First I want to make it clear that the reason I disliked this movie is not the subject matter. I like movies about losers and loners and Solondz treated this thoroughly unlikable character with as much dignity as possible. He should be applauded for taking such a risk. I'm not even against the implausibility of the story. Everyone must surrender reality when watching movies. The problem is that it is a poorly made movie. Almost every scene is incomplete. No dialogue to summarize the importance of the scene. Scene after meaningless scene goes by, like looking at pages in a magazine. One scene is even cropped with a character in mid sentence. And a pivotal scene is totally missing: the reason Abe ends up in the hospital. That would have been a very important scene! Then, if you weren't already annoyed with the meandering story, the story goes off into a fantasy. The problem is, the characters in his fantasy are real life characters so you don't know if what you're watching is really happening or the fantasy. Then the movie ends in typical Hollywood fashion, except it seems like Solondz didn't know how to end his movie so he tacked on no less than 4 endings! You will never understand nor care why these characters act the way they do nor understand how the events in the movie changed their lives for the better of worse. By the end of the movie, everybody is sort of just standing around or staring off into space, just like the audience.

Todd Solondz has a reputation of character studying depressing, nasty characters. But some characters, are just so nasty, is it even worth studying them to begin with? Dark Horse focuses on Abe. Abe is an utterly gross human being. Every time he was on screen, I wanted to dry heave. He's sweaty looking and painfully obnoxious. Every person he comes in contact with, he just treats like garbage. Worst of all, he thanklessly lives with his parents, whom he really hates, because they would constantly favor his successful brother over him. Solondz wants us to sympathize with this character. Good luck, folks. There isn't a shred of likability in this character. He acts like a petty bitch from the get-go. His negativity effects everyone around him. He's certainly not the victim that Solondz wants us to believe he is. It's not like he was the victim of neglect or abuse of any sort. If a dark, sad past was established, then I would whole-heartedly sympathize with what we could all agree is a broken man. Abe isn't broken. He's intentionally a scumbag. On a narrative level, it really doesn't work. Nothing really moves forward from the basis of our main character lashing out at everyone close to him, just because he's a proud man- child. I was just annoyed by it all. Probably not as annoyed, however, as Toys R' Us, demanding that the film digitally blur out their name… So I guess there's that.

This movie is terrible. I just watched it on on-demand. The beginning is OK. The ending is ?????. You can't figure out if he is dreaming, dead, or just the director's dream. I watched it because it had an IMDb rating of 6.3. I will watch any movie that has a decent amount of reviews and it scores above 6.0 on IMDb. This was the first BAD choice. It must be people voting for it who know the actors or the crew. I can't imagine anyone with their right mind scoring anything but a 2.If you agree with this review and you didn't like it, please post your review. The overall IMDb review for this movie should be less than 5.The acting was good but the script? OMGI'm not one to write bad reviews but I won't get back this 90 minutes of my life back.

I get it Todd. Real life is depressing. Abe is a product of American capitalism. He has rich parents, a bad diet, uses pop-culture catch-phrases and assumes an unearned sense of entitlement. It's pretty clear that there's no "Tommy Boy" redemption coming here, but anyone expecting a black humor comedy in it's place will be left wanting. There is little to root for in any of the characters and despite some great, very dry, performances "Dark Horse" is at heart about realism. Jobs are mundane, people are medicated, have awkward conversations and drive to mega malls. As document of the times, "Dark Horse" may be relevant, those seeking a 2 hr escape from reality will feel worse afterwards. Unless you drive a Hummer.