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Dark Horse

Dark Horse

2011
Comedy, Drama
1h 26m
Romance blooms between two thirty-somethings in arrested development: an avid toy collector and a woman who is the dark horse of her family. (imdb)
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Dark Horse

2011
Comedy, Drama
1h 26m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 46.21% from 288 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(288)
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Compact view
Rated 26 Nov 2012
90
95th
solondz creates one of the most unlikeable (yet believable) characters possible, and then continues to destroy him completely (to the point where he isn't so 'unlikeable' anymore). i was laughing almost constantly throughout this film, to the point of tears. casting/production/soundtrack/direction all add perfectly to the ironic feel of this film. an important film for a new and very 'post-modern/post-ironic/whatever you want to call it' style of cinema
Rated 10 Jul 2013
92
86th
This got relatively weak reviews, but I honestly feel it stands alongside Solondz' best, a fantastically judged portrait of a social misfit contrasting dark, dark overtones with a bouncing power-pop soundtrack
Rated 22 Jun 2022
70
67th
Honestly a fascinating exploration of incels before that was a coherent identity, and of suburban American masculinity in the twilight of the 2000s
Rated 19 Oct 2019
69
23rd
Not good, but not as bad as Life After Wartime. Mostly agree with eCitizen's take, except the part about the music, which was the worst.
Rated 05 Oct 2014
20
8th
Selma Blair somber and in a pit of despair, Christopher Walken hamstrung by a forgettable role, Mia Farrow as a co-dependent mother, and Jordan Gelber is an unlikable overweight immature annoying jerk. This movie has nothing much going for it except for a bit of irony and some good music. Frequently tedious. By the end, I really couldn't care less about these characters. The story is told in a fractured and confused way with too many cuts and confusing dream sequences. Unsatisfying.
Rated 21 Mar 2015
53
10th
no. not for me. the pacing or something is too slow. i don't like the main dude. i know i'm not supposed to like him, but still. i can't get over it enough to enjoy myself
Rated 11 Feb 2013
79
68th
Fucking Solondz did it again. This guy seems to be always on the edge of something. There wasn't anything like Happiness back in the late 1990s, and I have never heard of anything like Dark Horse. Solondz this came up with this asshole of a character and in the end you are giving your hearth out for him. This is just incredible cinema.
Rated 24 Jan 2015
30
10th
Diluted Solondz. Although the movie has some potential, the second part with the increased fantasy sequences just didn't work for me.
Rated 28 Jun 2012
15
21st
"Yesterday, Solondz blocking the screen meant something, even if it was just his own petulance. Today, a blurred sign only signifies his capitulation to peer pressure." - Ed Gonzalez
Rated 21 Mar 2013
92
94th
For a pretty sharp 82 minutes, Solondz manages to, in an extremely modern fashion, cover quite a few very universal issues -- giving up on hope, egocentrism, the selfishness of love, fantasy/self-deprecation distorting reality. Fun, fun, fun! Solondz is a genius.
Rated 05 Oct 2013
66
32nd
65.500
Rated 15 May 2017
11
12th
Emotional masochism
Rated 09 Dec 2012
47
44th
Solondz is falling disconcertingly into self-parody at this point. The humor is still relatively satisfying in his usual (somewhat superficially) misanthropic way, but there is a stuntedness to his aesthetics and worldview that strangely mirrors that of the film's protagonist. Where Storytelling and Palindromes were genuinely challenging, and Life During Wartime was at least conceptually intriguing, his newest film is mostly just perplexing.
Rated 12 Jul 2016
80
62nd
This movie may be my second favourite after 'Happiness". Solondz is the master painter of humor and pathos. One scene had me erupt into laughter, and sometimes that's all it takes.
Rated 22 Jan 2014
72
46th
Typically misanthropic yet curiously satisfying and incisive, Dark Horse is a movie that preaches to the cynical converted.
Rated 02 Oct 2017
68
66th
(Viewed in 2012): Solondz is the negative flipside of Apatow: in his world, arrested development has serious consequences. Gelber impresses as Abe, a socially awkward 30 something manchild who collects toys and is selfish and entitled. He becomes romantically involved with his better looking female equivalent while his life goes down the drain. It's a tragi-comic look at a man seemingly predestined to fail, and Solondz takes pity on him in way that suggests he might be softening with age. Good.
Rated 21 Nov 2011
60
24th
I was dissapointed by this, but it still has something to offer... maybe a wake up call for somebody..
Rated 25 Oct 2018
73
77th
viewed 8 years later in 2019, Dark Horse has become significantly more chilling. people who think this is an optimistic film are wrong. do not confuse empathy and optimism. i don't think it's that ironic either, just a tremendously sad and honest portrait of western consumerism (not to be a post-marxist cliche or anything).
Rated 15 Feb 2019
55
16th
Well-done acting and promising first act are undone by the last 30-45min which are unsatisfying and don't have much emotional resonance.
Rated 30 Apr 2020
50
14th
A strange one. As an idiosyncratic critique of Western consumerism it is effective. Directly taking aim at the nature of collecting, finding self-worth in owning things instead of earning them. It works. However I think this mostly fails as a character study. All of the casting is too hyperbolized and the story itself is messy, stylistically bored, and at times incomprehensible. I think Solondz needs to try something completely new.
Rated 04 Feb 2024
39
31st
Is Solondz softening his style in his old age? Please don't go John Waters on me... His themes of awkwardness, alienation, and repression work much better with his earlier hard-edged style. I just couldn't figure out what he was trying to do with this one.

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