We review the latest new releases to watch in cinemas

FILM OF THE WEEK: ANOTHER ROUND

I’ve never enjoyed the taste of alcohol. Consequently, sobriety has been my steadfast companion for 47 years aside from one ritualistic shot of honey-flavoured Yukon Jack whisky garnished with a mummified human toe to earn my membership of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club in Canada.

Without the tangy personal experience of a tipsy indiscretion or hangover, it’s hard for me to challenge Norwegian philosopher and psychologist Finn Skarderud, who hypothesises that humans are born with a 0.05 per cent blood alcohol level shortfall.

His theory — that a sustained increase in blood alcohol content (BAC) promotes relaxation, creativity and openness — is rigorously tested by four disillusioned teachers in Thomas Vinterberg’s Oscar-winning coming-of-middle age comedy drama.

The men gather data for an academic study to determine if regular swigs of wine, whisky and vodka can improve communication with their students and plaster cracks in their personal lives.

The only stipulation is they must not drink after 8pm or at weekends — maintaining a 0.05 per cent BAC during the working week purely to validate the scientific theory. Dedicated to the memory of Danish writer-director Vinterberg’s teenage daughter, who died during filmmaking, Another Round enthusiastically chugs down its refreshing premise, imbued with delicate notes of romance, tragedy and joy.

Mads Mikkelsen anchors the central cast with an emotionally rich and layered performance as a family man, who fears he has become entrenched in monotonous patterns after a carefree youth that promised much until fatherhood forced him to choose security over ambition.

He plays history teacher Martin, whose bored students struggle to follow his haphazard lessons, which are sometimes delivered verbatim from a well-thumbed textbook. His marriage to wife Anika (Maria Bonnevie) is stagnant — she works night shifts — and sons Jonas (Magnus Sjorup) and Kasper (Silas Cornelius Van) barely register his presence.

During a 40th birthday meal for fellow teacher Nikolaj (Magnus Millang) with colleagues Peter (Lars Ranthe) and Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen), the men debate Skarderud’s hypothesis and forge a secret pact to drink their way out of a rut.

The experiment delivers encouraging initial results: Martin’s students become engaged, music teacher Peter channels a choir’s sweet harmony and sports master Tommy bolsters the footballing prowess of an uncoordinated weakling named Specs.

“I haven’t felt this good in ages,” gushes Martin, who proposes they all increase their BAC above 0.05 per cent.

Another Round is a life-affirming and crowd-pleasing cocktail that slips down sweetly, even with a generous glug of salty tears in the film’s second half. Handheld camerawork courtesy of cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grovlen feels intimate and natural.

It’s a perfect fit as teachers’ lives spin out of control and the script, co-written by Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm, soberly acknowledges the perils of excessive drinking. Raise a glass and toast Vinterberg’s bittersweet, intoxicating brew.

FRENCH EXIT

Adapted by Patrick DeWitt from his 2018 novel, French Exit is a bile-slathered tragicomedy of social manners that gifts Michelle Pfeiffer a career-revitalising lead role as an acid-tongued heiress facing financial ruin.

Armed with a dizzying array of one-liners that DeWitt’s script polishes to a lustre, the Californian actress delivers a masterclass in withering stares, pursed lips and swingeing insults as the clucking hens of New York high society peck over rumours of her downfall.

“I’ve no need of friends in my life… at the moment,” she coldly informs one admirer over the rim of a martini glass. Pfeiffer’s waspish widow has breathed rarefied air for so long, she feels no compulsion to trade niceties.

When a rude waiter delays bringing a bill to take a cigarette break, she registers displeasure by setting alight a tiny vase of flowers on the table. As a woman of dwindling means behaving badly, Pfeiffer endears us to her monstrous creation, especially in the second half of director Azazel Jacobs’ picture when a menagerie of wilfully eccentric supporting characters and curious narrative detours, including a love triangle resolved by an arm wrestle, compete for attention.

Ultimately, it’s a social whirl too far but Pfeiffer glides serenely through the devastation and retains composure when the fabric of the film is tearing at the seams.

Following the sudden death of her husband Franklin (Tracy Letts), Manhattan heiress Frances Price (Pfeiffer) discusses her impending insolvency with her financial adviser (Robert Higden). “My plan was to die before the money ran out,” she coolly confides, “but I kept and keep on not dying.”

Thriftier with words and feelings than her husband’s fortune, Frances agrees to discreetly sell off her belongings, convert the proceeds to cash and relocate to a vacant Parisian apartment owned by her one true friend, Joan (Susan Coyne).

Frances’ emotionally stunted son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges) terminates an engagement to his bewildered fiancee (Imogen Poots) and accompanies his mother and the family cat, Little Frank, on a transatlantic boat crossing to the French capital.

The Prices ease into their new life and accept a party invitation from New York transplant Madame Reynard (Valerie Mahaffey), who admits to being desperately lonely.

Frances’ resistance to Mme Reynard gradually wilts and the heiress expands her inner circle to include a private detective (Isaach de Bankole) and psychic medium (Danielle Macdonald), who can communicate with Frank’s spirit housed inside the cat.

French Exit savours every moment that Pfeiffer slinks on screen, elegantly navigating her character’s misfortunes with screwball flourishes. Hedges is a likable foil as the aimless scion, who barely knew his mother before he was 12.

Director Jacobs follows the recipe of Mme Reynard’s cassoulet, slow-cooking fine ingredients and garnishing with sprigs of satire.

FREAKY

A teenage girl swaps bodies with a middle-aged serial killer in director Christopher Landon’s horror comedy, which puts a gleefully ghoulish spin on the beloved children’s novel Freaky Friday penned by Mary Rodgers.

Blissfield Valley High School student Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) is bullied and harangued by fellow students but she tries to rise above the abuse. After a homecoming football game, where Millie fulfils her duties as school mascot, she is attacked by a mass murderer dubbed the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn).

He inflicts a non-fatal wound with an ancient dagger and the following morning, Millie and the killer are shocked to discover they have traded bodies. The Blissfield Butcher realises he can slay with impunity in the guise of a sweet girl and he sets about doling out bloodthirsty justice to Millie’s myriad tormentors.

Meanwhile, she attempts to persuade best friends Nyla (Celeste O’Connor) and Josh (Misha Osherovich) that she is trapped inside a middle-aged man’s frame and a psychotic Millie is on the loose.