Watching Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt gave me one of the most uncomfortable and stressful experiences I've ever had while watching a film. It was basically flawless and truly stunned me. By the end, I had been drained of all my energy yet after taking it in for a while, I just had to watch another one of his films and what better than his latest feature, 2020's Another Round.

Ever since reviews had been popping up, I was excited but my excitement rose further when I saw the clip of the ending where Mads Mikkelsen is dancing to the song "What a Life". That scene made me want to watch the film so badly. Though, 30 minutes into it, the internet shut off thus, I went to bed. In the morning, the internet still wasn't working so I watched two of my Netflix downloads which were two Judd Apatow comedies. But finally, at night, the internet came back and I immediately restarted Another Round.

From everything I had heard and from how excited I was, the film was ultimately sort of disappointing and underwhelming. It was a very solid 3.5 but I was hoping for at least a 4 because out of the 24 films released in 2020 that I had seen, none were above the rating of 3.5. It had felt like I had seen this sort of film before and it wasn't that special. So what brought it up to a 4? Well, that ending was just perfection.

Vinterberg's depiction of alcoholism is very strong. It shows you how fun it can be while it lasts but it also shows you the opposite of how it can become something painful and horrible. The film shows us that we have to be careful to not get addicted to something while also giving us beautiful and probably perfect portrayals of drinking, relationships, and life. I don't know how to really explain it but it felt like this film was so shallow and so in-depth at the same time. It was so deep and not deep at once. That probably sounds really stupid but I don't know; it's just what I felt.

With this and The Hunt, Mads Mikkelsen has become one of my latest favourite actors. His performance within this film is truthful, brutal, and thoughtful. We are able to take a look into this lovely character created by Vinterberg and Mikkelsen and Mads' acting is just so damn good.

Overall, whilst a bit underwhelming, Another Round is nonetheless an impressive, honest, and great film with easily my favourite ending of 2020. It's just such a lovely conclusion to this film which encapsulates a lot of what it's trying to say. I seriously rewatched that ending like 10 times. It never gets old.

2020 Ranked