Horse Girl

Horse Girl follows Sarah, a shy woman in her thirties who works in a craft store and spends much of her free time thinking about horses and a strange crime show. She lives in modern California with her roommate, her boss, and a horse she used to ride. After strange dreams, lost time, nosebleeds, and bruises begin to mix with daily life, Sarah fears that she is a clone or is being taken by aliens. The movie keeps the answer unclear and has a sad, uneasy, and sometimes funny tone.

The movie gives a woman’s fear of being dismissed a steady place in the story. Sarah tells a mental health worker that Reagan closed hospitals and that her grandmother died homeless, which adds a clear political complaint about care for the mentally ill. The hospital scenes show Sarah being released while she is still confused, and the story asks viewers to stay close to her view of reality. Most of the film’s message comes from loneliness, family pain, grief, and the struggle to know what is real, rather than from race, sexuality, or a broad political campaign.