Dark Horse Review

Dark Horse is a short, strange little film that’s likely to get swallowed up by the blockbusters of the summer. This is a shame as whilst far from a perfect picture, it’s well worth taking the time to bask in its peculiar glory. Brought to the screen by cult writer-director Todd Solondz, Dark Horsebegins with a brilliant opening scene in which a party of wedding guests dance joyously to some upbeat popular music. The camera pans around to a table where two invitees remain seated, at odds with the rest of the room. They are Abe and Miranda, a couple of strange, damaged people with whom we are about to spend eighty-five minutes.

Abe (Jordan Gelber) is a thirty-something who still lives with his parents, spends inordinate amounts of money on collectable figurines (well, toys), is prone to extreme mood swings and has all the social capabilities of a tranquilised horse. In his favour are hubristic levels of self-confidence and a doesn’t-know-when-to-quit mentality. After just about coaxing a date out of Miranda (Selma Blair), Abe proposes to her almost immediately. Being of less than entirely sound mind herself, Miranda does not immediately dismiss this out of hand and so begins perhaps the most perplexing romance lately captured on film.

When films go for quirkiness, they can often all too easily fall into eye-gouging twee-ness and simply be incredibly annoying. Wes Anderson flirts dangerously with this at times (as the inestimably innovative Mark Allen will tell you) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie is perhaps the ultimate example of wrong things can go. Solondz artfully sidesteps this pitfall and Dark Horse’s undeniable oddness feels organic rather than contrived. This is down to an excellent performance from Gelber who creates what feels like a real character, with a touch of pathos to match the peculiarities, rather than a gooberish caricature.

Gelber is supported by a full-blooded supporting cast including not only the aforementioned and on good form Blair, but Christopher Walken, Mia Farrow, Justin Bartha and Donna Murphy. Murphy is particularly great as the mysterious secretary who works with Abe at his father (Walken)’s real estate company. As the film progresses, the line between what is real and what is not blurs as Abe’s tenuous grip on reality weakens. This results in some amusing fantasy sequences that similarly play tricks with the viewer’s own beliefs about what is real.

At its heart, Dark Horse is a tragedy – beneath the veneer of cheap laughs of its surface lies a fairly disturbing and often heart-breaking depiction of a desperate man in personal calamity, that no amount of cheesy self-empowering pop ringtones can fix. We’re only given the merest glimpses of what went so wrong for Abe, but the film implies that America is fostering something of a lost generation, a national crisis of confidence, though gladly with none of the bluster that that implies.

As previously stated, it’s by no means perfect and Dark Horse may well frustrate and depress you. However, if you like your American filmmaking pitched somewhere between the everyday outrageousness of Bobcat Goldthwaite and the mumblecore of the Duplass Brothers, you ought to do yourself a favour and treat yourself to one of the most intriguing and unusual films you’re like to see this year.

Tangled Review

After their brief return to traditional hand-drawn animation with The Princess and the Frog, Disney have revisited CG rendering for their new feature, Tangled. Loosely based around the Rapunzel fairytale, Tangledsees Princess Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) stolen from her cot as an infant and imprisoned in a tower for eighteen years by the fiendish Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) so that the hag may use the power of Rapunzel’s magic hair to remain youthful. Though raised to trust the villain as her real mother and falsely warned of the treacherous nature of the outside world, Rapunzel is desperate to leave her tower and see it, specifically to learn the true nature of the thousands of mysterious lights that appear in the sky every year on her birthday. When the charming thief Flynn Rider (Chuck’s Zachary Levi), pursued by zealous police horse Maximus, arrives at her tower to hide out after a crime, Rapunzel, along with her chameleon companion Pascal, sees the opportunity to escape.

Recently, it seems that fairytales cannot be told without irony, as proven by the incessant pop-culture references of Shrek and by the far more charming genre-skewering of Enchanted. It is somewhat of a refreshing relief then that Tangled plays it pretty much straight. That’s not to say it isn’t funny – far from it. Many laughs are derived from the relentless pursuit of Flynn by Maximus, which plays out a little like a child friendly version of The Fugitive. A posse of rough-looking pub-goers also raise more than a couple of smiles.

Rapunzel, with her permanently bare feet and seventy feet of hair is a perfectly lovely heroine and, with her self-belief, intelligence and sense of adventure is a likable role model for the hordes of young girls who are sure to take her to their hearts. Interestingly, she is not a flawless character and the sequence shortly after leaving the tower in which she flits between revelling in and regretting her decision to deceive her ‘mother’ and leave the tower feels both surprisingly real and amusing. Flynn, who could so easily have been a rather annoying character, is funny and charismatic. The balance of between the two lead characters is poised cleverly enough that the film should have as much appeal for boys and girls.

The animation is predictably polished but stops short of photo-realism, ostensibly intentionally, which gives a warm, inviting look to the film. The action set pieces, particularly the chase at the dam (has there ever been a dam portrayed on the big screen that hasn’t at some point been destroyed? I can think only of the one in Goldeneye) are well executed and visually interesting. Another highlight is the truly beautiful scene in which Rapunzel and Flynn are surrounded by thousands of Chinese lanterns, which is stunningly rendered.

Unfortunately, despite boasting a fun central couple, humorous characters, a scary villain and an energetic plot, Tangled messes up one crucial ingredient of the classic Disney cartoon recipe: the songs. Though sung by with impressive gusto, the tunes are largely unmemorable and fall a little flat. Also slightly troubling was the central romance. Whilst the film makes a point of establishing Rapunzel as only just turned eighteen, Flynn is implied to be several years older, which made me feel a little uncomfortable. Parents are also advised to implement caution when taking more sensitive sprogs to see the film: there were more than a few tears in the screening during the scarier moments, especially towards the end, when even I began to question whether there would be a tragic ending rather than a happy one.

Despite some minor quibbles though, Tangled is a perfectly good animated adventure and will likely prove very popular with legions of children. It also the only film I can think of in which a man armed with a frying pan fights a sword-wielding horse, which is surely reason enough to see it.

Tangled Review

After their brief return to traditional hand-drawn animation with The Princess and the Frog, Disney have revisited CG rendering for their new feature, Tangled. Loosely based around the Rapunzel fairytale, Tangled sees Princess Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) stolen from her cot as an infant and imprisoned in a tower for eighteen years by the fiendish Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) so that the hag may use the power of Rapunzel’s magic hair to remain youthful. Though raised to trust the villain as her real mother and falsely warned of the treacherous nature of the outside world, Rapunzel is desperate to leave her tower and see it, specifically to learn the true nature of the thousands of mysterious lights that appear in the sky every year on her birthday. When the charming thief Flynn Rider (Chuck’s Zachary Levi), pursued by zealous police horse Maximus, arrives at her tower to hide out after a crime, Rapunzel, along with her chameleon companion Pascal, sees the opportunity to escape.

Recently, it seems that fairytales cannot be told without irony, as proven by the incessant pop-culture references of Shrek and by the far more charming genre-skewering of Enchanted. It is somewhat of a refreshing relief then that Tangled plays it pretty much straight. That’s not to say it isn’t funny – far from it. Many laughs are derived from the relentless pursuit of Flynn by Maximus, which plays out a little like a child friendly version of The Fugitive. A posse of rough-looking pub-goers also raise more than a couple of smiles.

Rapunzel, with her permanently bare feet and seventy feet of hair is a perfectly lovely heroine and, with her self-belief, intelligence and sense of adventure is a likable role model for the hordes of young girls who are sure to take her to their hearts. Interestingly, she is not a flawless character and the sequence shortly after leaving the tower in which she flits between revelling in and regretting her decision to deceive her ‘mother’ and leave the tower feels both surprisingly real and amusing. Flynn, who could so easily have been a rather annoying character, is funny and charismatic. The balance of between the two lead characters is poised cleverly enough that the film should have as much appeal for boys and girls.

The animation is predictably polished but stops short of photo-realism, ostensibly intentionally, which gives a warm, inviting look to the film. The action set pieces, particularly the chase at the dam (has there ever been a dam portrayed on the big screen that hasn’t at some point been destroyed? I can think only of the one in Goldeneye) are well executed and visually interesting. Another highlight is the truly beautiful scene in which Rapunzel and Flynn are surrounded by thousands of Chinese lanterns, which is stunningly rendered.

Unfortunately, despite boasting a fun central couple, humorous characters, a scary villain and an energetic plot, Tangled messes up one crucial ingredient of the classic Disney cartoon recipe: the songs. Though sung by with impressive gusto, the tunes are largely unmemorable and fall a little flat. Also slightly troubling was the central romance. Whilst the film makes a point of establishing Rapunzel as only just turned eighteen, Flynn is implied to be several years older, which made me feel a little uncomfortable. Parents are also advised to implement caution when taking more sensitive sprogs to see the film: there were more than a few tears in the screening during the scarier moments, especially towards the end, when even I began to question whether there would be a tragic ending rather than a happy one.

Despite some minor quibbles though, Tangled is a perfectly good animated adventure and will likely prove very popular with legions of children. It also the only film I can think of in which a man armed with a frying pan fights a sword-wielding horse, which is surely reason enough to see it.