And I knew precisely zero about what the movie was about, all the information I had was Mads Mikkelsen was in it and it was picked for the Cannes film festival. That's really all it took for me to want to see it. It's been a heinously long period since I've seen that flawless handsome man and shock of all shocks delivers another great performance, as a high school teacher named Martin that is having a bit of a mid-life crisis and feels like he's losing his identity when he joins his three friends who also teach in an experiment to study the effects of consistently having a 0.05% blood alcohol level. Now immediately once you hear that it's guaranteed to go to hell in a handbasket, and it's one of the best instances outside of a horror movie where you feel this blanket of dread hang over you just waiting for that other shoe to fall. And the film has these moments, a very particular style of shot where the camera is focused in closeup on Martin's face and there is zero dialogue but you can see so much in his eyes and you know it's all going to end badly. I mean I've heard enough horror stories through my life, especially in reading autobiographies of rockstars, of just how shitty alcohol is. Speaking personally I can't understand the mentality of getting shitfaced drunk, I hate alcoholic beverages that are fermented which pretty much knocks every type off the board, I'm a light mixer kind of guy that drinks like twice a year, so to see this slow downward spiral reaffirmed everything I knew already. But it's the performances that make you want to watch it, the characters are not holding great depths but are easily identifiable and likeable, I mean they have to be likeable for the drama to occur and to where you feel bad for them. It's a pretty slim cast in terms of major players with Mads, Magnus Millang, Thomas Bo Larsen, and Lars Ranthe as our quartet of teachers who are the focal point. The secondary cast consists more of their families and students which we see sporadically throughout as the gauge of their behavior. It is so interesting to see as an american how the attitudes and schooling system is in Denmark, obviously it's not super focused on but I get a kick out of seeing different perspectives and customs anyway, so Denmark and the danish language are welcome sights. Plus as a devout cinema snob, I always love when a movie is foreign even if it's bad. Really neat directing, the vast majority is handheld which flows as freely as the alcohol on screen but knows when to set the camera down for a very nice shot, it gives that loosey goosey go with the flow feel which fits this film juuuust right. Also we get an almost Bollywood style dance scene. Amazing. Ridiculously simple story concept but still is able to craft a very good piece of cinema, I easily can recommend it, and you can watch the whole film free like I did on Tubi. I give it 3 stars, 8/10, and new movie on Friday. What a life to live.
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