(C) Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural This story was originally published by Daily Yonder - Keep it Rural and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . 'The Last Stop in Yuma County' Aims for Fresh Take on Familiar Setup [1] ['Adam B. Giorgi', 'The Daily Yonder', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar'] Date: 2024-06-13 Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox. It’s one of my favorite scenes in any film, the diner standoff at the conclusion of 1994’s “Pulp Fiction.” Where that film ends, with a fateful encounter between a diner patron and a pair of robbers, 2024’s “The Last Stop in Yuma County” begins. When an unnamed protagonist, credited simply as “The Knife Salesman,” finds himself stranded without gas at a remote desert diner, he’s unexpectedly whisked into a tense hostage situation with a pair of bank robbers on the run, alongside a small cohort of fellow customers and diner staff. What represented one of many vignettes in “Pulp Fiction” is expanded here into a full 90-minute caper, the debut feature from writer-director Francis Galluppi. It’s an exercise in managed tension that starts with a slow burn, bubbles over into a full Mexican standoff, and culminates with a carefully choreographed, inexorably explosive conclusion. An official trailer for ‘The Last Stop in Yuma County’ (via Well Go USA Entertainment on YouTube). Be Cool Invoking the comparison to “Pulp Fiction” admittedly does few favors for “The Last Stop in Yuma County,” which shares surface-level similarities, but lacks some of the more distinctive qualities of the Quentin Tarantino oeuvre. For example, Galluppi fills his soundtrack with a collection of vintage tunes from the 1960s, presented diegetically and used, along with set design and costuming, to hint at the time period of the film. Also aspiring for Tarantino-esque effect, Galluppi’s characters aim for iconic looks that are idiosyncratic yet immediately readable, best exemplified in an undersized “Bigfoot for President” T-shirt. But the underlying characterization and accompanying dialogue are comparatively spare. Compared to Tarantino’s fervor for elaborate and extended wordplay, “The Last Stop in Yuma County” is lean, focused foremost on its plot mechanics and managing its escalating tensions, as noted earlier. The only character with much depth and complexity, progressing beyond an archetype and a function in the clockwork carnage awaiting its cue, is our nameless protagonist. One might also see in “Yuma” echoes of the Coen Brothers, themselves masters of bloody rural crime stories filled with quirky crooks and cops, from “Fargo” to “No Country for Old Men.” On this score, Galluppi doesn’t always nail the tonal balance that the Coens so finely honed in their films, trademarking a dark comedy formula where tragic violence could coexist alongside comic absurdity. There are moments of levity and silliness in “The Last Stop in Yuma County,” as well as some brutally sad ones too, but the film left me occasionally unsettled navigating those extremes and figuring out how to emotionally engage. The Righteous Man As harsh as these parallels make it sound, “The Last Stop in Yuma County” offers plenty to appreciate when considered on its own merits. It’s an eye-catching and well-paced film, using its limited geographic backdrop and crisp runtime to great effect. Yes, it’s apparent that Galluppi has been inspired by forerunners like Tarantino and the Coen Brothers, and your level of fondness for those filmmakers will inform your interest in watching “Yuma” and what you’ll make of it if you do. But just as many of the film’s pleasures derive from anticipating just what’s going to happen next in that rural diner, there is a joy in encountering the work of a young new filmmaker and imagining what the future might hold. Movie poster for “The Last Stop in Yuma County” (Credit: Well Go USA Entertainment). In that regard, it’s perhaps fitting that I became most intrigued by “The Last Stop in Yuma County” when its story stepped out of the diner and began venturing out into the broader horizons of the surrounding desert. What happens to our protagonist from there may or may not surprise you, depending on your experience with stories like this, but here’s hoping that Galluppi, who reportedly may be headed for a cabin in the woods next, still has plenty of surprises yet in store. The Last Stop in Yuma County is playing in select theaters and is available to buy or rent via digital media platforms. This article first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. Join the mailing list today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox. Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. 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