Another Round, The Commune, and Force Majeure: 3 Scandinavian films that muse on midlife to stream now
Marital breakdowns and modern masculinity all get a blackly comic look
Left, Another Round; right, The Commune.
Another Round is available on VOD starting today; VIFF+ streams The Commune and Force Majeure
WE’RE NOT QUITE sure what it is about Scandinavian filmmakers that makes them so adept at unpacking midlife struggles, marital or otherwise.
Whatever it is, you can indulge in some of the best of the batch this week, thanks to a new VOD release and a special membership offer at VIFF. And don’t be surprised to see all three films hitting a little close to home for couples in extended quarantine, with or without children.
We told you about Danish master Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round at VIFF in the fall, starring Mads Mikelsen as a bored schoolteacher whose extended drinking game with his buddies starts to go awry. What we said in our review then still holds true now, as the black comedy hits VOD via Apple TV and elsewhere: “For those who’ve turned to day-boozing to take the edge off pandemic stress, his sensationally inappropriate toast to middle-age masculinity will be a bit sobering.”
Turn it into a double bill via the new VIFF+ membership, which gives you access to two equally acidic comedies about family obligations and midlife turbulence. Vinterburg’s earlier The Commune gives you a little more of the female perspective on all this, Trine Dyrholm giving a standout performance in a trip back to 1970s Denmark and an experiment in communal living.
Wrap up your family-therapy session with the brilliant Force Majeure, Ruben Ostlund’s deadpan look at a simple instinctual act that fractures a magazine-ad-perfect Swedish family. Also available on VIFF+, the French Alps-set film takes a hard look at whether a relationship can survive a natural distaster. So, yeah, that hits pretty close to pandemic home, too.
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