Verdict
Summary
A slow burn, high-tension film noir that feels like a throwback to films like Blood Simple as well as a neo-noir effort with a fatalistic black heart with no mercy in its soul, The Last Stop in Yuma County had me going there until the no-fun climax that goes down a path of no return and never looks back.
Plot:
A random stop for gas in a deserted town turns into a nightmare for a bunch of strangers in a cafe.
Review:
A meek knife salesman (played by Jim Cummings) is on his way to visit his daughter on her birthday when he runs out of gas in a deserted little desert community in Yuma County. It’s the early 1970s, and his tiny little car just needs a bit of gas, but the only gas station around is completely out of fuel and waiting for a refill from a gas truck that comes in once or twice a week. To wait out the refill, the man walks over to the cafe next door where a waitress (played by Jocelin Donahue) is weathering out the heat without a working air conditioning. As she serves him coffee, two more men come in looking to fill up on gas: these guys (played by Nicholas Logan and Richard Brake) just robbed a bank, and they’re killers too, and right away the knife salesman realizes they are the men mentioned on the radio. Knowing that he’s in a tricky situation while waiting around for gas in this cafe, the knife salesman and the waitress whisper to each other and try to figure out how to navigate their next moves. More people arrive: an elderly couple – just tourists – and a young couple with a penchant for carelessness and an uninhibited desire for reckless behavior. There’s the man who runs the hotel next door too, and the waitress’s husband – the sheriff – and an idiot deputy and the receptionist at the police station (played by Barbara Crampton). When all these people converge at the cafe, a spark is going to ignite, plunging destiny, fate, and bad decisions into a free-for-all fight for survival and greed.
A slow burn, high-tension film noir that feels like a throwback to films like Blood Simple as well as a neo-noir effort with a fatalistic black heart with no mercy in its soul, The Last Stop in Yuma County had me going there until the no-fun climax that goes down a path of no return and never looks back. This easily could’ve been a favorite movie of the year for me if it hadn’t gone so dark and bleak (to the point of being a head-slapping horror of errors), but it just ends up being something I’d not want to watch again, no thanks to its commitment to being such a downer. It had everything it needed to be a winner, so it pains me to reconsider it as something I would only recommend to someone who is a glutton for punishment. It’s very well made by writer / director Francis Galluppi, but man, it’s no fun at all.
Well Go USA’s new Blu-ray release of The Last Stop in Yuma County comes with an audio commentary, a making-of feature, and a trailer.
