We first meet Margarita on the quiet edge of existence. She is a woman of twenty-two, holding a college degree like a souvenir from a foreign country she has no desire to revisit. Her world is a small, fiercely protected territory. She navigates its borders on an adult tricycle, a stuffed horse head named Cheeseburger mounted like a silent, loyal sentinel.
It is a life lived in defiance of hard pants and the stilted choreography of a conventional job. Her anchor is Sandy, her mother, a woman whose own body is a battleground against a creeping illness. Their shared life is a delicate ecosystem, and one feels the atmospheric pressure changing. An unspoken clock ticks, marking the time until Margarita must chart a course beyond the shelter of this two-person universe.
The Cartography of a Private Mind
The film gives us the gift of Margarita’s consciousness, not as a problem to be solved, but as a world to be inhabited. Lillian Carrier, an autistic actress herself, does not perform Margarita; she presents her. The performance is an act of profound translation, offering a glimpse into a mind that processes reality without the usual filters of social expectation.
Her honesty is not a quirk; it is a state of being, sharp and beautifully unadorned. Her intelligence is self-evident. The film wisely avoids tired clichés, never painting her as a savant or a helpless child. Instead, we see a whole person, capable and complex, whose occasional need for guidance is no different from anyone else’s search for a foothold.
Her emotional collapses are not spectacles; they are the private tremors of a soul learning its own shape. Her path is one of integration, of building a life not in spite of her neurology, but because of it.
Ritual Against the Void
Into this life comes a strange and wondrous discovery: hobby horsing. One spies a group of girls in a school gymnasium, galloping and leaping with stick horses in a display of serious, focused choreography. For an outsider, the sight is absurd. For Margarita, it is a revelation.
The activity is less a sport and more a ritual, a physical language for a spirit that struggles with the spoken word. It is a way to embody her lifelong reverence for horses, a way to find grace and purpose in a world that often offers neither. She joins a team of girls a decade her junior, an outsider among outsiders. Their judgment barely registers.
What matters is the act itself, the discipline and the silent communion. The coach recognizes her commitment, treating her with the same stern respect he gives the others. This is not a story about winning a trophy. It is the story of discovering a personal ceremony that holds the chaos of the world at bay.
The Gravity of Love and Time
The film’s emotional gravity is found in the space between mother and daughter. Their bond is a thing of immense power, drawn with aching authenticity by Carrier and Gretchen Mol.
Sandy is caught in a terrible paradox. She must prepare her daughter for a world without her, pushing Margarita toward a life she also fears will harm her. Every word of encouragement is shadowed by the terror of her own mortality.
Her disapproval of hobby horsing is not simple cruelty; it is the panic of a practical mind failing to see the value in a poetic act when survival seems to be the only thing that matters. This friction arrives just as time becomes their most precious commodity.
The mother’s encroaching death is the catalyst, the immense pressure that forces Margarita to finally step into her own life, a life that must soon continue on its own. Their shared moments are a study in love at the precipice of loss.
Director: Lauren Meyering
Writers: Mackenzie Breeden, Lauren Meyering
Producers and Executive Producers: Michael Sherman, Alix Madigan, Mackenzie Breeden
Cast: Lillian Carrier, Gretchen Mol, Jerod Haynes, Tony Hale, Matthew Schwab, Iqbal Theba
Director of Photography (Cinematographer): Stephanie Filo
Editors: Dan Romer
Composer: Dan Romer
The Review
Horsegirls
Horsegirls is a quiet, profound meditation on existence. It looks past mere plot to question how a person builds a world for themselves against the backdrop of mortality. Through a stunningly authentic central performance, it finds immense grace in a seemingly absurd ritual, affirming the human need to create meaning at the edge of the void. It is a film of rare sincerity and depth.
PROS
- A deeply authentic and compelling lead performance by Lillian Carrier.
- A sincere and non-sentimental portrayal of a complex mother-daughter relationship.
- Thoughtful representation of an autistic experience without resorting to cliché.
- A unique exploration of how personal rituals create meaning.
CONS
- Some supporting plot elements can feel conventional against the unique central story.
- The deliberately measured pace and internal focus may not appeal to all viewers.
- Moments of family conflict can seem formulaic.
