Jeff Baena may not be a household name to most people, but to those who frequent Sundance he’s probably very high on the radar. Park City has been the launching pad for every film he’s directed: Life After Beth, Joshy, and the religious black comedy The Little Hours. So naturally, it’s also where his latest, Horse Girl, is set to debut, and this might be the weirdest of them all.
Starring and co-written by Alison Brie, who worked with Baena on The Little Hours, Horse Girl follows a socially awkward with a love for horses and crime shows, who begins to lose her grip on reality. Brie is surrounded by a stellar cast that includes Sundance favorites Debby Ryan, John Reynolds, Molly Shannon, John Ortiz, Paul Reiser, and Jay Duplass, ensuring this will be one of the hottest tickets in town.
This looks positively bizarre, and a showcase for Brie who always brings her A+ stuff to Sundance. That it also comes from the producers of surreal, existential films The One I Love and Safety Not Guaranteed is no surprise.
SYNOPSIS: Sarah (Alison Brie), a socially isolated arts and crafts store employee, finds herself more content in the company of horses and supernatural crime shows than people. But when a series of strangely surreal dreams upend the simplicity of her waking life, Sarah struggles to distinguish her visions from reality. Directed by Jeff Baena, Horse Girl is a darkly humorous psychological thriller about a woman’s search for the truth, however abstract it may be.
Horse Girl is a Netflix joint, and will hit the streamer on February 7th.
