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There’s a rare type of film that breaks halfway through or so, where the story we’ve been following suddenly shifts into something totally unexpected, or outright cuts to new characters completely. Of course, Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho is famous for this, and it seems to be most prominent in horror films like that — Audition, One Cut of the Dead, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Empty Man, and Zach Cregger’s recent film, Barbarian. Now add Francis Galluppi’s feature film debut, the deliciously tense Western thriller, The Last Stop in Yuma County, which has finally hit the masses this week. Its success on the festival circuit led to Galluppi being tapped to helm one of the next installments in the timeless Evil Dead franchise.
The great director Jim Cummings (Thunder Road, The Beta Test) stars in the film alongside the wonderful Jocelin Donahue (I Trapped the Devil, Doctor Sleep) and the legendary Richard Brake (who also starred in the aforementioned Barbarian). They’re all excellent in this unpredictable, atmospheric, and extremely entertaining new movie.
Some Guys Walk Into a Diner… Jocelin Donahue’s Diner
The Last Stop in Yuma County (2024)
4/5
Release Date May 10, 2024
Director Francis Galluppi
Runtime 1h 30m
Writers Francis Galluppi
Pros
- Cummings is reliably solid in the leading role
- Richard Brake and Jocelin Donahue hold their own in gripping supporting roles
- Unique blend of genres of subgenres
Cons
- More starpower would have made this more accessible to the masses
- The final moments are a bit of a letdown compared to the rest of the twisty plot
It’s fair to say your movie is off to an edgy start with the reliably excellent Jim Cummings starring as — yes — a knife salesman. Given the actor-filmmaker’s tendency to portray occasionally violent antics on screen, as evidenced in indie gems like Thunder Road and The Wolf of Snow Hollow, your mind might soar in a particular direction knowing his character in The Last Stop (who is never named, mind you) sells a certain sharp object for a living. It’s just one of the several red herrings and purposeful misdirections in this lovely little neo-Western that keeps you guessing all the way through.
Hearing the film’s title might jog one’s memory of the classic Western3:10 to Yuma, which was later remade with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. The Last Stop in Yuma County is also set in Arizona, but in a quasi-modern setting — though it’s all deliciously retro as we watch a colorful ensemble of characters trickle into a peaceful diner after the nearby gas station taps out and is left waiting for the long-delayed fill-up truck to arrive.
Well Go USA
Into the diner walks the knife salesman (Cummings), as well as a pair of blatant crooks on the run: the ever-so-still and terrifying Beau (Brake) alongside the younger and hotheaded Travis (I Care a Lot standout, Nicholas Logan). Donahue is excellent throughout as she interacts with a variety of different personality types.
The timeless character actor Faizon Love (Elf) plays Vernon, the jovial gas station manager who pops in sporadically, and the whole show is run by the diner’s well-to-do but timid server Charlotte (Jocelin Donahue), whose hillbilly husband Charlie (Michael Abbott Jr.) happens to be the sheriff across town. That is, when he’s not busy giving his goodhearted deputy Gavin (Connor Paolo) a hard time around the workplace.
Related The Clint Eastwood Western-Thriller That Inspired Taylor Sheridan to Create Yellowstone Taylor Sheridan has created a sprawling universe with the Yellowstone franchise, and one of Clint Eastwood’s finest films helped inspire the series.
Jim Cummings Is a Star
Given all these strangers on the scene, leave it to a local — a.k.a. Pete, played by Jon Proudfoot — to waltz in and stir up trouble after Charlotte has already realized that her establishment is housing more than one criminal at the moment. Shootouts ensue, and bodies drop, but the finest moments come from the incredibly unnerving tension that immaculately builds up until these Tarantino-esque explosions of chaos.
There are also plenty of dryly humorous moments, particularly between the seemingly clueless sheriff who can’t piece together that his wife is acting strangely over the phone because she’s stuck in a hostile diner with a gun hypothetically pointed at her head. The possibilities here are endless, as a few other side characters trickle in to further complicate the matters at hand, as bank robbers Beau and Travis realize folks are starting to recognize them as the publicized crooks who just escaped from a heist in another part of the state.
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Related Jim Cummings on New Film The Last Stop in Yuma County and the Future of Cinema Cummings spoke to MovieWeb about his role in a new Western crime-thriller and announced his upcoming feature film, The Screener.
Fans of Cummings’ charm and wit might be bummed during the middle chunk of the film, since his character is sidelined for the sake of other, perhaps more pressing plot points at work, but fret not: He has at least several moments to shine here. Yes, he’s just a star of the film and not working behind the camera in any way — but that’s A-OK. Writer-director Galluppi proves here he’s a future force to be reckoned with in Hollywood, even if the conclusion of this feature debut loses its steam, especially in comparison to the rest of the thrilling storyline.
From Well Go USA, The Last Stop in Yuma County is now playing in theaters and available on digital.
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