Film Review: "Another Round" ("Druk") (2020).

From the director of The Celebration (Festen) and The Hunt (Jagten) comes Another Round (Druk). This Danish comedy drama film, directed by Thomas Vinterberg and written by Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm. 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.

The film is based on a play Vinterberg had written while working at Burgtheater, Vienna. Additional inspiration came from Vinterberg's own daughter, Ida, who had told stories of the drinking culture within the Danish youth. Denmark has some of the highest rates of teenage drinking in the world; a World Health Organization report released earlier in 2020 found that Danish fifteen-year-olds consumed alcohol at nearly double the European average. Recent efforts to raise the minimum age for purchasing alcohol to eighteen from sixteen have met with resistance, in part because older adults recall their own youthful intoxications so fondly. Ida had originally pressed Vinterberg to adopt the play into a movie, and was slated to play the daughter of Martin. The story was originally "A celebration of alcohol based on the thesis that world history would have been different without alcohol". However, four days into filming, Ida was killed in a car accident. Following the tragedy, the script was reworked to become more life affirming. Lindholm served as director in the week following the accident. The film was dedicated to her, and was partially filmed in her classroom with her classmates. During production, Vinterberg, Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Ranthe, Magnus Millang would meet to drink just enough to let go of the embarrassment in front of each other. They would also watch drunk people on YouTube to better understand how completely inebriated people would act.

The film stars Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Lars Ranthe, Magnus Millang, Maria Bonnevie and Susse Wold. Mikkelsen and cast makes this personal absurdist show their own with powerful and remarkably controlled performance.

It is not exactly date movie. In fact, unless you enjoy the feeling of absurdly unrestrained intoxication, things are going to get uncomfortable. Gripping and observant, the film is a absurdist adventure for a group of uninspired men suffering from mid-life crisis who lose themselves in pure unrestrained and 'harmless' intoxication. The film continually highlights how easily the seemingly civilised, rational inhabitants of the small town lose themselves in unrestrained drinking - and how irrational, or rational, their behaviour is. The film is an extremely effective, skilfully put together comedy drama, whose only tools are human character flaws.

Simon says Another Round (Druk) receives:

Also, see my review for The Command (Kursk).