A roadside diner. Not just a place to see peeling upholstery and rodent traps, and indulge in the occasional sugary slice, but a genuine icon of Americana from Edward Hopper to “Frasier.” A diner is the great, anxiety-drenched stage where most of first-time feature director Francis Galluppi‘s “The Last Stop in Yuma County” takes place, and, though this thriller is packed with memorable characters, the diner itself might be its greatest.
“The Petrified Forest” meets Tarantino and the Coen brothers, “The Last Stop in Yuma County” revels in its Americana like few films in recent memory. There’s an olive green Ford Pinto, Roy Orbison’s “Crying” played from a jukebox, a sheriff with ’70s sideburns, and, of course, a couple of bank robbers on the run. There’s the oafish Travis (Nicholas Logan), who inquires about the location of the facilities with a repeated “Where’s the shitter?” and wipes his armpits in front of the most adorable diner waitress (Jocelin Donahue) this side of “Twin Peaks.” His partner in crime is Beau (Richard Brake, whose Joe Chill killed Bruce Wayne’s parents in “Batman Begins,” and who also played the Night King on the earlier seasons of “Game of Thrones”), who has a lizard-like, unblinking stare. Pure psychopath.
They quickly take over the diner in question, holding hostage the only people present — Donahue’s waitress, named Charlotte, and a traveling knife salesman played by Jim Cummings, unnamed. Well, the only people there at that moment. Travis and Beau needed a place to hide out while waiting for the gas truck to arrive at the fill ‘er up station next door, so they can fill up and head out onto the 100-mile stretch of road that leads straight into the desert. The gas truck doesn’t arrive, though. The opening credits show why. And with a long wait for it to arrive, other people start pouring into the diner as well, also hoping to get some gas and unaware of the hostage situation playing out right in front of them.
Eventually, the diner’s relatively packed. Sierra McCormick as Sybil, a redhead spitfire who turns up her nose at the eatery’s rhubarb pie, and Faizon Love as Vernon, the proprietor of the gas station, are particular highlights. And Galluppi directs the hell out of every moment. There are overhead shots, low-angle shots, at one point the camera is even attached to the fender of the Pinto. More impressive still is when he doesn’t go for the virtuosity and lets a wide-shot simmer as a slow burn for an entire two minutes as the camera slowly tracks in on The Knife Salesman and Charlotte as he tells her he thinks Travis and Beau are bank robbers and they need to formulate a plan to survive.
This is one promising debut, but the reality is that it’s a far greater feat of directing than screenwriting, for which Galluppi has the sole credit as well. He’s great at telegraphing small details about his characters through close-up reaction shots — and his actors are more than up to the challenge of conveying a ton, without significant explanatory dialogue. Donahue, a scream queen who came to horror fans’ attention for Ti West’s “The House of the Devil,” is particularly adept at conveying so much of what she needs to through a flick of her eyes and a shift in her posture. But everyone’s dialogue feels a little too on-the-nose at times. Does Sybill really need to flat-out say that The Knife Salesman looks like the “cross-dresser from ‘Psycho’?” Cummings’ Anthony Perkins vibes here are already very palpable to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of film. And the scenario itself is ultimately about moving them around like pieces on a chess board — about putting them into just the right positions for the most explosive effect. Because you know something major is going to go down.
And it does. Less because it’s what’s most organic an outcome for these characters, but because it’s the greatest spectacle this scenario allows. That’s a tad unfair to several characters, who feel like they’re in want of a better story. There’s even a specific moment where you can identify “Oh, this has gone from a Tarantino riff to a Coen brothers riff,” down to the hastily snatched bag full of money. Not to mention the Chekhov’s Gas Tanker introduced in the opening moments.
Galluppi is clearly adept with actors, and he knows how to make the most of a simple setup — the way he slows down and speeds up the experience of time is particularly skillful — but “The Last Stop in Yuma County” has many of the hallmarks of a first film. It’s a showcase for its director’s skillset and chosen obsessions but with many notions feeling more like a tease than the full elaboration you might expect from a more experienced filmmaker. He’s directed music videos and his similarly dusty short-film thriller “High Desert Hell” won acclaim in 2019, but he’s got a way to go as a filmmaker.
The ambition is there, though, and Galluppi’s ability to maximize the potential of a single location and an ensemble within it should lend itself well to the Untitled “Evil Dead” film he’s attached to as his next project. After all, a roadside diner is usually just a place to stop for a bit when passing through. Maybe “The Last Stop in Yuma County” is just a pitstop on the way to an even more exciting cinematic destination to come.
Grade: B-
Well Go will release “The Last Stop in Yuma County” in theaters and on VOD on Friday, May 10.
