‘East Of Wall’ Review – A Stunning Look At The New American West [Sundance 2025]

A young girl rides like her life depends on it on top of her trusty horse across the impossibly beautiful South Dakota Badlands. This snapshot of classic American mythos as man and beast nearly become one is a rousing sight. Only, in this case, the moment is subverted as you pull back to see it captured on an iPhone to be uploaded to TikTok. “The West” is ever-present, only we are far from the “old” part that historically accompanies the phrase, as technology has entrenched itself in even the most rural corners of the country. To be fair, this talented rider is riding for her life; only these days she is trying to find creative ways to market the horses they have molded into top specimens so they can sell them for big money and hopefully keep her family’s ranch afloat. It might not be as poetic as tales of settling lawless terrain, but it is just as compelling a story of survival.

With East of Wall, director Kate Beecroft makes her feature debut that joins the great lineage of Sundance equestrian tales such as The Rider and Jockey (it makes complete sense that Sony Pictures Classics, the distributor of both of those features, just scooped this one up). Beecroft takes the Chloe Zhao approach of the former title by making a docufiction narrative that crafts a fictionalized version of the incredible real life of Tabatha and Porshia Zimiga. In the movie version of their life, matriarch Tabatha is still reeling from the death of her husband a year prior while attempting to keep her 3,000-acre ranch from going under. 

Few screenwriters in Hollywood could make a character as three-dimensional and memorable as the real-life Tabatha Zimiga. She is such a striking presence with her tattoos, piercings, and bright blonde hair shaved on one side. She looks like someone who could easily take you out in a barroom scuffle, yet her demeanor suggests a much more gentle, if tortured, soul underneath. Including Porshia, she has three kids of her own, but the ranch functions as something of a safe haven for any wayward youth who needs a place to stay and find purpose and stability. It is not uncommon throughout the film to come across the absent parent of one of these kids at a bar or rodeo with promises to chip in money as soon as they get back on their feet. In this area of the country, it feels like very few people are on their feet, and Tabatha is stretching her empathetic heart to the brink. 

In an ensemble of primarily nonprofessional actors, this is when we see the arrival of the great Scoot McNairy (Nightbitch) as a wealthy Texas rancher. While there are moments when his presence rubs incongruously against the illusion of this naturalistic reality, he largely blends in nicely with the larger picture. Tabatha has lost the passion for riding–she couldn’t risk getting injured and letting down everyone who counts on her–but she still has the unbelievable ability to calm wild horses and shape them into champions. Only, she does not have the reach or access to make the money she needs to stay solvent. McNairy’s Roy Waters has both of these things but not the horses that rival those of Tabatha. Roy makes a proposal to join forces, but is Tabatha willing to compromise everything she and her husband built together? 

While they may be common themes in this subgenre, rolling western plains are the perfect canvas to process trauma and guilt. Everyone in this film is suffering in one way or another. Tabatha is mourning her husband while also feeling great anger towards him, holding her back from her true potential in conjunction with the crushing weight of responsibility. Porshia holds resentment towards her mom based on what she knows about the loss of her surrogate father, John. Even Roy, who in any other tale would be a mustache-twirling villain, has a humanizing, traumatic past that draws him ever closer to Tabatha and her household. Nearly every choice is sensitively handled and explored to rewarding effect. The one outlier is Jennifer Ehle, an actress we love, playing Tabatha’s firecracker mother who veers a bit too much into caricature in comparison to the understated turns from the rest of the cast. 

We have no shortage of love for “classic” western tales and the black-and-white morality that typified many of them, but we are grateful to be living in a time when the full range of the emotional spectrum can be explored. Just as Tabatha and her brood have evolved with the times on their ranch, westerns are evolving with modern audiences to offer emotionally rich, layered tales. Kate Beecroft trusted her instincts as a storyteller to understand that there was a deeply affecting story within this real-life family. The realization of this notion marks the arrival of someone who is sure to be one of our next great talents. 

East of Wall had its World Premiere in the NEXT section of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Director: Kate Beecroft

Writer: Kate Beecroft

Rated: NR

Runtime: 97m