Francis Galluppi’s Western-flavored Neo-Noir thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County mostly takes place in a single location and puts a darkly comedic spin on an impromptu hostage situation where greed is as deadly as any gun.
A strong directorial voice shines through in The Last Stop in Yuma County. Francis Galluppi is making his feature-length debut here, and it’s a very strong, confident statement of future intent. He’s already secured an intruiging gig directing an Evil Dead film after this, and given the mixture of mean-streak and mirth found in this film, he’ll be a perfect pick for a Deadite-filled slab of nastiness.
The premise of The Last Stop in Yuma County is simple. Various folks stopping for gas at a remote diner/garage/motel combo discover there is no fuel until a truck delivers it, and that is supposed to be fairly soon, but little does anyone know the truck has careened off the road and won’t be coming. Among those that rock up to the rest stop is a pair of bank robbers (Richard Brake and Nicholas Logan) who are understandably twitchy about having to sit in this one place with a reported vehicle and a bag full of stolen cash.
Things escalate into a hostage situation as the devious duo awaits either the tanker or a car with a full tank to take them to the promised land that a bundle of illicit cash offers.
And for the most part, especially early on, Galluppi’s film is a typical hostage setup and execution, but a few factors shift that into far more refreshing territory. Bringing a different intensity to the strained encounter.
The tone of The Last Stop in Yuma County is a key factor. It dances around a potential time period with its isolated setting. It’s certainly not modern-day, given the lack of mobile phones, but it swims between the lines of the 1950s to the 1990s in a deliciously vague manner that keeps the story being told at the forefront.
It’s chock full of precise moments of dark levity too, which underline a fairly bleak outlook. Jim Cummings (Thunder Road, The Wolf of Snow Hollow) is the perfect guy for that, contorting his face in all manner of panicked, confused, and agitated ways with effortless ease and delivering simple lines with a nervous, yet subtle comedic grace. His meek and awkward knife salesman really comes into his own at a certain point in the film, and at that point, he’s free to showcase his underappreciated talents.
Not that he’s the only one adding flavor to this hostage pot. Brake (Barbarian, Batman Begins) is suitably leery and menacing, while Logan (Instant Family, I Care a Lot) delivers some pearlers as his dunderheaded, uncouth younger brother.
There’s not a middling performance in this. No matter the length and depth of their involvement, every actor is in tune with what the film needs to succeed. Cameo appearances from the likes of Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, You’re Next), Sam Huntington (Superman Returns, Sully) and Alex Essoe (Starry Eyes, Doctor Sleep) add their own sprinklings of flavor to the sunbaked drama.
Meanwhile, an eclectic supporting cast featuring the likes of Gene Jones (Killers of the Flower Moon, No Country for Old Men), Faizon Love (Elf, Friday), and Jocelin Donahue (The House of the Devil, Doctor Sleep) give us intriguing characters and sub-stories to supplement the core tale and players. Nobody is going for anything showy, but the almost symbiotic understanding of The Last Stop in Yuma County’s tone makes them all shine in their own way.
The last act of The Last Stop in Yuma County drives home how impressively put together the film is. It was an ever-escalating series of blunders, mishaps, and mean-spirited choices that left me enthralled, mortified, and chuckling at the darkly comedic absurdity that unfurled. When the superbly tense finale came around, I was in awe of how Galluppi funneled everything into this final standoff. An outcome that was not what I expected after the opening 30 minutes or so.
The Last Stop in Yuma County is a hell of a debut feature for Francis Galluppi. It’s blessed with strong performances, a twisting narrative laced with jet-black humor, and an impressive use of a limited locale. It’s one of my favorite films of 2024 to date, and I imagine it’ll still be up there come the end of the year.
The Last Stop in Yuma County will be in select theaters and digital platforms starting May 10, 2024. You can pre-order the film on digital here.
Score: 9/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 9 equates to ”Excellent.” Entertainment that reaches this level is at the top of its type. The gold standard that every creator aims to reach.
