3 out of 5

Directed by: Francis Galluppi

A shot near the start of Last Stop in Yuma County features one of the leads, Jim Cummings, staring at a bird at rest. There really is no point to this scene, beyond being the kind of “peace before the storm”-style shot that works before such a storm, which is nicely foreshadowed by a radio broadcast – one of several genre throwbacks the film successfully commits – announcing the escape of a couple of bank robbers in a particular car. Subsequent shots logically give us a bit of a question about the man watching this bird, and whether or not he was involved; doubly so when he gives an askew glance at the police car that pulls up, the sheriff dropping off his wife, Charlotte (Jocelin Donahue), who works at the diner at which our radio-listener / bird-watcher is parked.

We do have context for this, given that he’s waiting on gas and the adjoining gas station is waiting on its shipment – a fun central conceit which ends up depositing a lot of folks, stuck at the last fill-up for 100 miles, waiting for the same thing, all at the same diner.

Soon after the above drop-off, though, our curiosities are quashed: Cummings is just a traveling knife salesman, on the way home to see his daughter. And furthermore, two guys show up talking about having robbed that bank.

This opening, beyond the bird bit, is very tight, and satisfying: writer / director Francis Galluppi has cast us effortlessly into the 70s setting of his, essentially, one-room thriller, and has a good sense of romancing tropes up to a point… before taking a swerve. Other films may’ve played with the “who’s the bank robber?” tension for a bit longer; other films may’ve held on to our knife salesman and Charlotte realizing this fact for a bit longer; and so on. But with Last Stop, the tension is kept at an amusing simmer by kind of staving it off near immediately, then adding some further ingredient in to start the process again, which takes the form of patrons continuing to roll into the diner, while our robbers keep figuring on the best way to keep the situation in their control – that is, how they fill up their car and get back on the road.

However, on the other side of this playfulness is that bird bit, and some similar additions that feel like they were included just because, while a better edit might’ve stripped out or slimmed down some scenes. The prime example is when a particular couple shows up at the diner: they are introduced by a hard cut to them driving, and having a relevant conversation before arriving. The majority of the film is shot between the diner, gas station, and police station – when the sheriff there doesn’t pick up calls coming from the former two locations – and this hard cut very much takes us out of that pot-boiling limitation. Additionally, their dialogue does not have the same homey charm as the radio station narrative delivery; this couple “belongs” in this type of movie, but not necessarily this movie (there were ways to do this without them), and Galluppi has to force them in.

This also, unfortunately, marks a point where the movie starts to slide more in the latter direction – stuff that feels a bit forced – as opposed to the former playfulness, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still some fantastic scenes and interactions to be had, especially the “climax,” that’ll leave you with the bemused realization that there’s still a half hour left in the movie.

Definitely an impressive debut from Galluppi. It will absolutely be interesting to see if this tonal imbalance continues or shifts with – hopefully – a followup feature.