The Corner Penthouse

This will be a split-purpose article about the recent movie, Breaking News in Yuba County (2021). The first half will be a review of the recently-released Blu-ray from Warner Brothers, while the latter half will be a filming locations exploration. So, let's get this IMAGE-INTENSIVE article started...


Breaking News in Yuba County (2021) is the story of Sue Buttons (Allison Janney), an under-appreciated suburban wife, who gets a taste of being a local celebrity as she embarks on a search to find her missing husband Karl (Matthew Modine). She quickly finds herself in over her head as her world turns upside down, dodging wannabe mobster Mina (Nora "Awkwafina" Lum), relentless local policewoman Detective Cam Harris (Regina Hall), her half-sister Nancy (Mila Kunis) and her husband's dead-beat brother Petey (Jimmi Simpson), who all set out to uncover the truth behind the disappearance. After being overlooked for so long, Sue goes to exaggerated lengths to prolong her newfound fame and keep the truth from coming out.


This is a dry black comedy / social commentary / satire with an R rating that is well earned for excessive language, brief nudity, and violence. The story is fun and the characters are engaging, but it's not a perfect movie, and it certainly won't be for everyone. The performances are strong and memorable, especially Wanda Sykes, who literally steals the movie. Most of the funniest dialog and scenes in the movie involve her. The rest of the cast is filled with some of my favorite actors, including Allison Janney, Mila Kunis, Regina Hall, Nora "Awkwafina" Lum, Ellen Barkin, Matthew Modine, Jimmi Simpson, Juliette Lewis. The only thing I really hated about this movie is that hideous wig that Regina Hall wears. Who thought that was a good idea?


Breaking News in Yuba County is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:36:24. On the audio side, there is only English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and English Descriptive audio tracks. Subtitles are available in English only. For the first time that I can remember, this is a Warner Brothers release (technically MGM's relaunched American International Pictures label via WB) that does NOT contain any special features! This is completely unacceptable, considering that SEVERAL featurettes were uploaded to the official MGM YouTube channel back in January and February 2021. All five of these videos should have been included on the Blu-ray.


A digital copy code voucher is included in the standard one-disc Blu-ray case. The first print run includes a slipsleeve.


Breaking News in Yuba County is available on Blu-ray from Warner Brothers. While I recommend the film, I can't recommend the Warner Brothers disc considering that it's a bare-bones affair. I would suggest waiting until it's down to $10 or less before you buy it. It's certainly not worth the $35 Amazon currently has it priced at.

For what it's worth, the film was released on Blu-ray in Canada by VVS Films. That Blu-ray includes "23 minutes of soundbites from Alison Janney speaking about the film on set & 6 minutes of b-roll footage" from what I've read. That's not the same content that was uploaded to the MGM Youtube channel, but if you want to own the film on disc with special features, that's your only option. (The U.S. and Canada share the same Blu-ray region, so of course, that disc will play here.)

Okay, now that the review portion of this article is done, let's look at all of the major filming locations. While the movie takes place in the fictional city of Stanlow, which is in the fictional Yuba county, the movie itself was filmed all around Natchez, Mississippi. It's interesting to note that many of these locations are right next to each other in real life. For the sake of not giving myself more work, I'm only going to list them in movie order, but if you ever want to visit them, it's quite obvious which are near which.

I was able to find all of the locations, except for a few that I'll list at the end, thanks to clues found in the backgrounds of shots. As far as I'm aware, I'm the first person to identify and publish these locations, though someone may take my information and add it later to the IMDB. In my search for images of the real places, I stumbled across an article about the filming of the movie in Natchez from The Natchez Democrat on June 20, 2019. Some information from this article is included below. Also, MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

The movie opens with Suc... I mean, Sue, picking up a birthday cake for herself from the Cash Cutters market.


If you want to have the name on your birthday cake butchered, too, go shop at Vowell's Cashsaver at 261 Devereux Drive. This was the first place in Natchez that the movie crew filmed at, which was on June 1, 2019.


A central location of the movie is the Buttons House.


Although the house number is "2" in the movie, if you want to pay Sue a visit, you'll find her at 110 Northampton Road. Well, actually you won't find her there at all, because she's a fictional character; and the homeowners probably won't take too kindly to unwanted visitors. So, if you visit the house, please be respectful.


Sue's brother Petey works at Rita's Factory Furniture Outlet.


The filmmakers didn't do much to conceal the Factory Furniture Outlet at 414 U.S. Highway 61.


Karl Buttons works at Stanlow Community Bank.



It's actually the Home Bank at 500 Main Street, which is on the corner with Commerce Street, as seen in the film.



Lots of mischief happens at the Quality Times Motel.


Your cheating husband and his mistress can be found in a room at the Terrace Motel at 426 U.S. Highway 61.


Mina and Ray visit her father Mr. Kim at his office in the back of the bowling alley. Later, Mina is kidnapped by Rita outside the bowling alley.



The movie tells us, via the name on the front door and on a sign, that this is the Bluff City Bowl at 285 John R Junkin Drive.


Peter and Rita drive a truck through the front door of a mall in order to rob a jewelry store inside.



Please don't do the same if you visit the Natchez Mall at 350 John R Junkin Drive. You can visit GameStop and Sally Beauty, on the other side of the parking lot, if they're still in business at the time you read this. A former Zales inside the mall was converted into "Weston Jewelers" for Peter's and Rita's heist.



Detective Harris spies Debbie's Tow-N-Go leaving the Quality Times Motel.


I already told you where the motel is, but for this one shot, the filmmakers placed the "Quality Times Motel" sign in front of the building that's actually next door to where Rita's furniture store is. The sign was placed in front of 412 U.S. Highway 61.


Nancy, who is a local reporter, calls her co-workers, who are seen having a bite to eat.


That's the real sign for the Southern Style Restaurant, Catering & Bar at 227 Devereux Drive.


Sue is taken to the City of Stanlow Police Station.



This is, literally, right next to the Southern Style Restaurant seen previously. It's the real Natchez Police & Municipal Court Facility at 233 Devereux Drive. Sue is released through the back door, which is the real police station's back door.



Sue and Nancy have an argument while driving home.


They stop at the intersection of Northampton Road & Laurel Hill Drive. It was thanks to the readable street signs in the movie that helped me find the Buttons house, which is diagonally across the street from this intersection.


[UPDATE]
I contacted the fine folks at Visit Natchez, who put me in touch with John Norris, one of the film's producers. He was kind enough to help me identify two of the unknowns that I originally posted here.

Sue works at the Simple Solutions Call Center.


Hard to believe from looking at it, but that's actually the back side of the Living Word Worship Center at 8 Covington Road. The filmmakers digitally removed some windows and added in the call center signage, but it's otherwise identical. The building is right behind 419 U.S. Highway 61, which as of Oct. 2019 (on Google Maps) is an empty lot. (Google Maps street view history shows that a gas station was there back in May 2009.) It's also directly across the street from the Factory Furniture Outlet!!! I said it before, but I'll say it again: Most of these locations are right near each other. If you were to go on a tour of all locations - and please DO visit Natchez, Mississippi as it looks like a really nice place - you only really need to travel to a handful of spots to see everything.


Petey meets Mina and Ray at a Chinese buffet.


The Chinese buffet is the South China Restaurant that was formerly at 495 John R Junkin Drive. It went out of business sometime between October 2019 and March 2021; possibly a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic. So, you'll have to go elsewhere if you want to stab Jimmi Simpson in the neck with a fork... though he'd prefer that you didn't do that no matter where.


Detective Harris tracks down Leah Norton to her home.


Leah's house is probably at 5 Club Drive, if the GPS seen in the movie (which actually mentions "Natchez" and shows the real-life locations) is accurate. Unfortunately, there is no Google Maps Street View there, so I can't confirm it 100%, but this overhead satellite shot seems to match the house in the movie. The movie camera is low to the ground, so you don't see the path in front of the house or the road on the left that is easily revealed by the satellite camera.

[UPDATE - 7/15/2024]
I thought I would see if Google took some Street View photography in the three years since I originally wrote this review/filming locations exploration. Yup, Google was there in June 2022... and sure enough, the house at 5 Club Drive is the one that appears in the film.


There are one or two movie locations that I purposely left out, such as Petey's house, because I did not find them interesting or notable enough to include. Also, private houses are usually hard to identify because, unless there are clearly readable unaltered street signs, there's nothing that can help clue me in as to where it is.

Well, that's it for Breaking News in Yuba County. Now, back to Gloria Michaels for the latest on the missing teen, Emma Rose...


The filming locations framegrabs were taken from the Blu-ray by me (Paul Rudoff). All of the other images were taken from the IMDB gallery of the film. This item has been provided by Warner Brothers for review on this site.