There is much more than meets the eye with Thomas Vinterberg’s intoxicating feature, Another Round (or in Danish, Druk). The premise sounds like something out of a National Lampoon movie: a group of middle-aged friends decide to test out the Norwegian psychologist Skårderud’s hypothesis that humans were born with a blood alcohol level that is 0.05% too low. They attempt this “social experiment” to try to maintain a constant perfect buzz throughout the day.
Another Round is not just a fun 40-year-olds-day-drinking movie (although it certainly is that). It is a mid-life crisis film that alternates from being exhilarating and boisterous to poignant and reflective. Over the course of the film, your experience as a viewer almost feels as if you are one of the drinking buddies, hanging out with them, starting with a light buzz (sure, one drink can’t hurt), then getting roaring drunk and laughing with your friends (how many shots is that now?), and then stumbling home to wake up to a head-splitting hangover (I’m never drinking again).
One of the most impressive things about this film is the way it seamlessly shifts tones throughout. After a bit of a slow start, the first half is immensely enjoyable (especially if you’ve ever had a few too many drinks), and raucously and unrelentingly fun. There are times when I had to hit the pause button because I was laughing so hard and didn’t want to miss anything. In contrast, the second half gets devastating at times and is genuinely unpredictable – not necessarily in terms of the plot but in terms of the characters and their experiences.
Vinterberg takes us through the whole range of emotions – joy, guilt, shame, hope. What starts as a fun social experiment takes the four friends to places they could not have imagined. One of the friends, Tommy, is the school PE teacher and soccer coach, and is probably the funniest drunk out of all of them. When he can’t give up the drink after all the others do, and gets fired, it feels like the end for him. It’s not until later, when we find out that he dies, that we realize that wasn’t even his rock bottom. It is legitimately scary. How can we really tell the difference between our friends who are funny drunks and those who are alcoholics?
What really makes this movie work is that it does not judge or preach. Instead, it’s more interested in being honest, and that makes you feel like you’re one of the friends, not judging them from the outside. Vinterberg dives into the genuine pleasures of drinking and being drunk, but he doesn’t quite glorify it, and he also doesn’t shy away from its destructive consequences. Anyone who has gotten drunk can relate to many of the scenes in this film, but one wonders what a nondrinker, or a recovering alcoholic, would make of it.
All four friends are multi-dimensional, but Mads Mikkelson, who plays the main character Martin, is brilliant. It’s hard enough acting convincingly drunk, but Mikkelson has to play all the different levels of drunkenness, not to mention the initial ennui and dissatisfaction at the beginning and the brokenness and recovery at the very end. When you throw in the magnificent and cathartic dance sequence to close the film, it is hard to argue that there was a better performance in 2020 than Mikkelson’s.
At one point, the friends talk about that “point of ignition” you reach when you are drinking, and there is one moment, that one drink that you say yes or no to, and your response will determine whether you will have a responsible night or will get blackout drunk. Martin reaches this point of ignition literally and figuratively. After having spent a lovely alcohol-free weekend camping with his family, he decides to give up the experiment and spend more time at home. But he’s unable to walk away from the temptation of that one, last, delicious cocktail, and it is at that moment (and the direct consequences of his binge drinking that night) that he blows past the point of no return in his personal and family life.
As much as alcohol and alcoholism is at the center of this film, Another Round is about something more: going through life and finding ways to cope with all of its pressures and disappointments. Booze just often happens to be the most convenient and socially acceptable method. The high school setting (all four friends are teachers at the same school) makes this all the more apparent. In one horrifying scene, Peter, one of the other teachers, convinces a student to drink some vodka before an exam to calm his nerves. Martin also jokes with his students (the opening scene establishes they are already binge-drinking teenagers) that they are in the good company of men like Churchill, Hemingway, and FDR, rather than teetotalers like Hitler. He is trying to convince himself and assuage his conscience as much as anything else.
Although this film hits rollicking highs and darkly sobering lows, it invites you rather than manipulates you. Watching this film might also make you to reckon with your own complicity in wanting the characters to keep drinking, but that is up to you. Another Round is so physical and so stimulating for such an existential film, but it’s the subtle character work that truly stands out. It’s also a multifaceted film – comedy, drama, tragedy – it has it all. Another Round is one of the best and most underrated films of 2020, and there has probably never been a film that makes you want to drink this badly, and then makes you so badly not want to drink anymore.
