Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg, 2020)

A film that would've been in Competition if Cannes 2020 had happened, Another Round would surely have nabbed a prize or two -- perhaps the Scenario award, or another Best Actor trophy for Mads Mikkelsen. However, I think that if the film had bowed in the summer, a different sort of discussion might have occurred. In its plotting and organization, its combination of cringe humor and genuine loss, Another Round closely follows the template for a Hollywood prestige / Oscar picture, and I suspect we'd be talking about an upcoming American remake.

Although the ultimate trajectory of Another Round struck me as a bit too close to a hypothetical Brad Pitt / Paul Giamatti vehicle, I have to concede that the film is effective, lightly tapping on emotional notes that it could very easily have hammered home. The film's original Danish title, Druk, translates as "binge drinking," so Vinterberg is pulling no punches in terms of the eventual plight of its central foursome. High school teachers Martin (Mikkelsen), Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen), Peter (Lars Ranthe) and Nikolaj (Magnus Millang) are burnouts, unable to connect with their college-bound students and all staring down another twenty years in a hopeless rut. Then, they begin an "experiment."

Nikolaj mentions a Norwegian researcher Finn Skårderud, who contends that the human body exhibits optimal social and mechanical performance with an 0.05 blood alcohol level. As discussed in Another Round, this hypothesis is described as an alcohol deficiency. So the four men decide to commit to day drinking (never at night or on weekends), to see if having a permanent buzz will improve their lives. And, the film being what it is, their lives do improve, mostly because the alcohol removes enough of their inhibitions to allow them to take risks, act decisively, and even be more engaged as husbands and fathers.

Although Vinterberg doesn't make it explicit, the men are doing what so many others in the world have done. They are "self-medicating," using liquor as a substitute for the years-long work that actual therapy could provide. They are freer, up to a point. But it's not because they are facing their fears or making changes in their lives. It's just a Danish variation on "Dutch courage." 

Of course, as Syd Field would have it, there is a crash following the momentary high. They begin making dodgy choices in their relations with students, they are caught by the principal, and eventually one of the men finds that he has nothing to live for and cannot stop drinking his very life away. But Vinterberg is to be commended for his refusal to wrap everything up nicely, lessons learned and mistakes forgiven. The conclusion of Another Round has been cited for its unexpected display of unbridled joy, with Martin (drink in hand) finally cutting loose. But this display is shadowed by the prospect of a renewed future, one in which Martin will have to reckon with the choices he's made and actually build life anew. Another Round ends with a directorial tap of the pause button, because we cannot know whether Martin will sink or swim.