DRUK / ANOTHER ROUND (2020)

Freshly thought/freshly felt Male Mid-Life Crisis tale from Danish writer/director Thomas Vinterberg about four high school teachers looking for that lost joie de vivre at work, play & home with first-among-equals Mads Mikkelsen in particularly outstanding form.  The twist has these forty-something bros ‘scientifically’ pursuing a maybe-not-so-crackpot theory that seeks to maintain a slightly elevated blood alcohol level (half the legal driving limit) in order to bring out optimal performance.  And it works for a while, in ways predicable and ‘un,’ before the inevitable crash kicks in when they start testing the boundaries of tolerance.  Yet the film is really no cautionary tale, but somewhat celebratory in spite of missteps, tragedy and regrets.  Shot in something near the old DOGME 95 style restrictions, but not feeling in any way limited by them.  Perhaps because it doesn’t hold them too tightly.  Ending with cathartic rapture that finds Mikkelsen letting out his inner Gene Kelly to rapturous effect.*

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *And speaking of Gene Kelly, one of his greatest (and least seen) films, IT’S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER/’55, a near-followup to ON THE TOWN, charting, of all things, a Male Mid-Life Crisis for a trio of WWII vets, both films written by SINGING IN THE RAIN’s Comden & Green.  (Note that Mikkelsen is really more Dan Dailey than Kelly here.)  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/its-always-fair-weather-1955.html

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Still on Gene Kelly.  The contract couldn’t be worked out, but Kelly had been first choice for Sky Masterson in the regrettable film version of GUYS AND DOLLS/'55.  Hollywood’s been trying to remake the property for decades, and Mikkelsen might be just the guy for it.