There’s legitimate sentimentality in the chaos…

Opening this Saturday for a limited theatrical run in Toronto and rolling out in Vancouver and other cities in the coming weeks, The Last One For The Road has this unshakeable element of bittersweet contentment to it as it marks the intersection of regret, nostalgia and hope in an oddly life affirming way.

The bottom has fallen out for Carlobianchi and Doriano, two small-time Italian crooks. They haven’t been able to mount an honest scam since the 2008 financial crisis and now face the impending mediocrity of middle age. The return of an exiled partner-in-crime from Argentina affords a second chance for long-buried riches, but can Carlobianchi and Doriano put down their beers long enough to keep their eyes on the prize? Along their slow motion, alcoholic grand tour of the Venetian countryside, they cross paths with Giulio, a shy architecture student who reluctantly warms to the sodden pair and indulges their rants about the folly of globalization and the slow decline of local color. Each roadside tavern offers the promise of one last drink – unless the next one ups the ante.

There’s an earnest absurdity to The Last One For The Road as it evokes memories and ideas ranging from the films Aki Kaurismaki all the way to the plays of Samuel Beckett and it has a down to earthiness quality to it that allow us as an audience to simply go for the ride.

In only his second feature, co-writer and director Francesco Sossai embraces the warm underbelly of living that life from bar to bar in an existence that has been shared between wayward creatives, lazy miscreants and those that world has simply passed by.  There’s a little bit of Bukowski and Barfly in this too because while it has a little bit of grime to it, it’s never actually seedy; rather it’s allowing us a sad look at the realities of some of these characters and how the occasional random encounter with someone who wouldn’t normally be in your circles can set you on a different path in life.

Our two lead miscreants played by Sergio Romano and Andrea Pennachi are a fun team and are reminiscent of a less desirable Norm & Cliff from Cheers.  You wouldn’t necessarily gravitate to them at the beginning of any given evening, but when the beer goggles are thick and last call just got announced they have an ability to keep the party going and they drive the story with charm and ease that actually makes us laugh while acknowledging something of a quiet despair about them.

Enter young Fillipo Scotti as the inexperience Giulio who these two take under their wing for an adventure that will inexorably change them all.  He’s a great counterbalance for his co-stars and it all makes for a fantastic combination of bar crawl/road trip/coming of age/getting their groove back story that this film is allowing us to revel in.

While the aimlessness of these characters is hardly something to be aspired too, The Last One For The Road finds joy in those moments that we never really search for in our lives but allows us the space to appreciate times in our lives that we’ll never forget or be able to recreate….even if sometimes we didn’t always want to.

Check right here for listing near you for The Last One For The Road.