'Dream Horse' Trailer: Toni Collette's Horse Was Born To Run

Every so often, a movie comes along that feels as if it's been plucked from another era, discovered among a pile of film canisters from twenty years before. Such is the case with Dream Horse, a new family-friendly sports drama starring Toni Collette and Damian Lewis that follows their attempts to get a small town racehorse to compete against the elite equestrians of Wales in a nationwide competition. If you're looking for a new sports movie that feels like a throwback to something from the 1990s or early 2000s, or if you'd like to hear Toni Collette's hardcore Welsh accent, be sure to check out the new trailer below.

People use this phrase a lot, but they really don't make 'em like this anymore. I caught a screening of this at the Sundance Film Festival last month, and in my review, I called it "a very nice movie." Here's an excerpt:

The script doesn't add anything new to the sports movie formula – you can see every major plot development coming from the stratosphere – but [director Euros] Lyn's execution of those ideas powers the movie through its predictable plotting. He's previously directed episodes of Daredevil and His Dark Materials, and while there's nothing overly inventive in Dream Horse – it's mostly a straightforward, simply shot drama – there is some dynamic camerawork in the racing scenes that kicks the filmmaking into a higher gear. Swooping overhead shots establish the layout of horse clusters during races and help you track Dream Alliance as he maneuvers throughout, and shots which appear to be mounted to the horse's side show the more visceral, nearly first-person perspective of what it's like to gallop inside that pack at top speed.

You can get a tiny glimpse of those types of shots around the 2:13 mark of the trailer. Interestingly enough, the movie is based on a true story that was covered in a 2015 documentary called Dark Horse, which also played at the Sundance Film Festival. If you don't mind spoilers for what happened in real life (and one of Dream Horse's biggest conflicts, which is held back from its trailer), you can check out the Dark Horse trailer below:

Here's Dream Horse's official synopsis:

The film tells the true story of Jan Vokes, (Academy Award® nominee Toni Collette) a Welsh cashier and bartender, who decides to breed and rear a race horse. She persuades her neighbors and friends to contribute financially to the project. The group's unlikely investment plan pays off as the horse rises through the ranks and puts them in a race for the national championship.

Dream Horse comes to select theaters on May 1, 2020.