section_path: Career/2018–2022: Creative partnership with Alison Brie
section_name: 2018–2022: Creative partnership with Alison Brie
paragraph_text: 2018–2022: Creative partnership with Alison Brie
  
  Baena directed Brie two more times in the films Horse Girl (2020) and Spin Me Round (2022), which they co-wrote together. The latter also featured Plaza. Both actresses were involved in different capacities in Baena's only television work, Cinema Toast, a 2021 anthology series that he created and executive produced. Baena wrote and directed episodes in the series, which reinterpreted public domain footage to tell modern stories. Baena and Brie were among the producers for Cinema Toast and both of their co-written films, all of which were executive produced by the Duplass Brothers.
  
  Having formed a friendship after working on previous movies, and knowing of the creative risks Baena liked to take, Brie pitched the idea for a drama about fear of mental illness to him while on a hike. He had been suggesting that she play a " horse girl " character, and they realized they could combine the ideas to create what became Horse Girl. The pair pitched it to the Duplass Brothers, who joined and offered it to Netflix. Baena and Brie wrote the screenplay together, and some of the film's dialogue was improvised. After premiering at Sundance in 2020, Horse Girl began streaming on Netflix and was the most commercially successful of Baena's works. Reviews noted the use and subversion of form to inform the story, which was generally praised but also criticized by Adrian Horton in The Guardian.
  
  The pair again chose to subvert expectations in Spin Me Round, the shoot of which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. They used the delay to expand the film outline into a more detailed script. The film combined comedy and thriller genres, and critics noted the story for "a provocative #MeToo statement". Spin Me Round saw mixed reviews, its RT critics' consensus saying that "it never quite lives up to its potential" but is nevertheless enjoyable and elevated by Plaza and Brie. The Hollywood Reporter felt it was "amusing but the most lightweight" of Baena's films.
  
  Baena directed Brie two more times in the films Horse Girl (2020) and Spin Me Round (2022), which they co-wrote together. The latter also featured Plaza. Both actresses were involved in different capacities in Baena's only television work, Cinema Toast, a 2021 anthology series that he created and executive produced. Baena wrote and directed episodes in the series, which reinterpreted public domain footage to tell modern stories. Baena and Brie were among the producers for Cinema Toast and both of their co-written films, all of which were executive produced by the Duplass Brothers.
  
  Having formed a friendship after working on previous movies, and knowing of the creative risks Baena liked to take, Brie pitched the idea for a drama about fear of mental illness to him while on a hike. He had been suggesting that she play a " horse girl " character, and they realized they could combine the ideas to create what became Horse Girl. The pair pitched it to the Duplass Brothers, who joined and offered it to Netflix. Baena and Brie wrote the screenplay together, and some of the film's dialogue was improvised. After premiering at Sundance in 2020, Horse Girl began streaming on Netflix and was the most commercially successful of Baena's works. Reviews noted the use and subversion of form to inform the story, which was generally praised but also criticized by Adrian Horton in The Guardian.
  
  The pair again chose to subvert expectations in Spin Me Round, the shoot of which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. They used the delay to expand the film outline into a more detailed script. The film combined comedy and thriller genres, and critics noted the story for "a provocative #MeToo statement". Spin Me Round saw mixed reviews, its RT critics' consensus saying that "it never quite lives up to its potential" but is nevertheless enjoyable and elevated by Plaza and Brie. The Hollywood Reporter felt it was "amusing but the most lightweight" of Baena's films.