Another Round (2020)

Four schoolteachers turn their midlife slump into a drinking experiment, and the movie flatly refuses to tell you how to feel about it. That balance is its strength and its weak spot. The script rushes past some consequences that a braver film would sit with, and the wives and kids at home are sketched in a few lines. What it nails is the slump. Mads Mikkelsen’s Martin is a history teacher so checked out that his students and their parents call a meeting about him, and his face as he realizes it is crushing. The four friends feel like real coworkers, giddy, competitive and a little lost, and Thomas Bo Larsen’s Tommy, the youth soccer coach everybody loves, quietly breaks your heart. It holds a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. An 8.6 because it’s honest about midlife and about the cost of chasing a better version of yourself. $423 says you think about your favorite teacher tonight and wonder what they were carrying back then.

What works: Mikkelsen’s slow thaw from a teacher who has given up to a man trying to feel alive again, and four friendships that feel lived in.

What doesn’t: The wives and kids are thinly sketched, and the film rushes past consequences it should have stayed with longer.

Who it’s for: Grown-ups who like honest, funny and sad dramas about midlife, friendship and second chances.