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That's the lesson that middle-aged teacher Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) wants to impart his students at the end of an impassioned lecture; life rarely goes the way you want it to. Whether it's your career, your marriage, parenthood, or just the general routine of everyday life, it's never as you expect it to be. That's the main reason why Martin and his friends are trying to shake things up.
Another Round follows Martin who, along with his three friends and colleagues, Tommy, Peter, and Nikolaj (Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Ranthe, and Magnus Millang) find themselves immersed in the typical mid-life crisis: boring job, routine marriage, etc. When they start discussing the theory of a psychiatrist that argued that having a BAC of 0.05 made you more creative, they decide to put it to the test by working while being a little, well, tipsy. Their experiment has great results at first, as all four improve their execution at work, reconnect with their families, and feel altogether more alive. However, things spiral out of control as they push the limits of the experiment and their BAC.
I don't think I was that interested in this, or even knew much about it, until the Oscar nominations were announced. Which is maybe the reason why I was pleasantly surprised by it. Even though the premise itself is not new and the film follows the sorta typical template of the "revitalized" middle-aged man, it is held together by the great performances from the cast, especially Mikkelsen. He really digs deep into the depression, frustration, and emotional chaos of this character as he goes up and down the wave of alcoholism.
I also liked how the film juxtaposes the dangerous effects of alcoholism with the many ways that society pushes alcohol unto us since our youth. That said, there is a subplot about a student that is having trouble with some tests and is sorta pushed into drinking by Peter, that kinda gets lost in the shuffle. But other than that, the film manages to successfully sustain a tone that, in a weird way, feels both bleak and hopeful.
Speaking of weird and bleak, I didn't know that director Thomas Vinterberg's daughter, Ida, had died just as they started filming. Ida had been a driving force behind the story, which Vinterberg had originally written as a play, and she had convinced her father to adapt it into a film. After Ida's death, Vinterberg had doubts but found inspiration in her to continue, while adapting the script and his direction to make it more "life-affirming". Like Martin said, the world is never as you expect. Hopefully, we can still make the most of it.
Grade:
ANOTHER ROUND
(2020, Vinterberg)
A film nominated for a Best Picture or Best Int'l Feature Film this year
(2020, Vinterberg)
A film nominated for a Best Picture or Best Int'l Feature Film this year
"It's funny, but there's a point to this, which is important and which I hope you'll understand someday: the world is never as you expect."
That's the lesson that middle-aged teacher Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) wants to impart his students at the end of an impassioned lecture; life rarely goes the way you want it to. Whether it's your career, your marriage, parenthood, or just the general routine of everyday life, it's never as you expect it to be. That's the main reason why Martin and his friends are trying to shake things up.
Another Round follows Martin who, along with his three friends and colleagues, Tommy, Peter, and Nikolaj (Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Ranthe, and Magnus Millang) find themselves immersed in the typical mid-life crisis: boring job, routine marriage, etc. When they start discussing the theory of a psychiatrist that argued that having a BAC of 0.05 made you more creative, they decide to put it to the test by working while being a little, well, tipsy. Their experiment has great results at first, as all four improve their execution at work, reconnect with their families, and feel altogether more alive. However, things spiral out of control as they push the limits of the experiment and their BAC.
I don't think I was that interested in this, or even knew much about it, until the Oscar nominations were announced. Which is maybe the reason why I was pleasantly surprised by it. Even though the premise itself is not new and the film follows the sorta typical template of the "revitalized" middle-aged man, it is held together by the great performances from the cast, especially Mikkelsen. He really digs deep into the depression, frustration, and emotional chaos of this character as he goes up and down the wave of alcoholism.
I also liked how the film juxtaposes the dangerous effects of alcoholism with the many ways that society pushes alcohol unto us since our youth. That said, there is a subplot about a student that is having trouble with some tests and is sorta pushed into drinking by Peter, that kinda gets lost in the shuffle. But other than that, the film manages to successfully sustain a tone that, in a weird way, feels both bleak and hopeful.
Speaking of weird and bleak, I didn't know that director Thomas Vinterberg's daughter, Ida, had died just as they started filming. Ida had been a driving force behind the story, which Vinterberg had originally written as a play, and she had convinced her father to adapt it into a film. After Ida's death, Vinterberg had doubts but found inspiration in her to continue, while adapting the script and his direction to make it more "life-affirming". Like Martin said, the world is never as you expect. Hopefully, we can still make the most of it.
Grade: