The Last One for the Road (2025)

Vini, Vidi, Vici, Vino - The Last One for the Road review by griggs

If you’ve ever let “one last drink” turn into an accidental bender and a mild identity crisis, this will feel uncomfortably familiar. In Le città di pianura (The Last One for the Road), Francesco Sossai straps two washed-up Veneto lifers, Carlobianchi and Doriano (Sergio Romano and Pierpaolo Capovilla), into a battered car with timid architecture student Giulio (Filippo Scotti) and points them vaguely in the direction of Venice. They pinball between bars, petrol stations and half-empty streets, dragging the wreckage of the Italian dream behind them like a loose exhaust.

It’s at its best when it just lets them wander that flat, ugly-beautiful landscape and allows a weird tenderness to creep in between rounds. The Brion memorial detour is a lovely gag-with-heart: Giulio finally in his element, the older two smiling and pretending they understand concrete poetry. The Genio/buried money caper feels sketched in rather than fully dug up, and a few scenes blur together like the shots you definitely didn’t need.

But the ending hits a small, honest grace note. Deeply Veneto, quietly universal, and a shambling little road movie I was happy to hitch a ride with.