The Last Stop in Yuma County **** (2023, Jim Cummings, Faizon Love, Jocelin Donahue, Richard Brake, Michael Abbott Jr, Connor Jones, Connor Paolo, Robin Bartlett) – Classic Movie Review 12,883

Francis Galluppi’s 2023 American crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County is one heck of a cool, chic and smart movie, a brio exercise in mounting hysteria.

Debut writer/director Francis Galluppi’s 2023 American crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County is one heck of a cool, chic and smart movie, a brio exercise in mounting hysteria. It is a hugely entertaining black comedy crime thriller in the retro neo noir vein, with stylish visuals, characterful performances, an amusing, inventive script, and sharp direction and crisp editing, plus an explosive finish.

Jim Cummings stars as a slightly dim and slow-on-the-uptake young travelling knife salesman, a Man with No Name, who finds himself nearly out of gas, pulling into Vernon (Faizon Love)‘s middle-of-nowhere Arizona gas station that is entirely without gas, and awaiting the arrival of the next fuel truck. The place is the Last Stop in Yuma County and the next gas station is zillions of miles away, far too far to drive running on near empty.

The Knife Salesman has coffee served to him by nice waitress Charlotte (Jocelin Donahue) at the diner next door to the gas station and motel, while he tries to interest her in his knives. The diner’s killer specialty is rhubarb pie. That’s a vegetable, isn’t it? Charlotte’s clientele seem unimpressed.

Soon, however, The Knife Salesman finds himself embroiled in a life-or-death hostage situation after the arrival of two similarly stranded bank robbers who will stop at nothing to protect their loot and drive off to safety. Charlotte happens to be the wife of the local sheriff Charlie (Michael Abbott Jr), who is preoccupied far away in his office. He has a sassy secretary (Barbara Crampton) and a dim deputy (Connor Paolo).

Charlotte and Charlie are the brightest bulbs in the box, though even they are 40 watt rather than 100 watt. Unfortunately, one of the robbers, Beau (Richard Brake), is pretty bright too, and devilishly nasty. The younger robber Logan (Nicholas Logan) is a dim loose cannon.

It motors along strongly and menacingly, with several highlight set pieces on the way to a spectacular bloodbath in the motel with Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ playing on the juke box, and then that equally spectacular, satisfying explosive finish. It is no problem that it recalls David Lynch and early Coen Brothers, especially Blood Simple. Comparison is flattery here.

Francis Galluppi packs his 90 minutes with a great deal of plot and lot of fun characters, and they have hired an excellent bunch of actors to inhabit the landscape and make the film work, with Jim Cummings, Jocelin Donahue, Michael Abbott Jr and Faizon Love outstanding. But everybody’s good. The cars may all be out of gas, but the movie sure isn’t.

Finally, a special shout out to the cinematography by Mac Fisken and the music by Matthew Compton.

The Last Stop in Yuma County premiered at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, on 23 September 2023. It was released in US in select cinemas and on digital formats by Well Go USA Entertainment on 10 May 2024,

Cinema release poster.

Cast: Jim Cummings as The Knife Salesman, Jocelin Donahue as Charlotte, Sierra McCormick as Sybil, Nicholas Logan as Travis, Michael Abbott Jr as Charlie, Connor Paolo as Gavin, Alex Essoe as Sarah, Robin Bartlett as Earline, Jon Proudstar as Pete, Sam Huntington as David, Ryan Masson as Miles, Barbara Crampton as Virginia, Gene Jones as Robert, Faizon Love as Vernon, Richard Brake as Beau, and Robert Broski as a truck driver.

Duration: 90 minutes.

Production: Random Lane Productions, Local Boogeyman Productions, Carte Blanche.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,883

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com