FILM REVIEWS:
EAST OF WALL (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Anne Beecroft
The complaint about the under-representation of women in films can be clearly discarded these days. In the area EAST OF WALL, (Wall is a town in Pennington County, South Dakota, United States; the population was 699 at the 2020 census), lives a family run by the strong female matriarch, which is where the story of this film comes from. The film is so-called as it is the location of the family ranch - the setting of the story.
Despite its small population, Wall is quite famous. Wall was named for the "natural wall" in rock formations by the Badlands National Park. The National Grasslands Visitor Center is also located in Wall.
EAST OF WALL can be described as a docu-fiction as it is an authentic portrait of
female resilience in the “New West,” inspired by those who live it. The film and story revolve around a tough, tattooed Tabatha Zimiga (Tabatha Zimiga plays herself), a rancher with an uncanny gift for taming wild horses. She and her teen daughter Porshia Zimiga (she also plays herself) are often at loggerheads with her mother. Porshia blames her mother for the loss of her stepfather,
Tabatha takes good care of her 3 children – Porshia, older son (played by family friend Wyatt Mansfield) and 3-year-old son (Stephen Neumann as himself) – plus a slew of teens (as themselves) who need somewhere to live. Tabatha has her hands full with humans to train beside the horses. Tabatha also hasn’t ridden a horse since his death. Instead, she coaches the teens who often perform tricks on horses while selling them at auctions or via TikTok. Even so, it is a financial struggle. Then along comes a wealthy businessman (Scoot McNairy) with a proposal to buy her 3,000 acres.
EAST OF WALL benefits from the raw emotions generated from the story of a family often at unease, but shares the common love for horses. The rodeo riding and horse stunts help in the film's authenticity and also create the proper atmosphere for a horse movie. The film is beautifully shot by cinematographer Austin Shaboozey. Despite the fact that most of the cast are non-professionals, a lot of them portray themselves, which makes their performances realistic.
Despite the realistic atmosphere and performances, one can hardly call the film enjoyable for the reason that it is never much fun to watch a family in struggle. The story occasionally falls into clichéd territory, as one can expect Tabatha to be fighting with the ranch’s buyer over her loss of control of the ranch. The film’s cop-out happy ending that includes Tabatha having her way with the ranch and the dolled-up reconciliation between mother and daughter are also a bit hard to take.
Director Beecroft and cinematographer Shelton spent three years living with the family, absorbing their daily life before shooting the film. Their efforts clearly show on screen.
EAST OF WALL has made its debut at various international film festivals and opens August 15 across Canada, including Toronto at the TIFF Lightbox.
Trailer:
FIXED (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
Bull (Adam DeVine) is a two-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier Mix (aka Bull is a mutt) who frequently humps anything that piques his interest to vent his perverse instincts. He is friends with Rocco (Idris Elba), a gruff, proud Boxer, Fetch (Fred Armisn), a wannabe-influencer Dachshund and Lucky (Bobby Moynihan), an eccentric Jack Russell Terrier, all of whom except for Bull have been neutered, which makes them a target of ridicule from the haughty, self-absorbed Borzoi show-dog, Sterling (Beck Bennett). Bull also harbours a crush on his show-dog neighbour, a Borzoi named Honey (Kathryn Hahn), but is hesitant to reveal his true feelings for her.
One day, Bull's owners make a great show of pampering him, feeding him treats and filling the toilet with Kool-Aid. Bull realises that he is due to be neutered the following morning, as Luther (Aaron LaPlante), a Great Dane, had a similar pre-neutering experience. Bull bemoans his experience and soon decides to leave home in order to save himself from being sterilised. He soon reconsiders when he is accosted by a large clowder of alley cats, but is saved by his friends, who came searching for him when he ran away from his home, and they're all chased out of the cats' territory.
Dog owners should relate more than others to this movie, which highlights the eccentricity of the animal. FIXED is an adult animated comedy about dogs and particularly about a mutt named Bull about to get fixed. Being fixed means, for Bull, getting mutilated and his balls cut off, which means that there are plenty of high jinks involved with dirty jokes abound. The jokes are a hit and miss with fortunately, more hits than misses. But the humour gets nasty in this R-rated comedy.
For example, what do dogs do at the dog park? (Again, those with dogs know how much that is shown on screen is true, and funny.)
- Dogs are happiest when off-leash
- They smell each other’s butts
- Some have sex
- They poo on each other
- They poop and pee all over the place
- They smell each other’s poop and shit
- Some eat shit
A few segments are not as funny as they want to be. One example is the pair of Mutt’s balls escaping from him. In a dream!
The best voice characterisation belongs to Brit Idris Elba. His British accent works for Rocco, a boxer and close friend of Mutt. Rocco’s funny, self-conscious and offers silly but meaningly advice to Mutt. The best laugh-out-loud segment comes from Elba, too. Rocco’s dialogue is also the most foul. Foul but always funny1
It was way back in 2018 that Deadline Hollywood reported that writer/director Tartakovsky was set to write and direct the film, with Michelle Murdocca producing it. Sony Pictures Animation (TRANSYLVANIA 2000) was set to produce it, marking the studio's first R-rated film. Tartakovsky IS An American animator, screenwriter, film producer, and director, best known as the creator of various animated television series on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, including Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, among others.
FIXED opens for streaming on Netflix this week, from Wednesday, August 13th.
Trailer:
NIGHT ALWAYS COMES (USA 2025) **½
Directed by Benjamin Caron
NIGHT ALWAYS COMES is a crime drama based on the novel of the same name by Willy Vlautin.
NIGHT ALWAYS COMES benefits from Vanessa Kirby, one of today’s best actresses, taking the title role. Kirby’s best roles include 2022 THE SON, with her recently seen in FANTASTIC FOUR: FRST STEPS (2025). Kirby rose to international prominence with her portrayal of Princess Margaret in the Netflix drama series The Crown (2016–2017), for which she won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. For her performance in the film Pieces of a Woman (2020), she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Kirby is the best thing about the movie. Kirby also co-produced the movie with fellow Brit Benjamin Caron as the director.
The film follows a very desperate Lynette (Kirby) who needs to drum up $25,000 for a down payment on a house in order to prevent eviction.
The film moves along briskly, but the trouble with the film is its predictability. One can see whether the film is heading in the first 30 minutes, as the fact that everything is going wrong for Lynnette is forcing his lady into crime. Crime can be committed by good people as well, and the film intends to show this fact.
Another problem is he film’s casting, Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Lynette’s mother, Doreen. Leigh looks young enough to be the sister. Also, Lynette’s elder brother, Kenny (Zack Gottsagen from THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON), looks young enough to be Lynette’s son.
NIGHT ALWAYS COMES opens for streaming on Netflix Friday, August 15th. A predictable time-wasting yarn that is barely an entertaining watch.
Trailer:
NOBODY 2 (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Timo Tjahjanto
I did not see NOBODY, but one need not know anything about the original film before heading out to see NOBODY 2. NOBODY cost $16 million to make and grossed close to $60 million. NOBODY 2 has been granted a larger budget of $25 million to make. $25 million is, in Hollywood standards, a modest sum, which can be said to be efficiently put together in this action-packed comedy that works as a non-demanding summer flick.
NOBODY 2 sees former henchman government assassin Hutch Mansell aka Nobody (Bob Odenkirk from BREAKING BAD and THE BEAR) taking various violent jobs in order to pay off a massive loan. The loan is the result of Hutch’s exploits in the first movie. This results in him being away from his family. He decides he needs a break to spend time with his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), son Brady (Canadian actor Gage Munroe) and daughter, Sammy (Paisley Cadorath). So it is family vacation time. Hutch takes family with grandpa, David (Christopher Lloyd) in tow to Plummrville but discovers his childhood memories amusement city is now run by mobsters led by a vicious girl called Lendina (Sharon Stone). Hutch has to save the day as well as his family. The thugs led by the sheriff (Colin Hanks) will not leave Hutch alone.
NOBODY 2 works as the film steals from the good bits of a whole slew of successful box-office hits, the most notable being Harold Ramis’ 1983 Chevy Chase hit NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACATION. Griswold brought his family to Walley World with Aunt Edna (Imogen Coca) in tow. In NOBODY 2, it is Grandpa in tow to Plummerville. Plummerville, specifically the Wild Bill’s Majestic Midway and Waterpark. Plummerville serves as a fictional small tourist town with a tacky, nostalgia-laden waterpark resort that Hutch fondly remembers from his childhood. Other nods come from films like HOME ALONE (Hutch and gang set up various booby traps for the bad guys), HIGH NOON (the wife stands behind the husband in a showdown involving the villains), and John Wick films (leave Lendina alone and she will do the same).
A disturbing feature about the film is the acceptable use of violence that is allowed for Hutch to keep his family on vacation. Hutch gets to lose a finger, though this segment is treated in all good fun. Lots of bloody, violent gore are also present with weapons like daggers and machetes, chopping off limbs and thrusting into various assorted bodies of the villains.
NOBODY 2 still comes across as good clean (or good unclean) fun, all taken with large pinches of salt. The trailer shows many of the film’s good parts, but there are many, many Moreno shown in the trailer to keep the action comedy still fresh.
Director Timo Tjahjanto is a young 44-year-old Indonesian director specializing in horror and action films. Definitely a talent to watch, judging for the efficient entertainment derived from NOBODY 2.
NOBODY 2 , the only big movie opening this week, opens in theatres August 15th.
Trailer:
