The Golden Bin Awards: Best International Feature

March 26, 2021 0 By Jeff Bulmer

Fresh, interesting takes on tired themes

In this series based on the Oscars Deathrace series of articles I wrote for The Phoenix News over the last few years, I spotlight my personal picks for this year’s Oscars, as well as some notable snubs.

Winner: Another Round – Denmark

Another Round, the Danish submission for Best International Film at the Academy Awards, is a nuanced look at drinking culture that smartly avoids easy messages about moderation and alcoholism in favour of a multi-faceted, human story.

The movie stars Mads Mikkelsen as Martin, a disillusioned high-school teacher. At the party for his friend Nikolaj’s (Magnus Millang) 40th birthday, Martin and three friends reminisce about the “good ol’ days” and realize they all need a change. Nikolaj, a former academic, suggests testing the hypothesis that maintaining a blood alcohol content of 0.05% relaxes, promotes creativity, and ultimately ought to make them better at their jobs.

At first, alcohol seems to improve all their lives, with each of the friends becoming better teachers almost overnight. The teachers also start enjoying life more, with plenty of scenes depicting everyday victories and celebrations for each of them.

Martin stops treating his history classes as recitations of facts, becoming more excitable and performative, engaging his students with anecdotes and relating historical figures to their experiences.

Music teacher Peter (Lars Ranthe) explores new ways to coach his students, and turns once-uninspired vocalists into attentive and melodic singers.

Several scenes of the friends drinking together at their houses, offices, or bars also show them bonding as a group, as they experience life in a way they’ve clearly been missing for several years.

During the good times, we also get some excellent scenes of the teachers goofing off, with Mikkelsen stealing plenty of scenes through awesomely choreographed dances. Each of the leads pulls off acting drunk brilliantly, hitting that sweet spot of “being drunk but trying to act sober” almost constantly throughout the film.

But despite some early victories, each character is soon using alcohol to escape the other problems in their lives. Martin and Nikolaj’s stale marriages deteriorate rapidly as they progress through their “study”. Gym teacher Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen) starts the movie lonely and directionless, and slowly loses the ability to function in society as his addictive personality reveals itself.

Another Round is a movie about alcohol, and alcoholism, but stops just short of making beer the “bad guy”. At the start, a wildly silly theory about blood alcohol content turns out to be just the change each of the teachers’ needs. But when things are going well, substance abuse becomes an easy form of escapism.

Along the way, Another Round also serves as both a celebration and condemnation of Danish drinking culture. Denmark has no drinking age, and as such high schoolers have plenty of experience with alcohol. Martin’s students are no different, and the teacher regularly playfully accuses them of binge-drinking. During a pivotal scene, Martin’s wife comments that she doesn’t even have a problem with her husband’s impending alcoholism, seeing as “the entire country drinks like maniacs anyway.” In the end, the teachers don’t even give up drinking, instead simply returning to where they started. On its face then, Another Round is easy to interpret as having the cliched message of “all things in moderation”. In the context of the film, however, it comes off more as a comment on the futility of any real change to the culture surrounding drinking. While the audience can take a message from the film, the characters really don’t, instead ending up trapped in a vicious cycle brought on by an entire country’s bizarre fascination with alcohol.

Runner-Up: Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time – Hungary

Part suspenseful thriller, part twisted romance, Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time is a wild ride from start to finish.

While at a conference in New Jersey, world-class neurosurgeon Marta Vizy (Natasa Stork) becomes smitten with fellow Hungarian doctor Jonas Drexler (Viktor Bodo). Vizy immediately quits her job and moves to Budapest to be with Drexler but is shocked to learn that he doesn’t remember her at all. Undeterred, Vizy constructs her new life in Hungary around Drexler, starting work at his hospital, and moving into an apartment with a view of the bridge at which they had arranged to meet.

Preparations depicts a woman pursuing a dangerous, stalker-like obsession, and yet the film plays out like a mystery. Director Lili Horvat tactfully drip-feeds her audience information such that there’s always at least one question that’s yet to be answered. Why doesn’t Drexler remember her? What exactly did Vizy give up moving to Budapest? Could she have made up the whole thing?

Much of the movie is narrated by Vizy to her psychiatrist. As the doctor recounts her experiences, cinematographer Robert Maly makes excellent use of close-ups to get inside her head. Other scenes have Vizy bond with Drexler and other characters through completely wordless interactions, while Maly makes use of mid-shots to create cute interactions that simultaneously seem pulled from a chase in a detective movie.

Preparations builds up an intriguing mystery, strings the audience along, and finally ties everything up exactly as much as it needs to. As the movie finishes, it pulls off the rare trick of answering all the most important questions and still leaving the audience wanting just a little bit more.