East of Wall (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
Aug 12
3 min read

Updated: Sep 4

EAST OF WALL (2025)

Starring Tabatha Zimiga, Porshia Zimiga, Scoot McNairy, Jennifer Ehle, Jesse Thorson, Chancey Ryder Witt, Clay Pateneaud, Leanna Shumpert, Brynn Darling and Ryan Caraway.

Screenplay by Kate Beecroft.

Directed by Kate Beecroft.

Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. 97 minutes. Rated R.

East of Wall is a fascinating look at the kind of people you probably will never run across in your life. It is beautifully filmed and almost documentary-grade story about a struggling horse ranch in South Dakota. (The inscrutable sounding title refers to the fact that the ranch is right outside of the South Dakota town of Wall.)

It is filled with non-actors portraying what seems to be just slightly fictionalized versions of themselves – in fact the only two professional actors who show up are Scoot McNairy as a local rancher who is interested in buying the ranch and Jennifer Ehle as the lead character's mother. Despite the fact that the others have never acted before, much of their work is stunningly natural, particularly the lead characters played by real life mother and daughter Tabatha and Porshia Zimiga.

East of Wall tells the story of three generations of women – and their friends and coworkers – at the ranch. Tabby Zimiga is a horse trainer, who has a terrific connection with the animals, she is something of a horse whisperer. She used to be a rider but has not been on a horse since an accident. She lives with her three children, her mother and her boyfriend. She also has a bit of a soft spot for strays – the ranch is full of cats, dogs, farm animals and even young local kids who have moved in.

Porshia is a rodeo queen and Tik Tok star (in real life as well as the film’s life). Her personality and her skill have helped the family to sell many horses that others would have given up on. However, even when they are doing fairly well, they are not making enough money to keep the ranch going.

A chance to change their lives comes up when a local rancher named Roy (McNairy) becomes infatuated with Porshia’s riding and makes the family an offer. He will finance the ranch in return for a partial share of the place. It’s an attractive offer, but Tabby is not sure that she is ready to give up control of the place. She is also not sure she totally trusts the guy.

And that’s pretty much the story, although it takes a lot of side-tracks and detours. It's a gorgeous piece of world building which captures lives of quiet desperation with shocking directness. It immerses you in their worlds and their problems.

If I were a filmmaker, would this be a story I would want to tell? Possibly not. But I’m glad that I got to visit it. Yet, as much as we do appreciate being let into these people’s lives, I’m not sure that East of Wall really has all that much to say about their lives, and what it does say, it says rather slowly.

But perhaps that’s okay. Just experiencing their world may be enough. Writer / director Kate Beecroft, who randomly met the Zimigas while traveling and became fascinated by them, certainly does make their trials and tribulations look pretty spectacular. She captures the grit and hardship of their lives and yet gives it a surprising soulfulness and shabby charm.

East of Wall is more of a character study than an actual story, and it works so well in that aspect that we can appreciate the film even if the storyline is often rather hazy. That can be said about life, too. Most of us don’t live in a traditional three-act structure.

This family has more than its share of drama, simply from living their lives. And while East of Wall has no total answers for the characters and does not pretend to suggest a cheesy happy ending for them, that’s probably for best. This film is full of broken relationships, money issues, substance abuse and the pressures of dealing with modern complications.

This is real life, not a movie – even if technically it is a movie.

Jay S. Jacobs