It feels like a strange thing to say, more than a decade after her breakthrough with simultaneous supporting roles on “Community” and “Mad Men,” but it feels like we’re still waiting for the definitive Alison Brie vehicle. It looked as though it was going to be “GLOW” when that Netflix series premiered back in 2017, but (to Brie’s credit) it quickly shifted its focus from her character to the ensemble at large; the most recent season, if anything, gave her less screen time than some of her co-stars. So, like many an enterprising actor before her, Brie took matters into her own hands; she not only stars in her new film “Horse Girl” (which premieres on Netflix next month), but co-wrote and co-produced it with director Jeff Baena, with whom she previously collaborated in “The Little Hours.”
READ MORE: Here Are Our Most Anticipated Films from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival
Brie plays Sarah, a young, single, painfully shy woman living a life that seems extremely manageable (and managed). She works in a crafts shop, alongside Joan (Molly Shannon), who seems to be her only real friend. (Shannon and Brie are great together – you buy that they’ve been working with each other for years.) She takes a Zumba class and watches a lot of television, and gets a full eight hours of sleep every night, like clockwork. And after work she visits the stables, where she brushes and talks to a horse she used to ride, but no longer does (for reasons that will become clear).
READ MORE: The 25 Best Movies Of 2020 We’ve Already Seen
And then… things start happening. She has a recurring and very strange nightmare. She stars sleepwalking, and spacing out when she’s awake. Feeling herself coming apart at the seams, she asks her stepfather, “How old was mom when she started acting like Helen,” and by that point in the story, we don’t have to be told what “acting like Helen” probably means.
READ MORE: 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2020
Brie and Baena’s script delves into some thought-provoking territory, examining the thin line between quirk and mental illness (watch as her dinner date goes from slightly odd to unquestionably disturbing), and playing with perspective and perception; there’s something about the way she says “I know that it sounds crazy, but it just feels really real to me” that is troubling and heartbreaking and scary, all at once.
READ MORE: 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2020
She is, to be clear, just astonishingly good, in a role not many actors can pull off – we’re with her, from the beginning, because she’s so meek and likable, and because she’s Alison Brie. At risk of seeming to throw shade, it’s exactly the kind of role an actor writes for themselves to play, hitting notes from flirty to broken to furious (and all the notes in between for good measure). And she’s surrounded with strong supporting players; “GLOW” supporting actor Toby Huss is sympathetically stymied as the trainer of her former horse, Paul Reiser projects easy, offhand warmth as her stepfather, and David Paymer gets a big laugh by just listening to questions like “Is there also a test, like, to see if I’m a clone?” and patiently replying, “Sarah, I’m an ear, nose, and throat specialist.”
READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2019 You Didn’t See
Baena (also known for Sundance zombie comedy “Life After Beth“) leaves himself with an especially tricky tone to navigate, establishing the film as a delicate character study before honing in on everyday peculiarities and paranoia – and then exploding them. He struggles mightily, and lands a few sequences and turns, but as the picture slips into vaguely yet self-consciously Lynch-ian territory, the filmmaker begins to lose control. He just doesn’t have the visual acumen to pull off this kind of wild reinvention, or to take this narrative into the dark places they clearly want it to go.
That’s a shame, because it’s the kind of film you want to succeed, and they’re trying to do a lot – probably too much, frankly. Brie’s work is worth celebrating, and the ambition of the project is admirable. But a picture like this has to float on more than good intentions. [C+]
Follow along for all of our coverage from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival here.
