A beautifully real and honest psycho-philosophical experiment that the human is lighter and more confident if alcohol is flowing through the blood.
Humans have been drinking alcohol for ten million years. Even before what is now the modern human has been brewing booze, the early primitive human would just feast upon fermented rotting fruit from the ground and get pretty damn drunk. We’ve been drinking it for purposes that are ritualistic, spiritual, religious, personal, to drink away sorrows or just to have a damn good time. Millions have died from it; many have thrived from it. Killer of our inhibitions, while we kill ourselves with the terrible decisions we make while under its influence. I do wonder how different humanity would’ve been if alcohol never existed, but then I come to realise that not a single thing would be different, we’d just find our kicks elsewhere.
It’s quite clear based on your own experiences and what I’ve babbled about up there that alcohol has two faces and everyone has their own threshold after which the fun turns into a sour dizzy nightmare. To say I’m quite partial to a drink would’ve even cover it, it doesn’t take much to get me flowing down a river of booze, but I know my limits. I just don’t have the time nor energy to drink myself into a blackened stupor and wake up the next day to find my entire memory blotted out under nefarious circumstances. The only arts cinema we have in town is in this terrible neighbourhood which at night looks like a flat movie set that you can knock over to reveal the sketchy secrets that dwell underneath. This was also the only place where Another Round (2020) was being screened, and I just had to watch it. I’ve been itching to get my eyes on the film since I first watched the trailer and the many reviews waxing lyrical encomiums of it. With my girlfriend and best friend, we arrived at the cinema as the entire Pacific Ocean was falling out of the sky above and entered the screening room a bit damp. That dampness was quickly dried by the warmth this film radiated to its audience. Four high school teachers who’re in the depths of a midlife crisis, quite unsatisfied by their jobs and their personal lives put the hypothesis that the human body is born with blood-alcohol deficit of 0.05%, to make up for that loss with a light intake of drink would be to make the human more poised, relaxed and generally more confident. They begin to feel positive effects both in their professional and personal, until they take the test all the way to its limit and drink themselves into trouble with their families. This earnestly honest and real film shows both faces of alcohol consumption, the entire spectrum of drunkenness and how the individual places themselves upon it. Yes, you can have a good time while drinking but things can easily escalate and turn out pretty bad if you push your luck too far. Everything in moderation after all, if only I actually listened to this concept rather than take it in one ear just to throw it out the other.
Once you’re past the wonderfully energetic and care-free opening, there’s a rather placid sense to the cinematography in the first act of the film with very sluggish camera movements and close-ups which bring out the latent dissatisfactions that plague our four teachers. They are presented as small presences in the frame and classroom, unable to grab their students’ attention and constantly finding it difficult to make their presence known. Once their experiment begins and a palpable change comes about in their demeanour, especially once they push the BAC level into the 0.1 range, the lighting and camerawork collude together to create these striking silhouettes which to me simultaneously expresses the apathetic darkness within them disappearing, and portends the slippery slope they’ll tumble down if they take it too far. Once they take the plunge and set out to supplant the blood in their veins with alcohol, that’s when true craziness unfolds through the camera. Hazy focus and belligerent movement characterise their hilarious night out which comes to a violent stand-still once they are confronted by the mess that they’ll make once they get back home. Despite what tremors the alcohol might be running through the subjectivities of our characters; the film never fails to present us a scene with a lovely and piquant frame that’s a joy to look at.
Apart from the wonderful premise, what pulled me towards this film was Mads Mikklesen. One of my favourite actors who’s never ceased to impress me in whatever he’s been in, I already knew that I was going to be in for a treat when it comes to the acting. His beautifully humane portrayal of a sense of self lost somewhere in the background when people are so busy leading their lives is the perfect starting point for his arch which takes his character into colourful vistas of self-confidence and actualisation, and every step of the way Mikkelsen breathes vivid life into his character. That’s not at all to take away any credit from Bo Larsen, Millang and Ranthe’s performances which are just as entertaining and wonderful, which at times become just as emotive and soul-stirring, to watch.
And that dance of an ending which is a real expression of everything that he’s held back behind his inhibitions, a release of all the energies which have compartmentalised his youthfulness, and an invisible metamorphosis as he comes back into his own, all of which just makes this my favourite film of 2020. As I walked out of the screening hall, the unquenchable desire to have a drink swiftly took over me but all through that I was left with an elated sensation of having watched a film which will stay with me way longer than my drunkenness.
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