Film

Another Round

Name: Another Round
Genre: Drama
Released: 2020
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe, Maria Bonnevie

Drama

Four Danish high school teachers, stuck in the doldrums of middle age, decide to test a provocative theory: that maintaining a constant buzz will unlock better versions of themselves. What starts as an experiment becomes something far more complicated. A film about stagnation, friendship, and the gap between who we hoped to be and who we've become—one that finds genuine humour in despair without ever letting it off the hook.

TMDb rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like character studies where a bold, slightly reckless experiment is treated with clear-eyed seriousness, and where comedy and melancholy sit in the same glass.

Skip it if you need your drama to move briskly, since this one lingers on middle-aged men talking over drinks and lets its mood sit heavy for long stretches.

What it asks of you: Expect a patient, talky runtime of just under two hours, with the camera staying close as the mood shifts from giddy to uneasy and back.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Farewell2019

Lulu Wang's portrait of family obligation, secrets, and the weight of unspoken grief. Like *Another Round*, it finds comedy in pain and explores how we perform for the people we love, with warmth and no easy answers.

But Some may find the pacing contemplative rather than propulsive, and the emotional register shifts between lightness and sorrow in ways that demand patience.

In the Mood for Love2000

Wong Kar-wai's study of longing and the spaces between people. Both films are about what's unsaid, about watching life slip away in small increments, rendered with visual beauty that makes sadness feel almost unbearable.

But Extremely slow, deliberately artificial in appearance, and more interested in mood than plot. The romance is entirely unresolved and left deliberately ambiguous.

Manchester by the Sea2016

Kenneth Lonergan's excavation of grief, numbness, and the weight of the past. It shares *Another Round*'s refusal to sentimentalise—the characters are stuck, flawed, and the film loves them anyway without offering redemption.

But Relentlessly bleak and slow. Casey Affleck's performance is so withdrawn it borders on opaque, and the film actively resists emotional climax or resolution.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Another Round

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Death of Louis XIV2016

Both are studies in slow physical and psychological deterioration; both find a strange beauty in decline and have the courage to stay with a man long past the moment most films would look away.

Albert Serra's radical 18th-century chamber piece about a king's body dying. Like *Another Round*, it watches a man's infrastructure—physical, social, mental—decay in real time. It refuses to look away. Hypnotic and strange, a film about dissolution that feels like living inside the experience.

But Barely a narrative. Extremely long takes of aristocrats speaking in riddles and ellipses. The dialogue is cryptic, and there is almost no plot. Some viewers find it precious or inaccessible rather than profound.

Shame2011

Steve McQueen's unflinching portrait of a man whose internal life has calcified. Like *Another Round*, it treats self-destruction as a form of honesty and examines the gap between public function and private collapse.

But The subject matter is explicit and difficult. Michael Fassbender's character is deeply unlikeable, and the film offers no catharsis or moral judgment to soften the viewing experience.

Force Majeure2014

Ruben Östlund's brilliant Swedish comedy-drama about a family imploded by a moment of cowardice. Shares the Danish sensibility: bleak humour, unflinching look at masculine fragility, and the quiet catastrophes of ordinary life.

But The portrait of male anxiety can feel claustrophobic, and the comedy is awkward and uncomfortable rather than warm. Some find the wife's character unsympathetic.

Good Will Hunting1997

Thomas Vinterberg's earlier film (*Another Round*'s director). An innocent accusation destroys a teacher's life. Raw, furious examination of how communities turn on individuals—darker than *Another Round* but from the same moral imagination.

But Harrowing and exhausting. The accumulated cruelty is almost unbearable, and there's no levity to cut the tension. Some audiences find it nihilistic.

The Worst Person in the World2021

Joachim Trier's portrait of a woman adrift in her thirties. Norwegian-Norwegian sensibility adjacent to the Danish spirit. Funny, melancholic, and interested in how we fail ourselves and people who care about us.

But Deliberately episodic and plotless. The protagonist is self-absorbed and makes maddening choices. Some viewers want clearer narrative momentum.

A Separation2011

Asghar Farhadi's Iranian masterpiece about a marriage collapsing. Like *Another Round*, it explores how good people can fail each other, how communication breaks down, and what we owe to others. Gripping and morally complex.

But Densely plotted with multiple perspectives, making it demanding to follow. The ending offers no comfort or clear resolution—just the weight of consequence.

Dogville2003

Lars von Trier's brutal allegory about a town and a woman. Thematically interested in complicity, degradation, and how communities justify cruelty. Austere and uncompromising, with the same courage *Another Round* has.

But Extremely challenging and graphic. Shot on a bare stage, almost no music, and the violence is neither cathartic nor contextualized as justice. Many find it punitive rather than illuminating.

A Prophet2009

Both examine masculinity under pressure and how men use connection—to other men, to institutions—to avoid confronting who they really are. Both have the same unsentimental intelligence about human motivation.

Jacques Audiard's French prison drama follows a boy's transformation into a man of power. A complete genre shift from *Another Round*, yet both are about systems that shape you, the bonds forged in confinement, and how we construct identities to survive. Propulsive, intelligent, utterly gripping.

But French cinema with subtitles, 155 minutes, and considerable violence. The protagonist is morally compromised throughout, and the world it depicts is brutal without offering hope as consolation.

Citizen Kane1941

Both are formal innovations about male decline and the impossibility of self-knowledge; both use structure deliberately to create meaning, and both ask the question: can we ever really know anyone, including ourselves?

Welles' masterpiece about a man's life told in fragments, chasing the meaning of his own existence and finding only the wreckage of ambition. Like *Another Round*, it's about watching a man's life in pieces, understanding him less as time goes on, and asking what it all meant.

But 1941 film in black and white, no plot summary captures the experience. The technique can feel mannered now, and the emotional register is distant. Some find it more important than moving.