'The Last Stop in Yuma County' puts flair into genre
I don’t often describe something as a good yarn, but “The Last Stop in Yuma County” is one. It didn’t make me think, and I’m not going to run out and tell everyone about it. But it held me, it made me laugh at times I didn’t even expect a joke, and I appreciate its precision, almost like Coens junior, which sounds like an insult but is actually a compliment.
Not to be confused with “Breaking News in Yuba County,” “Yuma County” stars Jim Cummings (“The Beta Test,” “Thunder Road”), already so good at playing likably uneasy, as an unnamed Knife Salesman who just wants to fill his tank and get back on the road to be with his daughter the day before her birthday. Turns out the fuel truck’s late today, though, and it also turns out a nearby bank’s been robbed. You can probably guess where those robbers (Richard Brake, Nicholas Logan) pull off to get gas, forced to wait in the same diner where the Knife Salesman, a waitress (Jocelin Donahue) beloved by the handful of others in town, and a slow progression of new arrivals anxiously sip coffee and wonder when they can escape this isolated, air condition-less purgatory.
Though it might seem easy — watch early Coen brothers movies, stick mostly to one location, let the tension boil — writer-director Francis Gulluppi does something quite difficult: He delivers an elegant screenplay that’s neither predictable nor daring, clever but not too clever, aiming to be a solid genre effort and absolutely succeeding. Sweaty desperation isn’t a new concept on screen (and at times this feels like a play), but Guilluppi trusts the story and the performers enough to let “Yuma County” breathe while crashing together characters that drive the story instead of the other way around. There’s a great sense here of knowing when to expand the world and when not to, and how far to go. Again: Sounds easy, and it isn’t.
That doesn’t mean “Yuma County” feels like an arrival necessarily, but it’s time well spent and good enough that you don’t just finish streaming and move on. Within this economical little thriller of greed and gunfire is a question about community vs. independence, of instant vs. long-term connection, and an endearing take on a familiar what-would-you-do setup. More lead roles for Cummings please, yesterday.
B+
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