Another Round
Four middle-aged teachers experiment with alcohol to find happiness, but face consequences.
Trailer
Why watch this film?
Our suggestions
Four friends, all teachers at various stages of middle age, are stuck in a rut. Unable to share their passions either at school or at home, they embark on an audacious experiment from an obscure philosopher: to see if a constant level of alcohol in their blood will help them find greater freedom and happiness. At first they each find a new- found zest, but as the gang pushes their experiment further, issues that have been simmering for years come to a head and the men are faced with a choice: reckon with their behavior or continue on the same course.
Underscored by delicate and affecting camerawork, director Thomas Vinterberg's spry script, co-written with regular collaborator Tobias Lindholm, uses this bold premise to explore the euphoria and pain of an unbridled life. Playing a once brilliant but now world-weary shell of a man, the ever surprising Mads Mikkelsen delivers a fierce and touching performance.
"There is no doubt that 'Another Round', widely recognized in the 2021 awards season, causes some strangeness in the Brazilian public's first contact with the story. After all, the plot follows a group of teachers, all of them friends for years, who decide to drink alcohol doses before classes. It's like an experiment, to understand if it will increase performance, joy and yield. Obviously, a lot goes wrong and we even have some escapism for humor. But it doesn't matter: in the direction, we have Thomas Vinterberg. Repeating his partnership with Mads Mikkelsen after 'The Hunt', the filmmaker seeks to investigate the dilemmas and problems of unlimited alcohol consumption - a real issue in Denmark, where teenagers drink and are encouraged to drink from an early age. It does not fall into banalities, nor into any sentimental drama. In 'Another Round', there are good questions about life, masculinity, ego and easy escapism, always with an interesting atmosphere created by Vinterberg. And I already advance: the final sequence with Mikkelsen is already one of the best scenes in cinema in 2021, full of life and meanings through a single dance."