This movie feels like a culmination of sorts - it spins right off into extended fantasy for long periods of time, allowing us right inside the sordid funny and downright depressing fantasy life of Abe, king of the losers

| Jul 14, 2021

While this may not be Solondz's strongest piece, it may very well fit the bill as a dark horse in his filmography.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 27, 2019

Though Dark Horse offers plenty of laughs, in no way is this a film in the wake of Hollywood man-child comedies... There's no easy resolution to Abe's situation and the audience is not really rooting for him to get the girl and the happy ending.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 30, 2019

Dark Horse employs the director's gift of peeling back the layers of life, giving you a glimpse into all things unpleasant-whether you want to see them or not.

| Mar 4, 2019

Initially funny and interesting, but gradually becomes rather dull and uninspiring.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 25, 2019

With situations less merciless than in his previous films, Dark Horse allows you to give in to the writer-director's dark humor without feeling nearly so guilty.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 21, 2018

It's all downplayed somewhat by a monotonous trip through the subconscious, an inconsistent and increasingly unoriginal narrative and an altogether weak conclusion.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 13, 2018

Beneath the brightly colors and loud music of Dark Horse, there's very little really there.

| Aug 9, 2018

Acerbic character study.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 10, 2016

An exercise in compassionate misanthropy.

| May 3, 2016

A typically ineffective effort from Todd Solondz...

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 27, 2013

Solondz seems to be making a statement about arrested development and the harsh realities of loneliness and age, but it's so clumsily and irritatingly executed that his arguments remain difficult to see.

| Oct 5, 2012

Age seems to have softened Todd Solondz and it is a real shame, as we have tonnes of optimistic filmmakers but only one of him. Come back, Todd.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 27, 2012

"Dark Horse" ends up being a film about loneliness, and the desperate things people will think and do to escape it. And, for once, Solondz doesn't sneer at that desperation.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 12, 2012

Though Dark Horse is disturbing and funny like most Solondz pictures, it's also mystifyingly touching; it moves into totally unexpected places.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 22, 2012

It would be unfair and patronizing to say that Solondz needs to grow up, but "Dark Horse" suggests that it's time for the bard of bourgeois hypocrisy to consider moving on.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Aug 17, 2012

The title could be taken as indicative of the film's chances of scoring outside of Solonfz's small cadre of followers, but 'Dark Horse' indicates that a grain of empathy has made its way into his usual desert of despair.

| Original Score: B- | Aug 14, 2012

The suffocating darkness of much of Solondz's work has diminished here, but so has the humor, and it never reaches the massive catharsis of a film like Happiness.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 9, 2012

Solondz has made a career out of specializing in highly aberrant views of middle-class life.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 9, 2012

That Gelber can make Abe appealing in any way is a triumph. That Solondz can orchestrate such a feat is an even bigger one.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 9, 2012