ryan) as it progresses. Again, it’s less about Sarah’s connection to them, and more about the journey she goes on. That ranges from grounded, to completely out of this world. There’s a really unique ninja type situation, and some sorrowing breakdowns.

This is really a sort of straight forward tale, that bends and goes wild. It’s an odd setup as it comes across as generic initially, has deep impactful moments that also feel somewhat undermined by her spiritual journey.

I wish they would have dug deeper into the realms of realism, as while it paints her perspective well I’m often left wondering if they wanted us to believe or not to. I fall into the latter for my thoughts on this one, but they can be convincing here at times. I think some additional perspective might have helped round things out, at the same this is properly told from her singular point of view in a mostly well done way.

Alison Brie absolutely nailed her performance in this one, you feel bad for her as she’s clearly trying her best after a tragic series of circumstances. I’m not sure what exactly more I was looking for, it perhaps was a bit too strange and yet not deep enough in that element. It gets so bizarre, and out there. I can get what they were going for, yet I can’t help but feel a slightly different execution might have made this more streamlined.

The Conclusion

Horse Girl tells a sorrowing tale that depicts itself has a magical journey of lucid dreaming, with Alison Brie taking complete command of this film. She is great here, and Molly Shannon was also excellent in support.

I felt they didn’t really use the rest of the included cast to their full potential. Smaller glimpses, and having had that cast more present might have given us needed context to be more engaged. Keep in mind that the entirety of the story is a singular perspective, one that isn’t necessarily an easy one to believe entirely. The more I think about it, the less belief I give to the wild dream sequences that got seriously wacky at the end. More weird than enticing quite honestly, and that whole ninja scenario was a bit much.

I liked this to a degree, but I also felt it didn’t hit the right mark at certain points and tonally was disjointed. It’s hard to necessarily dig into as I have an idea with spoilers as to how events played out, when it should have felt like more of a division as to how it actually did unravel.

Horse Girl Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Content Access was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 6.5