‘My mom used to say that I have an overactive imagination...’
Alison Brie is not just a great actress, she is a great actress who is incredibly adept at making the right choices and picking the right roles. If Brie is involved, it is normally an indicator that the project will be interesting at the very least. Horse Girl is perhaps her most personal project yet (Brie co-wrote the screenplay with director Jeff Baena) and this is reflected in a knock-it-out-of-the-park, unflinching performance that helps to elevate Horse Girl into something quite beautiful.
Sarah (Brie) is a troubled young woman who starts to unravel over a series of weeks when she begins to suspect that she is a clone. Her slip into mental illness matches Hemingway’s description of how people go bankrupt: gradually, then suddenly.
This is a difficult, delicate role that requires Brie to portray both sides of the manic/depressive coin. That she does so with grace and skill is a testament to her ability as an actress. Baena shoots the whole thing as an ethereal daydream, something that helps to reflect Sarah’s status as an unreliable narrator, and this all combines to form a movie that is very much like its protagonist: frustrating, vulnerable and impossible to resist.
Horse Girl won’t be for everyone. The film is often ambiguous and frustratingly opaque, but there is also no denying that it is utterly unique and succeeds in being both creepy and heartbreaking. A difficult tightrope to walk, but one that Brie and Baena pull off in spades.
While this passion project was never likely to find a huge audience, it will be remembered fondly by those that saw it, and that’s about as successful as any artist should hope to be.