'The Last Stop in Yuma County' Announces Francis Galluppi as a Major New Talent
The neo-noir is one of the most assured directorial debuts in recent memory, and likely one of 2024's best films.
Learn the name Francis Galluppi: The Last Stop in Yuma County is writer/director/editor’s feature debut, but it’s so goddamn good it’s hard to imagine the dude doesn’t have a big, bright shining future ahead of him.
Set at an unspecified point in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, The Last Stop in Yuma County takes place primarily at a roadside gas station/motel/diner. The motel and gas station are run by the affable Vernon (Faizon Love, nearly unrecognizable beneath a big gray beard); the diner is run by Charlotte (Jocelin Donahue), who also just so happens to be the wife of the local sheriff, Charlie (Michael Abbott Jr.).
It’s the only gas station around for 100 miles, which makes it a real problem when the fuel truck doesn’t show up one morning to refill the tanks. A traveling Knife Salesman (Jim Cummings), en route to see his daughter for her birthday, thus finds himself waiting in the diner until the truck shows up. Too bad for him: also in desperate need of gas are a pair of bank robbers, the quietly menacing Beau (Richard Brake) and the boorish Travis (Nicholas Logan). They, too, wind up waiting at the diner, where the Knife Salesman recognizes their car from descriptions on the radio; they thus end up taking Charlotte and the Knife Salesman hostage while they continue to wait for that fuel truck to arrive.
Further complicating matters: while Charlotte and the Knife Salesman are afraid for their lives, Vernon and the other customers who gradually file into the diner are clueless about the threat. These include an older couple, played by veteran character actors Gene Jones and Robin Bartlett; a local regular, Pete (Jon Proudstar); and a younger couple with criminal aspirations of their own, Miles (Ryan Masson) and Sybil (Sierra McCormick). Consequently, Charlotte and the Knife Salesman find themselves trying to stay alive by being good hostages and not tipping anyone off that something fishy is afoot.
I won’t spoil where this nasty little noir film goes from there, except to say that like the recent Love Lies Bleeding and Eileen, it owes a huge debt to the work of novelist (The Killer Inside Me, The Getaway) and screenwriter (The Killing) Jim Thompson. It’s much funnier than either of those films (assuming you find ironic gallows humor funny - I know I do!), but it has the same kind of cynical “Everything sucks and we’re all screwed” philosophical underpinnings.
Of course, it never hurts to have a great cast, and Yuma has a great cast. Mainstream audiences may not know who most of these people are, but fans of indie horror will certainly recognize them from scores of various much-lauded projects (this includes the iconic Barbara Crampton and Starry Eyes’ Alex Essoe, who both show up in small supporting roles). Still, Cummings, Donahue, and Brake, who have by far the biggest parts, have never been this good as they are here, with Brake being especially noteworthy; the actor has spent almost twenty years exclusively playing creeps and killers, but he’s never been even remotely as unsettling as he is in this movie. There’s a moment where he goes from being quiet to SCREAMING HIS HEAD OFF in the snap of a finger, and I know that’s a common thing for actors playing villains to do, but I can’t remember the last time I found it so rattling.
What makes Yuma truly sing, however, is Galluppi’s expertise as a craftsman. With a sniper’s precision, he masterfully constructs a Jenga tower of suspense and cruel twists of fate, gradually stacking problem on top of problem on top of problem; when he starts pulling pieces out from the bottom and placing them on the top, the tension of waiting to see if - or when - it will topple is UNBEARABLE. The Last Stop in Yuma County would make Alfred Hitchcock jealous.
In case you can’t tell: I loved this movie. I don’t think it’s too early to say it’s one of the best films of 2024 - it already smokes most of what has come out this year thus far. Galluppi, meanwhile, has been signed to direct the next Evil Dead movie; honestly, I’m surprised Hollywood isn’t backing the money truck up to his house and begging him to make whatever the hell he wants. It’s entirely possible to make one good movie by accident, but I’d be shocked if that was what happened here. Galluppi clearly knows what he’s doing, and I can’t wait to see what else he has in store for us.