The Last Stop in Yuma County

Grade: B+

Writer/director Francis Galluppi makes his feature film debut with The Last Stop in Yuma County, and his upcoming gig – already in development – is no slouch. He’s at the helm of the next Evil Dead movie. It’s easy to understand how he is working his way up so quickly. Remember all those movies that came out in the second half of the 1990s that tried desperately to be the next Pulp Fiction? Had The Last Stop in Yuma County been made then, it would have been one of the few that came the closest.

It takes place no later than the 1970s, and looks like it could have been made two decades after that. It’s a period movie seen through a 90s Rodriguez/Coen Brothers/Tarantino/Miramax lens – which is now dated and periody in and of itself. You should go into it fairly cold, not knowing much, but I’ll tell you a little bit.

There’s a gas station in a very rural part of Arizona. On this day, the owner has to inform any passersby that there’s no gas until the fuel truck arrives, which won’t be for at least a couple hours. Unless they have enough to get them to the next station that’s 100 miles away, they are stuck there – and he recommends visiting the diner right next door in the meantime. We get an indication of the kind of business it does when one of the regulars shows up, sees the maximum of 10 customers, and comments how it’s “great to see it so busy today.”

There is a hostage thriller element. I won’t say why, other than there are people who don’t want to be recognized, and are nervous they might be, so they take certain actions. This movie contains wonderful moments of slow-burning tension and irreverent humor/banter – as good as the best of anything I saw 25-30 years ago. I wasn’t planning on watching this, but hearing that it’s a Coen/Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez-style 90s throwback – and that the cast included Richard Brake (The Munsters, Barbarian, 3 From Hell, 31) – sealed the deal. Let’s not forget Oliver Stone’s U Turn, as well, when it comes to influences. If you are old enough to be nostalgic for that decade, particularly the films from then, The Last Stop in Yuma County is right up your alley.

By the time we get into the last third, and the body count has risen a surprising amount, I ran out of people to root for, and was no longer sure what I hoped would happen. Still, though, there are a handful of glorious moments in The Last Stop in Yuma County that achieve Tarantinian lightning in a bottle – whether it be a darkly funny quip, absorbing, clever, rat-a-tat-tat dialogue, Mexican standoffs with guns, or a needle-drop that may put an old, not-thought-about-in-a-while hit back on the map. Roy Orbison’s “Crying” is well-used, and good luck getting The Grass Roots’ “Let’s Live For Today” out of your head the day you watch this. The Last Stop in Yuma County is memorable, as violent as it is funny, and sometimes plot developments take unpredictable turns. I thought I knew who would be the primary characters we’d follow, only for the screenplay to put an abrupt end to those avenues. In an early scene, somebody says (via a form of electronic communication) “I’ll see you real soon.” Of course I thought “Ha. Yeah right. This is your last scene.” Wanna know a funny thing about the character who says this line? They live.

Grade: B+