Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

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Dotbankey A lot of fun.

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Anthony Iessi Todd Solondz has a reputation of character studying depressing, nasty characters. But some characters, are just so nasty, is it even worth studying them to begin with? Dark Horse focuses on Abe. Abe is an utterly gross human being. Every time he was on screen, I wanted to dry heave. He's sweaty looking and painfully obnoxious. Every person he comes in contact with, he just treats like garbage. Worst of all, he thanklessly lives with his parents, whom he really hates, because they would constantly favor his successful brother over him. Solondz wants us to sympathize with this character. Good luck, folks. There isn't a shred of likability in this character. He acts like a petty bitch from the get-go. His negativity effects everyone around him. He's certainly not the victim that Solondz wants us to believe he is. It's not like he was the victim of neglect or abuse of any sort. If a dark, sad past was established, then I would whole-heartedly sympathize with what we could all agree is a broken man. Abe isn't broken. He's intentionally a scumbag. On a narrative level, it really doesn't work. Nothing really moves forward from the basis of our main character lashing out at everyone close to him, just because he's a proud man- child. I was just annoyed by it all. Probably not as annoyed, however, as Toys R' Us, demanding that the film digitally blur out their name… So I guess there's that.

Matt Kracht The plot: An obnoxious man-child attempts an ill-fated romance with an equally broken woman, while coming to certain realizations about his life.Dark Horse is not an easy movie to watch, but when have any Todd Solondz movies been easy to watch? His unflinching, brutally honest portrayals of flawed people make him popular with the indie crowd, but it's difficult to recommend his movies to anyone else. It's difficult not to identify with the parade of eternal losers of Solondz's movies, no matter how flawed they are, because, really, these people are us. We might try to deny it, of course, but the truth of the matter is that his movies are just too uncomfortably real for many people to enjoy. You might not be an awkward, depressed girl or an obnoxious, entitled man-child, but there's probably some aspect that you can relate to. If not, then you probably know someone like this. Solondz knows who we are, and he knows our society.Dark Horse continues a rather surreal and artistic direction for Solondz. Fantasy, dreams, and reality all freely intermix. It might leave some audiences a bit confused, but it's usually pretty obvious which are which. In fact, I really enjoyed some of these scenes, because they opened the door to really inventive narrative and metaphor. In some ways, it was like David Lynch, but without the free-form stream-of-consciousness. These scenes really illustrate the characters better than any traditional scene could. The hilariously banal conversations are another nice touch. Anyone who appreciates irony will certainly enjoy them, though the irony-impaired, I think, will possibly hate this movie.Solondz's characters have arguably never before been so depressed, bitter, and broken. If you're looking for an uplifting story, full of inspirational and likable characters, this is not the movie for you. Solondz is the undisputed master of strangely sympathetic portraits of society's biggest losers and weirdos. This one will hit pretty close to home for many geeks.

tieman64 "I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck. My lawyer says he can get me five." - Steve Wright "Dark Horse" is another depressing film from writer/director Todd Solondz. The plot? Jordan Gelber plays Abe, an overweight man who lives with his parents and works for his father. Stuck in arrested development, Abe collects toys, struggles to date women and uses fancy jewellery and expensive cars to help foster, for himself, the illusion that he may one day "grow up" and "be someone". In this regard Abe sees himself as a dark horse; someone who will one day overcome suffering and set backs to find eventual happiness. The truth, of course, is that these beliefs are defence mechanisms which Abe uses to protect himself from reality. What is this reality? Abe's life has always been one of unhappiness/suffering, and is likely to always be one of unhappiness/suffering. Solondz then asks his audience this: should Abe give up on hope? Should Abe give up on life? Can people change and/or escape themselves? If you've seen Solondz's other films, you already know the answers. It's all very grim.Mirrored to Abe is Miranda (Selma Blair), the young woman from Solondz's "Storytelling". She's a failed writer with a disease and suicidal tendencies. Like Abe, she's given up on life. Both Abe and Miranda are avatars of Solondz, people he at one point feared he might himself become. The film then ends with Abe - always unlucky – dying due to a ridiculous series of freak events. People quickly forget about him, with the exception of a lonely co-worker, another dark horse who privately hopes whilst quietly suffering. Most who view the film react with hostility toward Abe. His suffering is "all his fault", he "is a jerk", he should "man up", "grow up" and stop being a "fat, rude loser". Others spin ridiculous theories: "Abe is a victim of a collapsed housing market", "Abe is suffering financial problems" etc. Why has Abe's life really gone off the tracks? Solondz provides clues (divorce, over sensitivity, inferiority complexes, hair-loss, weight problems, low self esteem, sense of entitlement etc), but the point is that it doesn't matter. With "Palindromes" Solondz already expressed a firm stance: blaming the victim for being unable to escape traps solely because others may have escaped similar traps is a fallacy rooted in a very specific type of optimism. For Solondz, destiny is always fixed, Abe's demise should be treated as a priori and Abe doesn't triumph simply because Abe does not triumph. Anyone in his exact situation would have met the same fate. It is not his fault. It is simply a slow, inexorable inevitability. Forces – social, familial, genetic, psychological, emotional, whatever – are at work here which require huge counter forces to escape. Can Abe muster the energy necessary to escape? He thinks he can, he comes close at times, he maintains throughout much of the film a fiery, heated sense of optimism. But there's only so much he can take, and in the end the universe wins.The film ends with the reminisces of one of Abe's co-workers. The intention here is to share her moment of grief. To mourn, with her, the passing of Abe, and of course to empathise with her own exclusion. But Solondz can't quite handle the moment. The film's too ironic, too knowing, too smug, to capture the emotional waves which Solondz wants us to ride. It may be a psychologically accurate film, but it's also one which is caustic and depressing rather than sad and touching. Abe's parents are played by Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow. Farrow gets the film's best scene, in which she consoles her son after he confesses his hatred of the world; life's repeatedly burnt him and so he harbours deep pain/resentment. The film's been compared to the work of Woody Allen and the Coen's Brothers - other directors who wallow in one-note existentialism - but Solondz is far more bleak.8/10 – Worth one viewing.

David Ferguson Greetings again from the darkness. Todd Solondz is the master of film uncomfortableness. If you have seen his "Happiness", you won't debate whether that's a real word or not. Mr. Solondz has a way of finding the worst in his characters and then taking it even darker and more negative. And yet, somehow, his latest (and maybe his simplest film to date) could be called a comedy.We are first introduced to Abe (Jordan Gelber) and Miranda (Selma Blair) as they share a table at a wedding, yet somehow aren't remotely together. He is oblivious to her near silent attempts to nicely avoid providing her phone number to him. The film moves quickly to provide proof that Abe is the epitome of arrested development. A mid-thirties something who not only "works" for his dad, but still lives with his parents (Mia Farrow, Christopher Walken)in a bedroom decorated with action figures. It's difficult to look at someone who takes up as much space as Abe and categorize them as a kid, so I believe the better term is "not an adult". He stalks Miranda and doesn't seem to mind/notice that she is a heavily medicated depressed individual who looks at him like he's a circus act.Abe's work environment is no better than his personal life. He brings nothing of value to his dad's company, yet somehow thinks he is always being mistreated. This carries over to his feelings toward his brother Richard (Justin Bartha), who is a doctor. Abe, who dropped out of college, believes the only difference is that Richard was the favorite son and received special privileges. It's very easy to label Abe a "loser", but somehow Solondz manages to maintain our interest with small sparks of hope.The hope quickly fades and Abe's life heads on a fast downward spiral. There are some bizarre fantasy/dream sequences that involve the quiet, much older co-worker Marie (Donna Murphy), and a conversation in the car with his mother and brother that plays like something directly out of a Woody Allen movie (made even creepier with the presence of Mia Farrow).There are some funny moments, but as Mr. Solondz would prefer, the laughs are tainted with guilt. We can't help but wonder why we laugh at a guy for whom we have such little respect ... actually bordering on disgust. I must admit to being pretty tired of Abe by the end of the movie, and couldn't help wondering if it might have been more effective as a short film. Still, the acting was superb, and unfortunately Abe isn't that much of a stretch from someone you probably know in real life. (www.moviereviewsfromthedark.wordpress.com)