Another Round (2020)

In my pre-Oscar movie smorgasbord, I don’t usually have time to get to Best International Film nominees, even though I like checking out films from other cultures. So I appreciate it when an international film slips through into some of the bigger categories. While Another Round isn’t ruling the day like Parasite did last year, it’s still a neat film, so I’m glad that its nomination for Best Direction put it on my radar.

Martin, a high school history teacher, is in a rut. With everything – his work, his marriage, his friendships. He’s not excited about anything, he’d always rather play it safe than give something a try, and people are constantly forgetting things he’s told them because they completely zone out when he talks. However, when one of his buddies brings up a theory that humans would benefit from a continual 0.05 blood alcohol content, Martin decides to give it a try and see if it improves his life.

It’s an interesting premise and a good subject for a film. Martin’s “let me just try it out” quickly becomes a barely-regulated experiment with his three close friends, who all teach at the same school. Hypothesizing that having a small amount of alcohol in their system at all times will help them feel looser, more creative, and more invigorated, they commence with their “experiment,” sneaking swigs during class and monitoring their BAC in the bathroom. Recurring intertitles keep us abreast of different characters’ BAC levels at various points. I’ve seen plenty of “dull sadsack gets a new lease on life” types of movies, but this is definitely one of the more original ones I’ve encountered.

As I said, in addition to Best International Film, the movie is up for Best Direction, care of Thomas Vinterberg. Watching the film, I was actually reminded a little of Nomadland. Both are shot very naturalistically, and even though Another Round is 100% a made-up narrative told by actors, the directing style sometimes gives you the impression of peaking in on private moments like you might with a documentary. Also, the opening and closing sequences are just impeccably done – not that the rest of the film isn’t well-made, but those two are both real standouts.

I’ve mentioned before that, while I’m a fan of Mads Mikkelsen, I’ve never actually seen him in a Danish film before (and honestly, I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen any Danish movie before.) It’s always interesting to see someone acting in their native language as opposed to their second/third, and I’m still thinking about Mikkelsen’s performance as Martin. In some ways, it’s similar to work of his that I’ve seen in English, the way that he uses quiet and stillness so effectively, but there’s a different feel to it too. This is an earthier performance than I’ve seen from Mikkelsen before, and he thoughtfully balances the different sides we get of Martin under different levels of influence.

Warnings

Tons of drinking (obviously,) smoking, language, sexual content, scenes of violence, some gross-out humor, and thematic elements.