Exclusive Clip for Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse

Brilliant satirist Todd Solondz returns with his latest film, Dark Horse, his first feature since 2009’s Life During Wartime. One of the most prolific and well known directors from the independent film scene, Solondz, who first achieved acclaim for his 1995 sophomore feature, Welcome to the Dollhouse, is best known for his darkly comical and subversive examinations of middle class suburbia. His works are often described and even dismissed as cult items, but Solondz has a knack for focusing on awkward, uncomfortable, and devious truths that many filmmakers tend to avoid. Whether it be his brilliant 1998 film Happiness concerning the dark places from which many of us seek to fulfill our desires or his 2004 Palindromes, where eight different people portray a disturbed 8 year old girl on a journey, Solondz always manages to bring an original, thought provoking tale to life. His latest film, Dark Horse, is a semi-sweet romance between two adults in severe states of arrested development. Lighter in tone than some of his best known titles, Solondz still manages to imbue this effort with his unmistakable tone.

Jordan Gelber stars as the titular dark horse, a man-child who falls in love with a similarly unstable woman (Selma Blair). Living with his parents, (Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow), he starts an odd romance with the emotionally numbed young woman, while alternately developing an odd relationship with his father’s secretary, played by Donna Murphy. In this exclusive clip, Abe (Gelber) finds that outside of his dad’s office, Marie (Murphy) might not be the meek secretary he’s always nonchalantly flirted with. It’s an odd scene that shows the bizarre worldview of Solondz’s latest protagonist.

Dark Horse opens on Friday, June 8th, in limited release.