I rented a film tonight called The Last Stop in Yuma County at the site formerly known as Vudu, which is now referred to as Fandango at Home. I had seen this listed on a few lists of great movies so far in 2024 and I wanted to give it a try. After watching this violent crime thriller, I wholeheartedly agree in that assessment. This was fantastic.

The basic set up was that a knife salesman (Jim Cummings) stopped for gas at a station in Yuma county in Arizona. The gas station was dry, waiting for the gas truck to arrive to fill up the pumps. The knife salesman was told that he could wait in the diner next door.

There was a bank robbery earlier in the day and, unfortunately for everyone involved, the bank robbers (Richard Brake, Nicholas Logan) also stopped for gas and were told they had to wait.

The diner, whose waitress Charlotte (Jocelin Donahue) was working by herself, started to fill up with people waiting for the absentee gas truck. When the knife salesman identified the bank robbers’ car (which had been one of the items identified on the radio), tensions began to rise inside the diner.

The idea of this movie was very simple, and yet brought out some exciting moments and some black comedic bits featuring a group of people who made some terribly tragic choices along the way. The film was remarkably violent but with some great scenes that tied everything together. The film was directed by first time feature director Francis Galluppi, who show a real flair for the filming of this (for the most part) single setting in which a lot of anxiety and tension was on display, starting slow and building to a point where everything exploded. There were some excellent shots of the area both inside and outside of the diner.

The actors all did a great job developing characters without a ton of time to do so. I found myself feeling connected to several of the characters without really even knowing much about them.

The story progressed quickly with some very clever writing keeping things moving even in the slow parts. It also did not turn out anywhere what I expected it to as the story took a turn that I did not see coming.

The Last Stop in Yuma County shows how effective storytelling and direction can create a tense tale with minimal time and budget. This is one of my favorite films of 2024 so far.

4.8 stars