Film Review: Dark Horse (2011)
Comic books were once a subcultural interest, generally considered appropriate only for kids and adolescents. In the era of the modern superhero franchise, however, that’s all changed. The most mainstream thing you can do today as an in-touch adult is give your opinion on the latest cinematic entry in Disney’s Marvel Universe. In Todd Solondz’s 2011 film Dark Horse, the writer-director, most known from his works Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness, gives his signature sad-comedic take on the Judd Apatow style of romantic comedy made popular in the early 2000s.
Apatow’s comedy subgenre is characterized in the main by its stock character: the man-child - a grown man who maintains an ardent interest in childish hobbies and activities like collecting toys who is unable to assimilate into the “adult” world. This character became a recurring type in the early aughts by its recurrence in the films The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and then later on in films by other filmmakers, e.g. Jeff Who Lives at Home and I Love You, Man. (I’m tempted to call Mallrats the first movie to feature an immature protagonist whose puerile geekery is an impediment to his adult life. In a recent interview, Kevin Smith says that Mallrats played only one week in cinemas, because according to him there was no broad audience at the time - the mid 90s - for movie characters with geeky interests in comic books.) In Japan they actually have a noun coined for this type of person - one who maintains an obsessive interest in things generally thought to be intended for children - they’re called “otaku.” According to Wikipedia, “‘Otaku’ is a Japanese term for people with consuming interests, particularly in anime and manga.”
I believe Todd Solondz has even admitted in post-screening Q&As that the film was conceived as the counterexample to the Seth Rogen lovable loser version of the otaku. Indeed, in Dark Horse, the main character (brilliantly played by Jordan Gelber) is bitter, ungrateful, spoiled, entitled, slothful - in brief, the kind of character that could only be the product of a first-world nation. He has everything: grew up with a quality education, a supportive family, a stable job handed to him by his industrious father - most tellingly the character needlessly drives a Hummer, when the only places to which he drive are his office for work, the multiplex cinema for entertainment, and Toys-R-Us to buy (and return) toys. Yet inexplicably, the character has all the stereotypical angsty complaints of a teenager despite being in his mid 30s; e.g. “What’s the point?”, “Life is unfair.”
For those wondering what to expect, Todd Solondz continues his peculiar brand of sad comedy in this one. Sad as in the characters are all plagued by sorrow. However, this one takes on a more overt ironic quality than his previous ones because of the nature of the character (described above). That is, the most critical problems he faces include: Why is this pre-show advertisement at the multiplex cinema so annoying?; Why can’t I return this toy without a receipt?; I’m thirty years old. Why does my dad want me to move out?
In the end, however, the character faces the question we all face as human beings, no matter who you are, where you’re from or what your experience has been: the question of death.
The film doesn’t spell everything out for the audience and it’s not all tied up at the end in a nice little bow. The end is ambiguous and leaves the audience with more questions, not answers, even more than his earlier movies. If you want to see Judd Apatow’s brand of comedy subverted, this one’s worth a watch.
Dark Horse stars Jordan Gelber, Selma Blair, Mia Farrow, Christopher Walken, Donna Murphy, and Justin Bartha.
