Another Round (2020, Danish) ***

 

It's a cliché that young people drink because it's fun; older people drink because they need to. If that's true, then I imagine high school teachers have more reasons to drink than most. Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) was once a dynamic history teacher, working towards a doctorate. Those ambitions fell to various family demands, and now he is bored and boring, barely able focus on his lectures. His three friends, fellow teachers, aren't much better off.

The 4 of them come across a psychology article suggesting that human beings function better with a little alcohol on board, and they decide to put the theory to the test. Drinking small amounts throughout the day, they become happier, more animated, more dynamic teachers. Suddenly Martin is giving engaging history lessons, while his friends are getting better performances from the choir and from their sports teams. Martin is even more present with his family at home.

It works for a while, but as anyone who has drunk alcohol knows, it's hard to maintain just a little buzz. To paraphrase George Carlin, “How does alcohol make you feel? It makes you feel like having some more alcohol!” The friends have varying degrees of success maintaining an even keel.

Denmark is a flat, watery, chilly, Nordic country. If the internet can be believed (Of course it can!), the Danes tend to be a very reserved people, not prone to sharing their feelings or giving one another emotional support. In related news, they drink a lot. They don't even have a strict drinking age, and high schools there apparently serve beer in the cafeteria. Maybe Martin and his friends are just taking their natural Danish tendencies and running with them.

And what about that psychological theory? I looked up the psychologist they name, Finn Skarderud, and could not find any references to his having said that “mankind was born with a .05% blood alcohol deficit.” It's an interesting theory, though. Humans evolved from a long line of animals that were constantly in danger of starving to death or being eaten. Even early humans needed to remain constantly alert if they were to survive and protect their offspring. For today's humans, sitting comfortably at the top of the food chain, that inherited anxiety is more a hindrance than a benefit. We probably all could use something to take the edge off.

3 stars out of 5