4 Star

A Neo-noir Spaghetti Western

Francis Galluppi is a writer, director, producer, editor, and music composer, but this is his first feature film, and he has got off with a bang, in this death in bright sunlight neo-noir slow burner. As you watch, you will feel the tension building to the point you know it is going to pop, then he gives you more. A cracking start to a filmmaker’s career.

On the dusty roads of Arizona in Yuma, there sits the lonely ‘Last Stop’ a Diner come gas station, and motel. The latter two are run by Vernon (Faizon Love, Friday, Elf), the former is run by Charlotte (Jocelin Donahue, Doctor Sleep, The House of the Devil) who is being dropped off by her husband, Sheriff Charlie (Michael Abbott Jr., Killers of the Flower Moon, The Bikeriders) just as travelling knife salesman (Jim Cummings, Thunder Road, The Wolf of Snow Hollow) pulls up at the gas pumps. As he winds down his window, Vernon tells him the pumps are dry but the gas truck should be here soon. If he likes he can wait in the diner and he will inform him when it arrives.

However, he just says he’ll wait in his car, pulls up in front of the diner and sticks on the radio, just as the announcer (Matt McVay, Escape Room, Lovecraft Country (TV Series)) tells his listeners that there was a bank heist, and two robbers stole $700,000 from the Buckeye Western Fidelity Bank of Arizona, getting away in a green Pinto with a dented rear fender.

Bored sitting in his car, the salesman sees the diner has unlocked its door, grabs his box full of Odachi knives and heads inside, with plans of doing his sales pitch to the waitress/cook.

Not long after, the salesman gets a coffee and settles in for the wait of

the gas truck, just as Travis (Nicholas Logan, I Care a Lot, Dark Winds (TV Series)) and Beau (Richard Brake, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Hannibal Rising) pull up at the gas pumps, they get the same message as the salesman. Who spots their green Pinto as they pull up outside the diner.

The salesman has a lightbulb moment as the two come in and take a booth at the back of the diner, from there they can see the whole place. He tells Charlotte who they are, and now the tension starts to build, he gets nervous as Charlotte phones her husband. Beau doesn’t like this, and before she can get through to Charlie, the diner becomes

a hostage situation.

They need gas to get away, but we know they are in for a very long wait as the truck driver (Robert Broski, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday) has run off the road and overturned the truck.

With other travellers coming in, an older couple Robert (Gene Jones, The Sacrament, No Country for Old Men) and Earlene (Robin Bartlett, Shutter Island, Inside Llewyn Davis), would be criminals Sybil (Sierra McCormick, The Vast of Night, Ramona and Beezus) and Miles (Ryan Masson, Proximity, Maya Dardel) and local farmer Pete (Jon Proudstar, Just Sampling, Young Guns II: Blaze of Glory), now the tension builds and builds, and all I can say is it’s all good until the ‘crying’ starts.

The Last Stop in Yuma County is a tense, well framed thriller, that will have you hanging on the edge of your seat waiting for it to all kick-off. Death at 44 °C.

If you do anything stupid, I’ll shoot you in the face!

I like the hemmed in feeling this film gives you, even though it’s placed in the Arizona desert, with the relentless baking sun and plenty of room inside.

The Last Stop in Yuma County is available on a Limited Edition Collector’s Edition Blu-ray

 

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY CONTENTS

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary with director Francis Galluppi and executive producer James Claeys
Audio commentary with Francis Galluppi and actors Jim Cummings and Jocelin Donahue
Audio commentary with Francis Galluppi and cinematographer Mac Fisken
Trust the Audience, a new interview with Francis Galluppi
Leave the Gun, Take the Rhubarb, a new video essay by film critic Matt Donato
Sell Your House, a making-of featurette
Three screenplay-to-film comparisons
Trailer
Image galleries
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring artwork by Adam Perocchi and new writing by film critics Kat Hughes and Meagan Navarro
Reversible sleeve, featuring artwork by Eric Adrian Lee and Nicholas Moegly
Six vintage-style lobby cards featuring newly-commissioned artwork by Eric Adrian Lee