Dark Horse
Todd Solondz’s strange, oddly moving new film stars Jordan Gelber as Abe, a fat, mid-30-something who lives with his parents and works for his dad. Garishly uncool, he wears horrible novelty T-shirts and drives a yellow Hummer; socially inept, he alternates between suspiciously easygoing politeness and petulant rage. Abe invents a romance between himself and a beautiful, overmedicated depressive, Miranda, and, in a scene emblematic of his self-delusion, proposes marriage. Shockingly, she accepts. “You’re not being ironic?” she hedges. It’s a valid query: Most of Todd Solondz’s scripted lines have more than one available read. The origami-like narrative is precariously hinged on a trope borrowed from midcentury soap-opera, but its dismantling of otherness is graceful. If “graceful” is not a word you associate with the auteur of WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE AND HAPPINESS, you owe it to yourself to see what Solondz has been up to lately. DARK HORSE is the most mature film of his career, and maybe the greatest. (Karina longworth)
- Jordan Gelber - Abe
- Selma Blair - Miranda
- Mia Farrow - Mutter
- Christopher Walken - Vater
- Aasif Mandvi - Mahmoud
- Justin Bartha - Richard
- Todd Solondz
- Andrij Parekh
- Eric Offin
- Kevin Messman
- Michael Hill
- Alex DiGerlando
- Kurt and Bart
Goldcrest Films
