Part of Oscar Picks.
Winner: Best International Feature Film
Nominations: Best Director
In their first collaboration since 2012’s Oscar-nominated THE HUNT, Thomas Vinterberg reunites with actor Mads Mikkelsen for ANOTHER ROUND, a film that ranks among each man’s best, most memorable work. Once the brightest teacher at his high school, Martin (Mikkelsen) has fallen into a seemingly permanent funk. At a birthday celebration with his three closest colleagues (all men), one tells the group about an obscure philosopher who argued humans aren’t born with enough alcohol in their blood. As an “experiment,” he proposes they all drink constantly throughout the day to maintain the “proper” blood-alcohol level of 0.05%. Initially the boozing seems enormously beneficial. But as the gang pushes their experiment further, issues that have been simmering for years come to the fore and the men are faced with a choice: reckon with their behavior or continue on the same course.
Directed with insight and energy by Vinterberg, and driven by a great ensemble cast with the incomparable Mikkelsen at its centre, ANOTHER ROUND is a boisterous and sobering comedy about how men deal (and don’t deal) with aging — though underlying it all is a shared, unnerving suspicion they may never have actually grown up in the first place.
“This incisive and insightful drama about drinking to excess is more about mid-life crises than a sermon about demon rum… ANOTHER ROUND is a film of more quiet desperation and a more thoughtful morality, and it goes down with a kick.” —Alonso Duralde, The Wrap “One of [Mads] Mikkelsen’s most captivating screen performances to date and quite clearly a win for [director Thomas] Vinterberg,… ANOTHER ROUND will prove to be a fruitful watch for those who are fans of the director's anxious social experiments.” —Sarah-Tai Black, The Globe and Mail “Not many directors can pull off what Vinterberg does here, and with any other creator the conceit would probably devolve into an absurdly daft Adam Sandler comedy. But ANOTHER ROUND not only has Mikkelsen, whose stoic presence grounds even the most ludicrous stunts, but also a tone that doesn’t seek to lampoon these men.” —Robert Daniels, rogerebert.com
