One thing you realize after you review a few thousand movies is that the English language doesn’t have enough adjectives. If I ever use the word “compelling” again, except to complain about how overused “compelling” is, I’ll probably hang up my hat and call it a day. Or possibly a career. But when a movie is good you do have to say something nice about it, even though descriptors like “captivating” and “spellbinding” and “beautiful” feel like they’ve lost some of their luster over the years.
So I checked a thesaurus and I found a new one that sounds fake, but whatever, I’ll take it: Kate Beecroft’s “East of Wall” is unputdownable. I couldn’t put it down if I wanted to, in part because it’s captivating and spellbinding and beautiful, and in part because I can’t think of anything bad to say about it. No put downs today, dear readers: “East of Wall” is the real deal. It won an Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and look, sometimes that audience is really onto something.
Beecroft’s film stars Tabatha Zimiga as, in a spot on bit of casting, Tabatha Zimiga. Like the real Tabatha Zimiga, the fictional version is a rancher who trains and sells horses for a living. It’s less clear how much of the rest of the film is explicitly based on her life experiences but it sure feels like we’re a fly on the wall. I’m pretty certain her mom isn’t really Jennifer Ehle and that Scoot McNairy never tried to buy her ranch, but you could tell me every other part of the film was real and I’d probably believe you. “East of Wall” is as sincere as Linus Van Pelt’s pumpkin patch.
“East of Wall” begins with Zimiga in dire straits. Her husband ended his own life, and not very long ago. He left their 3,000 acre ranch to his son, and Tabatha is the caretaker until he comes of age. That’ll be a while, since the kid is only three. She keeps the place running by training horses with her daughter Porshia, who also plays herself, and selling them at auction. They’re obviously showstoppers but they don’t sell for much. Maybe the buyers know how desperate she is. She has to send her daughter to the grocery store without her just to avoid having to pay her whole tab.
Tabatha isn’t just good with horses. She’s magical with horses, but that’s not what I’m getting at either. She’s also good with kids, and she keeps accidentally acquiring them when local parents, who either can’t afford or don’t give a damn about their own children, drop them off on her land, knowing she’ll do anything to take care of them, no matter the strain. She’s a decent person and her decency is a self-destruct sequence, and we can feel it counting down.
The Zimigas catch the eye of Roy (Scott McNairy), a Texan with money to spare and an eye for talent. He makes Tabatha an offer she wants to refuse, inviting her to sell the ranch and stay on as an employee. He seems like an OK guy. In a lesser film he’d cackle whenever she’s off-screen, because this would all be a scheme to take everything she’s got. Including her daughter, who reminds Roy of his own lost child. This isn’t that kind of movie. Thank God.
There isn’t an arch bone in “East of Wall’s” body. Kate Beecroft’s debut feature doesn’t need artifice to enrapture its audience. The Zimigas may be playing themselves but I think we all know, whether we’ve ever thought about it or not, that playing yourself on camera isn’t as easy as it sounds. Stan Lee didn’t get a lot of Oscar buzz for “Mallrats,” but Tabatha and Porshia Zimiga are so incredibly complex and present, just completely in the moment, that we can’t help being mesmerized.
Jennifer Ehle plays Tabatha’s mother Tracey, and it’s only her presence — and Scoot McNairy’s — that cracks the illusion Kate Beecroft generates. They’re great actors, the both of them, but it’s not their film, and they never make “East of Wall” about their performances. It’s a generous production, one that lovingly offers meaningful moments to every member of the cast, even the actors with only one scene. When a group of older women gather to celebrate Tracey’s birthday they share drunken sob stories by the fire, and Tabatha Zimiga delivers a powerhouse monologue, but so do all the other women around her, whether we’ve met them or not.
You try putting that down. I’ll bet you can’t, or at least that you wouldn’t want to. “East of Wall” is a nourishing motion picture. It fills you up and fuels you. Kate Beecroft never horses around with this debut feature. Even the parts with the horses.
“East of Wall” is now playing in theaters.