TEXAS INDIE FILM, "COYOTE WOMAN" [2024] SINKS BEFORE THE MOVIE STARTS...

🎥🎞️Indie Movie Review🎞️🎥 - COYOTE WOMAN [2024] - [R] - Kinnescape/Raw Cinema. Directed by Stefan Ruf. Written by John Herndon & Stefan Ruf. Produced by John H. Davis and Lissa Rabon. Starring Nik L. Guerra, Heath Allyn, Les Best, Tom Byrne, Larissa Dali, Don Barro, and Michael L Garcia Jr. Filmed entirely in Blanco, TX.

This indie feature is a silly, but bloody Western filled with gores galore and tons of one liners. Wild Comanche's attack a family, wiping out the parents and capturing two girl, who are tormented and eventually absorbed into the Comanche tribe over the course of ten years. A wild bunch of "Indian scalp hunters" track down the local Indians and mercilessly take scalps from men, women and children. One of the children, who grew up to be a smart and witty "Indian Princess," [Dali] is able to find help to hunt down the scalpers and extract revenge on all that destroyed both of her families.

THE GOOD - The movie poster is artistically impressive and very creative. The opening and closing credits were very artistic and reminded me of the early spaghetti western films opening and closings. The location spotting for this feature was pleasant. Some of the gore was well planned and prepared.

THE BAD - As a dark comedy, this featured suffered from bad writing, bad editing and directing. Many of the scenes were too long and could have been edited for a shorter intro, which would have resulted in a shorter running time. There were constant close ups which were useless and obviously added to the film to hide the large amount of ADR that was used throughout the entire film. There was a ton of scenes shot out of focus, where the camera operator had to adjust while filming the scene. And as much as this was a dark/sassy comedy, the was no historical basis for any of the Native American culture used in this film; nothing remotely plausible.

PRODUCTION BREAKDOWN

↓  Lighting

↓  Camera Work

↓  Screenplay

↓  Sound/ADR

↓  Wardrobe

↓  Use of Visuals

↓  Time Lapse

← Editing

↓  Rule of Thirds
← Locations

↓  Music
↓  Ending/Follow through

↓  Makeup/Effects

↑  Gore

POST MORTEM - The marketing and promotional push for this film was deeply deplorable. I only found out about this film because Larissa Dali made a post on Instagram about it. Production teams who choose to use TUBI as a streaming showcase for their film, should consider other alternatives before just jumping into an unproven platform that does absolutely nothing to promote a new indie film.

 

⭐️⭐️💫[2.5 of 5 Stars]

"HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA" BRINGS THE WILD WEST BACK TO LIFE!...

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA [2024] - R - Written and Directed by Kevin Costner. Co-Writer Jon Baird and Mark Kasdan. Starring Kevin Costner, Abbey Lee, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Wase Chief, Tatanka Means, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Georgia MacPhail, and Michael Rooker. Budget $100 Million.

This is an epic tale covering plots of several families who were involved in America's early expansion to the West, just prior to the start of the Civil War. 

In one plot, a flier is passed around to people wanting to start a new life in the west. This flier promises good land and water for farming in an area of Wyoming called "Horizon." As the small town begins to grow, a tribe of warring Apache Indians instigate an attack on the small town, wiping out a large portion of the population. 

The second plot concerns a woman who tries to kill a man; whose having an affair or being the mans second wife, and she escapes with their child into the wild. His two sons are sent out by the wounded man's wife to find the mistress and retrieve the baby. A third plots involves a wagon train that's headed west, the leader of the wagon train finds that some of the members of the caravan are up to no good an may cause harm to other innocent travelers. For all, the trip to Horizon is a long one; filled with deserts, wild indian's, and inner mischief.

THE GOOD - This movie is a cinematographers dream, the epic view of the Utah backdrop was breathtaking and well captured. This dark drama has it's moments, building up the negative energy and delivering explosive turn of events when the pressure can't take more building. The editing and sound is pristine, keeping the flow of the film moving in the right direction, keeping the three hour film viewable without any slow parts.

THE BAD - There are no memorable moments in this film, save the one shoot out that seemed real and delivered with gritty appeal. Expect to see some over-acting by a few actors who obviously have small parts in the film. There are points in the feature where the dialog goes on and on and on; probably needed to explain later parts to the two sequels that will be released later this year.

POST MORTEM - This is a gritty, dusty Western with dark drama that brings a different view of what people might have experienced or had to deal with in the real western era. Costner's performance is dry, but he delivers his part when the time arises. There's some romance, some honesty, but a lot of double-dealing and dark figures to fill this first part of the saga to keep you around for all three films. This was a tightly detailed first part. Kudos to Costner for putting this film together!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [4 of 5 Stars]