Tabatha (Tabatha Zimiga) watches from the open air bleachers as her daughter Porshia (Porshia Zimiga) rides a horse. All of this is for a regularly timed horse auctions, their main source of income for Tabatha’s three children and adopted teens. Their showing during one of the auctions is good enough that it impresses Fort Worth businessman Roy Waters. Scoot McNairy plays Roy, who wants to buy their acreage – she doesn’t say yes but he stays with them anyway. Staying means that he gets to learn the family’s recent history thanks to Tabatha’s mother Tracey (Jennifer Ehle). Regardless of his presence, Tabatha, a recent widow, deals with her husband’s death and Porshia’s rebelliousness.

This film establishes a dynamic within a home housing three generations. Porshia and Roy, mourning his daughter, develop this avuncular relationship. And in general, Roy is blending into the background, seemingly belonging to the property he wants to acquire from Tabatha. But on closer look, most of the characters who play real life versions of themselves are living the life of horse trainers of this century. And they do so while living in the 21st century, wearing hoodies, Tabatha having her tattoos and queer coded hair of a warrior. East of Wall contrasts the other characters with Roy, cosplaying like the cowboy, wishing to be the people he’s associating with.

East of Wall gets its story from when Kate Beecroft accidentally ended up in Tabatha Zimiga’s horse farm. I assume there’s some plot points here to heighten the drama, but the rest is an impressionistic portrait. There are moments here that mistake impressionism with formlessness, especially during a first act that’s make or break. It attempts to establish daily life on the farm, etc., but it also seems like nothing is happening here. That’s a dangerous first impression which echoes throughout the film that’s basically Tabatha being a bad boss bitch. The men in her life dissociating by going on beer trips is reinforcing that bad first impression.

What seems like nothing is actually a slow roast leading up to East of Wall showing Tabatha’s vulnerability. To write it in other words, the elder Zimiga is playing a version of herself remembering a real trauma. A part of me feels like someone is pushing her but this gets the benefit of the doubt – those are real tears ending up on screen from a woman who is coming to the brink by herself. This moment leads to another emotional brink for Porshia, riding a horse in the middle of the night. Not even the CGI can take away from the genuine emotions of a third act of this film.

East of Wall is available in select Canadian theatres.