The Last Stop in Yuma County (2023)

December 15, 2024 7:33 AM

[TRAILER] While awaiting the next fuel truck at a middle-of-nowhere Arizona rest stop, a traveling young knife salesman is thrust into a high-stakes hostage situation by the arrival of two similarly stranded bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty--or cold, hard steel--to protect their bloodstained, ill-begotten fortune. The debut feature from writer-director Francis Galluppi, whose next film will be an entry in the Evil Dead franchise.

Starring Jim Cummings, Jocelin Donahue, Sierra McCormick, Nicholas Logan, Michael Abbott Jr., Connor Paolo, Alex Essoe, Robin Bartlett, Jon Proudstar, Sam Huntington, Ryan Masson, Barbara Crampton, Gene Jones, Faizon Love, Richard Brake.

Written, directed, and edited by Francis Galluppi. Produced by Matt O'Neill, Atif Malik, Francis Galluppi for Boogeyman/XYZ Films. Cinematography by Mac Fisken. Music by Matthew Compton.

96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (with 71 reviews).

Currently available for digital rental in the US. JustWatch listing.

posted by DirtyOldTown (6 comments total)

Have you ever played cards with someone and thought it was a close game, until finally close to the end, you realize they had you the whole time and you never stood a chance? That's how this movie is. For sixty minutes, it's solid, kind of good, even. And then Galluppi shows you he was holding far better cards than you ever suspected. The last thirty minutes is a wild series of escalations that reminded me of Red Rock West, only faster and more merciless.

Fun time. Galluppi is a clear talent and I can't wait to see his Evil Dead movie.

There are no CGI personnel listed in the credits, because everything shown is a practical effect, even the ending. They just really did the thing they show. The Blu Ray shows in detail that this is the case.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:36 AM on December 15, 2024 [4 favorites]

I saw that some time ago. My review:

SOME DUDE NAMED JIM CUMMINGS X 3:

🍿THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY is a new, indie fun thriller, which could have been so much better, if its director was not so young. It has a stylized, powerful opening, telling of 2 Arizona bank robbers stranded in a desert diner with no gas in their car. It turns into a dark black-comedy after the first act, and ends with an all-out 'Mexican standoff’ that leaves every single character in the movie dead (except of one crying baby). Gene Jones repeats his role as the Gas Station Proprietor from 'No country’. The best review I read was only 3 words: “Tarantino from Temu”.

🍿 In FOLLOWERS (2023) two stereotypical LA-women meet randomly as they walk their dogs and start getting into each other personal lives. But maybe their chance encounter wasn’t that random… It’s seldom you encounter such super-irritating people, so unbearably-cringe from the very first uncomfortable line of dialogue. Their small time conversations and creepy mannerism were anxiety-inducing. [*Female Director*]

🍿THE LAST BRUNCH, directed by this Jim Cummings, is a terrible, cringey parody of Tim Robinson’ “I Think You Should Leave” sketch, if you can imagine that. 1/10.
posted by growabrain at 8:59 AM on December 15, 2024

I didn't find it particularly Tarantino-like at all. It was a crime movie with some twists, set in the 1970's, and it had some prominent needle drops. Maybe that's enough of a comp for some. Certainly a lot of directors have tried to use those touch points and get by off of just those. But Tarantino-esque, for me, is really about the meta bits, the cribbed shots and scenes, the look-how-clever-I-am camera setups, trash culture nostalgia corrupted and repackaged in huge thematic swings. Galluppi doesn't do any of that stuff.

The Last Stop in Yuma County felt more like a John Dahl picture to my eyes. In movies like Red Rock West and The Last Seduction, Dahl had this way of twisting predicaments on his characters that was savage and ludicrous at the same time. By spreading things out over an ensemble, it lessens the impact/character resonance of turning the screws like this.

Still... I have missed the kinds of movies John Dahl used to make. Discount Dahl maybe, rather than Temu Tarantino. And frankly, I would sign up for Discount Dahl every week.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:40 AM on December 15, 2024

FWIW, I really think this was set in the 1970's for purely practical reasons, not nostalgia. The plot doesn't work if cell phones exist. It doesn't work if cars get enough mileage to go 100 miles while still sort of low on gas. And it doesn't work in an era where people take the interstate and not the old highway.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:48 AM on December 15, 2024

We really dug this. Totally hits the 1990s neo-noir vibe I miss dearly. The John Dahl comparison is very apt.

I have driven around the Mojave desert enough to always recognize it playing Arizona or Texas in movies, and have also watched enough horror and thriller movies filmed in Lancaster, CA that I immediately recognized the Four Aces Movie Ranch when it appeared on screen. (And yet, somehow, I have never visited it, despite driving fairly close to it. I have seen the Kill Bill Church, though.)
posted by mrphancy at 10:13 AM on December 15, 2024 [2 favorites]

mrphancy, I live in Lancaster, and happened upon Four Aces when I was exploring the Lake Lis Angeles area shortly after moving here… you’re really not missing much.

On the other hand, I will watch Richard Brake in ANYTHING. He and Sofia Boutella are the only actors I can recall from Kingsman: The Secret Service, and his scenes in Barbarian were the tensest moments of that film, which is saying something given that they were backstory and denouement.
posted by infinitewindow at 7:40 PM on December 16, 2024