‘The Last Stop in Yuma County’ Review

The big picture

• Last stop in Yuma County
  is a dark thriller set in a remote gas station and restaurant.
• The film carves out a place of its own in the genre, ratcheting up the tension until the explosive conclusion.
• Jim Cummings emerges as the center of the film, effectively balancing dark comedy and chilling terror.

A sign that says “you will die for our rhubarb pie” is usually a cheeky promise of some good eats. When seen at the remote gas station in Arizona and at dinner in writer-director Francis GalluppiThe debut of the feature is useful if a little scattered Last stop in Yuma County, it is a warning that death is on the menu. Many people will pass, but a good number of them will not leave. Playing as an extended riff on everything from the restaurant scene Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction for any number of Coen brothers' films, it's a limited little thriller that carves out a distinct niche in the genre in how it's not afraid to go dark. There's a lot that remains imperfect, especially with some of the broad character beats it starts with, but it proves to be decent fun once it gets going.

It's also a movie you shouldn't watch the trailer for if you want to keep the dark delights that unfold. Watching it won't completely deprive you of the joys that the chaotic experience gets deeper and deeper into, but some of the late escalations come a lot better when you don't know they're coming. Even a general plot description should be light on anything but basic details. This is not only because the film itself thrives on the necessary twists and turns that, while they all feel painfully inevitable in hindsight, are still very tense in the moment, but because the story itself matters so little. It's about getting a lot of people in a roomsome overtly nefarious while others will take a while to get there, and drop the chips in the deadly dance that affects them all.

What is “The Last Stop in Yuma County” about?

It all starts with a man known only as The Knife Seller. Played by Jim Cummings everything, from the spectacular thunder road in the fantastic series finale of Barry, he already seems stressed before he even learns that the gas station he just entered has run dry. Now stuck here until a fuel truck arrives, he initially considers staying in his car where he hears a report of a bank robbery on the radio. He then enters the newly opened dining room where he strikes up a polite conversation with Charlotte (Jocelin Donahue), who seems to run the establishment on his own, while Verno (Faizon Love) works at the adjacent gas station. They are not alone for long as two men pull up with a wrecked car and no gas. Beau (played by the perfectly menacing Richard Brake) and Travis, the most restless of the group played Nicholas Logan, are, of course, the bank robbers who are now trying to escape. The Knife Dealer soon looks like who they are and Beau recognizes this and thrusts us into a hostage situation. Charlotte will have to keep up appearances, serving the customers who come, as we ride along the edge until it all explodes.

Although it all blows up in the end, the film doesn't skimp on the little moments when the sparks start to grow closer and closer to the powder keg. Even when the tension is broken a bit by moving away from some secondary characters and their less edgy trappings, the basic diner scenes work at just the right frequency to cut through all the noise. Galluppi never feels like he's phoning it in or leans too heavily on homage to anything, but instead immerses us in the unique rhythms of the situation he's created. Everyone is perpetually sweaty and tense, ensuring that even the simplest of conversations are full of energy. It strikes the right balance between dark comedy and a chilling sense of dread about what's coming that could consume everyone in the diner.

For those familiar with Cummings, you will also know that this is where he thrives. thunder road remains the best example of this, closely followed The beta testwhile Last stop in Yuma County it's closer to experiencing something like that The Wolf of Snow Hollow. Each of these roles sees him playing an otherwise outwardly straight man who has an inner maniac just waiting to burst. He's the man you'd almost overlook before you see a strange look in his eyes. While everyone else in the film is solid in their roles, with Donahue finding small moments of resilience for his character just as Brake rises above it all, it ends up being Cumming who emerges as the center of all. This ensures that even when you might stumble a bit to get there and lose focus on your best parts, there's still plenty of fun to be had even after it all kicks off and the dust seems to have settled. lat. It's the best part of the whole experience.

'Last Stand in Yuma Country' ends with a brutal and bloody explosion

Without warning anything about what the conclusion looks like, it doesn't stop even when the gunshots are ringing in your ears. After a big needle drop that marks the beginning of the end and where the characters go beyond the point of no return, everything suddenly opens up in interesting new directions. Suddenly, the character who was almost more passive enters the spotlight in a more disturbing but entirely appropriate shift. It slows down and speeds up with the initial danger seemingly past just as a new plot comes into focus.

The tragedy of what was essentially a bleak tragicomedy comes to the fore as there are still more bodies to stack. After a movie where we thought we had almost everything and everyone noticed, Galluppi reminds us that we don't have much. Not only is he not interested in leaving us with any kind of catharsis, he keeps tightening the screws until there is nowhere left to go. When you hear the last car horn go off and everything just keeps falling apart, it's a beautiful thing. Even as everything falls apart, he manages to put them back together in a way that plays a dark and wonderful tune before riding off into the sunset.

Last stop in Yuma County hits US theaters and is available to stream on VOD on May 10. Click below to see times near you.

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