Final Movie Review

Another Rounds Intoxicating Journey

Q News

By Cassandra Mischak

Imagine participating in a social experiment where you and your closest friends embark upon an activity to enhance the quality of your daily lives.

Sounds intriguing, right?

However, let’s say that the activity of your choice is consuming a specific amount of alcohol each day to better your life.

Well of course, for most people, that will most definitely not end with the best results.

The Danish film, Another Round, directed by Thomas Vinterberg, will not only have you crying with laughter at some scenes, but it will also make you feel quite uneasy from time to time.

Most importantly, this movie will leave you in deep-thought of a deep, meaningful message.

This 117-minute comedy and thriller film premiered Dec. 18, 2020. 

You might recognize the award-winning main character of Another Round, Mads Mikkelsen, as Hannibal Lector from the disturbing series Hannibal.

The storyline is centered around Mads Mikkelsen, who is a high school history teacher in Copenhagen, Denmark, fighting his way through a midlife crisis.

Aside from managing chaos throughout his profession, he is also constantly grappling with his disintegrating marriage and family life. 

In brief summary, Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang and Lars Ranthe star in Another Round as four high school teachers who consume alcohol on a daily basis to see how it affects both their personal and professional lives.

The goal of their experiment is to test the proposed theory presented by a Norwegian psychologist studying that sustaining a specific level of alcohol in your system will improve the quality of your day-to-day activities.

Therefore, they are required to keep their BAC level at or above 0.05% throughout their workdays.

As these four colleagues begin their journey of testing this theory, they start to notice that having alcohol in their system during the day makes them appear happier, feel more confident and proceed through their schedules with more energy. 

As expected, during the initial test of the theory, all four teachers notice a significant and positive change in their daily activities and emotions. Each of the main characters improve within their teaching professions as well as obtaining a more joyful social life. 

Their classes start to become more upbeat and entertaining, their students become more engaged and their families become closely bonded.

For instance, Mads Mikkelson decides to incorporate the concept of euphoria into his lectures. By doing this, his students become committed to his lessons, making the classroom environment enthusiastic. 

Alternatively, what comes with substance highs, also comes with dreadful and dependable lows. 

As the intoxicating plot progresses, the four teachers start to notice that they are relying on consuming alcohol to function and satisfy their lives. The weight of their actions begin to crash down on them. 

Now, they are going back down the path that they originally started on, proving that alcohol only has short-term effects before it becomes too dangerous. 

At this point in the film, your eyes will start to fill with tears. You are quite literally watching these four colleagues' lives decay in a very short period of time. One travesty leads right to another.

By the conclusion of the film, this deep message of the harsh reliance of substances starts to become clear to both the actors along with the viewers. 

Another Round portrays through both laughter and tears how the dangers of depending on addictive substances, such as alcohol in this particular film, can tremendously alter lives for the worse.

This film may not be for everyone, but if you are willing to embark on this rollercoaster ride of unexpected events and emotions, you will not be disappointed with the outcome.

Film Information

Director: Thomas Vinterberg

Writer: Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm

Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Thriller

Release Date: 2020-12-18