East of Wall

I saw East of Wall at a "Screen Unseen" event at my local theater. I hadn't heard of it before and went in completely blind, which I usually enjoy-but in this case, it didn't quite work out.

I found the movie hard to follow, both in terms of plot and pacing. It seems to center on a woman with a difficult past who trains horses and tries to move forward with her life. While the film clearly aimed to be emotional and character-driven, the storytelling felt disjointed and lacked enough clarity to fully connect with the audience.

On the plus side, the visuals were striking-the South Dakota Badlands made for a beautiful and atmospheric backdrop. The acting was generally solid, though nothing particularly stood out.

Overall, East of Wall had potential, but its narrative struggles kept me from becoming fully invested.

Forcing myself to sit through this self-aggrandizing garbage was one of the most boring and painful experiences of my life. It felt like someone handed the most broken people in America a camera and told them to try to make people cry with their "story".

I struggle to even call this a movie because it was just so much nothing all the way through. No substance, people "acting" as themselves and still failing at that, and the most cringy voiceovers since the original cut of Blade Runner. This was worse than watching the trashiest reality TV, because at least something happens on those shows that can be accidentally entertaining at times.

Instinct told me to leave 2 minutes in when it showed the family making horse-riding TikTok videos, but I was too stupid to listen to that voice. Be smarter than me and go see or do literally anything else.

Watched at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

A simple slice of life tale about a women trying her best to go through the troubles in life is emotional journey. And director Kate Beecroft does a fantastic job on presenting a low-budget feature with strong nature performances from the cast, realistic characters and engaging writing.

Presented through a docudrama presentation, this slice of life narrative carries many good themes about family, the struggles, being a cowboy/cowgirl kind, and trying the best to navigate despite the harsh realities. Filmed with beautiful camerawork and nature dialogue, you begin to feel the connection and emotions the characters are going through. Whether they aren't perfect, the characters are interesting as they never came off as unlikable or boring.

All of the performances are good, the score is good, and there are some sequences that does hit right in the heart successfully. Reminds me a lot of Chloé Zhao which her works focus on the American natural landscapes.

Overall, I really liked this movie and I love to see this director make another movie someday.

Still grieving the loss of her husband, Tabatha is struggling to keep her ranch afloat while managing her children and the other children she has opened her home to. The tables turn when an outsider offers her a way out, forcing her to re-evaluate her outlook and priorities.

An intriguing movie with potential and beautiful horses. There is one main story, with many different tangents, but none of them are given much detail or background. Most of the details of the stories are inferred based on the minimal dialogue. The one hour and thirty-seven minute runtime feels longer due to the slow pace of the movie and the dialogue being broken up by beautiful scenic shots and horse riding. It has the potential to be worth a stream.

This film expands the kinds of people and narratives we tell about the West. These characters are real and wild and broken and complex humans who own their stories and are not exploited on screen by shallow screenwriting nor filmmaking. A moving, quiet, and textured portrayal of humans and familial love.