Review: The Last One For The Road – “feels like a Pinocchio-esque fever dream”

Ever since leaving my homeland twenty years ago, I must confess with great shame how Italian films have mostly eluded me, especially if they don’t manage to find a UK distributor. And yet, every time I make an effort to seek them out, I’m usually impressed by how vibrant our cinema can be.

That’s exactly what happened with Francesco Sossai’s second feature, “The Last One for the Road (“Le Cittá di Pianura”), which dominated this year’s David Di Donatello Awards (the Italian Oscars) where it won half of the 16 statuettes it was nominated for, including best film, director, screenplay and lead actor.

Part picaresque road trip, part coming-of-age tale, this buddy tragicomedy almost feels like a Pinocchio-esque fever dream where a couple of boozy, directionless but big-hearted middle-aged scoundrels drag a young, naive university student on a grotesque journey that may as well be their last hurrah.

Carlobianchi (Sergio Romano) and Doriano (Pierpaolo Capovilla) were born in the prosperous 70s and belong to that lost generation of men who had to face the curveball thrown by the economic crisis of 2008 which left them stranded in a world they no longer belong to. Carlobianchi in fact confesses that he lost everything after his divorce and had to go back to live with his parents, although he hilariously points out how he built his own private access to the property.

The film doesn’t take itself too seriously, despite being imbued with socioeconomic commentary on how the urbanization of the Venetian plains has compromised the rural landscape by leaving it in some sort of in-between state. At its core the story is knowingly about two outsiders living on the fringe of society, sleeping out of the fancy car they bought with scam money and trying hard to score their next glass of whatever kind of booze they can find in order to cope with life.

One evening the two long time pals bump into a merry cohort of University students celebrating the graduation of a girl in their group. They notice Giulio (Filippo Scotti), a shy and serious boy carrying a tote bag, who is sheepishly desperate to approach the girl and talk to her alone but she gets pulled by the little crowd towards the next bar on their drunken crawl and although she seems a bit flirty and invites him to tag along, Giulio is adamant to go home early and rest well for tomorrow’s revision.

Carlobianchi and Doriano however convince the young man to carpe diem when it comes to matters of the heart, so Giulio follows them into the bar, only to eventually be turned off by the whole situation. Not only he doesn’t dance, but when he realises that the girl he fancies has become easy prey for a more extroverted rival, he gives up once and for all, and this time he’s truly set on going home.

And yet, no matter how many times he tries to “escape”, thus embodying the epitome of the reluctant hero, Giulio can’t help getting drawn back towards this couple of odd strangers who have countless stories to tell and pseudo-philosophical musings to impart. Plus there’s the prospect of embarking on a mini adventure to recuperate a “lost treasure”. That alone surely trumps boring revision.

Doriano and Carlobianchi reveal how they used to assist their friend Genio (Andrea Pennacchi) in a fraudulent operation at the sunglasses factory they worked at, where they stole all the discarded pieces with minor manufacturing flaws and then sold them on the black market. When Genio was caught, he had to flee to Argentina, but before disappearing, he hid whatever profits were left somewhere in the plains.

Now Genio is flying back after all those years to retrieve that sum and our amigos obviously want their fair share. Hence they embark on a mission to pick him up from the airport but wind up going to the wrong one and miss him. Luckily, they manage to get a hold of the sort of map the man had drawn but will it be enough to find the right spot, and will they manage to reunite with Genio?

The truth is that all of the above only matters on a superficial level and it’s just a pretext to reflect upon the meaning of life, finding your path, growing up and whether it is ever too late to do all that. The film is thin on plot but very rich in thematic nuance and in the blink-and-you-will-miss-clues kind of symbolism. For instance, the two intertwining circles left by two beer bottles’ condensation on a napkin cleverly nod to the same shapes later seen in the structural space of a famous Italian tomb our trio visits for reasons we’ll leave out to the viewer’s enjoyment. After all, architecture makes up the stylish fabric of the film’s aesthetics as well as being cleverly infused in its thematic threads.

The Last One for the Road is a bit of an oddball: culturally very Italian, as it should be, but narratively universal in the message it conveys. And it’s probably as much Giulio’s story as it is Carlobianchi and Doriano’s. The two old friends, realistically portrayed by Sergio Romano and Pierpaolo Capovilla, live off of nostalgia for a country that doesn’t exist anymore and by taking this young lad under their wing, they seemingly get a chance at re-living their youth. Giulio, whose ennui and innocence are perfectly captured by rising star Filippo Scotti, is at a pivotal moment in his life, looking a bit lost and in need of a nudge towards experiencing things rather than only reading about them.

He is clearly bright and it shows on various occasions, especially when the trio pretends to be the group of architects expected by a decadent nobleman for a restoration job on his property, which is my favourite sequence of the film, both for its humour and an unexpected queer twist for which I bow to the filmmaker. But Giulio also needs to let loose, enjoy life and find the courage to take bold steps to avoid living with regrets, especially when it comes to impressing the girl he likes.

That’s why the film’s final act is a beautifully apt climax which capitalises on the melancholic vibes sprinkled throughout the film’s running time with the help of its atmospheric folky soundtrack and of course the pitch-perfect chemistry of its trio of actors. And yet things are not tied in a neat bow by the closing image, because life is messy and we can’t truly be in control. We’re just along for the ride…

The Last One for the Road is in UK cinemas now.

Find a screening near you: https://bulldog-film.com/films/the-last-one-for-the-road/