Rating: R | Runtime: 90 minutes
Release Date: May 10th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Well Go USA Entertainment
Director(s): Francis Galluppi
Writer(s): Francis Galluppi

Is a coffin considered furniture?

Unless you have enough gas to get you two hundred more miles, you’re going to be stuck at Charlotte’s (Jocelin Donahue) diner until the gas truck arrives. All Vernon (Faizon Love) can do is explain the situation and suggest a piece of rhubarb pie before going back to his television to wait for the next would-be customer. Then Charlotte must deliver her own bit of bad news once those poor souls stuck on the road ask about the lack of air conditioning. And if all these customers knew the truth about Beau (Richard Brake) and Travis (Nicholas Logan) in the back booth, they’d realize their situation was even worse.

Writer/director Francis Galluppi makes sure two people know so the audience doesn’t have to hold that burden alone during the course of his debut feature The Last Stop in Yuma County. That’s the benefit (or curse) of being the early birds. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the unnamed Knife Salesman’s (Jim Cummings) decision to scroll through the radio before Charlotte opened the diner’s door, things might have turned out different. But he did. He heard how the getaway car of that morning’s bank robbery was a green Pinto. And he saw Beau and Travis pull up in exactly that color and model.

What follows is a tense, darkly comic thriller wherein each bell ring of the front door puts our main quartet on-edge. Is it another victim to the dry gas pumps seeking refuge? An actual customer with a full tank of gas for Beau to steal and run? Or perhaps Charlotte’s sheriff husband (Michael Abbott Jr.’s Charlie) and his deputy (Connor Paolo’s Gavin) to save the day or cluelessly miss their opportunity? Whoever it is, Charlotte’s eyes dart to the sound and Beau’s eyes dart to her, gun at the ready. All while Cummings seemingly sits catatonic in fear. We know none of this is going to turn out okay.

It’s a fantastic cast of actors lending some humor (Gene Jones and Robin Bartlett as Texans passing through), anxiety (Logan’s Travis is so loose a cannon that the odds of Beau shooting him are about even with him shooting someone else), and calm (Love and Jon Proudstar’s Pete, the only locals stuck at ground zero) to the proceedings. Add Sierra McCormick and Ryan Masson’s wildcard travelers who think it would be a blast to run into the bank robbers and you never know what will happen when someone takes a wrong step and a gun gets fired. This is a southern border town after all. Everyone is armed and ready for a good old-fashioned Mexican standoff.

The first two-thirds of the runtime can start to drag a bit considering very little changes beyond more people entering the restaurant, but know that Galluppi isn’t going to end things with a whimper. Is the bang he delivers earned as a result? Maybe not. But it is a ton of fun. Not only that, but he also understands that he’s drawn a cast of morally objectionable characters with the potential to not prove as vanilla as first impressions presume. We’re talking a huge bag of cash and a lack of witnesses depending on who (if anyone) survives the inevitable carnage. And once Galluppi does unleash the violence, why would he want to stop?

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Jim Cummings as The Knife Salesman in the western/crime/thriller THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY; courtesy of Well Go USA.