A somewhat frustrating short, ‘Coming West’ is a somewhat jumbled, hour or so long adult feature that on the one hand seems to know what it WANTS to be, without actually knowing how to BE it.
Its a little hard to explain honestly, its better seen to understand it. But the plot probably will help to give some inkling as to what I mean.
So, the film is 54 minutes long and around 51 minutes of that runtime is shown as either a flashback or a dream (the film doesnt make it clear) we open in the present day of 1971 as a group of girls are out on a LONG road trip, when one of the girls begins to drift off, and we flash back to the days of the old west, where our girls are now playing estranged women who were kicked out of their town for stripping on stage and are now looking to set up a ‘cat house’ in the next town over.
One of the girls goes to wash herself in a river and meets an old friend by the name of Matt, who she has a MASSIVE crush on, and what follows is a fairly dreary 20 minute sex scene, where it isnt made clear whether this is a dream inside the old west girls head, or if we’re looking into the future…We then cut back to the present day for 20 seconds (for some reason) before cutting back to the western times where Matt and the girls introductions are cut short when a native american jumps the other two girls. Matt and co knock the native american out. and then another of the girls is going for a swim and meets up with Matt again, theres another 5-10 minute long sex scene, which then leads into a sex scene between another of the girls and the native american, which then leads into a further 15 minuite long sex scene between all the girls, Matt and the native american. Ending with a quick cutback to the present day where the girls on the roadtrip get the dream recounted to them.
its 54 minutes, i’d be amazed if there was more than 2 pages of dialogue in the whole thing, 99% of the film is ENTIRELY Foley of bubbling streams, chirping crickets and rustling grass. they forgot to redub some of the actresses lines so you see them delivering dialogue that cant be heard. they didnt bother with any kind of audio for the sex scenes themselves beyond a folky guitar melody.
Theres really very little to nothing here script wise to talk about.
Where this film DOES get a few good points however is in its direction and editing…thats pretty much the only thing it DOES have going for it. The sex scenes utilize some creative lighting in places and the director seems to know how to work with low/no budget to create at least a tinge of eroticism across the runtime. I mean, the total lack of script does kneecap this thing somewhat, but visually you actually FEEL like these characters WANT to be in the same room as each other, and it never really feels ‘clinical’.
Theres a few creative sequences across the runtime which looked pretty okay, and only enhancing that is the edit…which is imperfect, but did surprise me. On the one hand some of the scene cuts are VERY blunt. which is a shame because it can really pull the audience out of the action. That being said, theres some pretty cool match cuts in this one, which is a sign that the director DID have a vision for this thing thats a bit above the film makers of the time.
the performers are all fairly likable and give decent enough performances. the choice to shoot most of the film out in the open means the film stock being lower quality isnt *quite* as bad a choice as it could have been as the natural lighting is quite flattering to lower quality stock. the soundtracks innoffensive.
Honestly? Its a skippable film, I cant recommend it. its not got a whole lot going for it on the story front and the near total lack of on set sound is problematic. But it does seem to have a relatively firm hand on the rudder, theres clearly some creative thought thats gone into the direction and cine and I suppose if you were just looking for sex, this delivers that. A bit bland…but it had potential.
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