Press (2020)

Directed by: Thomas Vinterberg | 116 minutes | drama | Actors: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe, Maria Bonnevie, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Susse Wold, Magnus Sjørup, Silas Cornelius Van, Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Martin Greis-Rosenthal

stuck. Everyone in the Netherlands knows a man who is going through a midlife crisis. It’s the drowsy uncle you have to pick up at a remote train station because he bet a little too high at a poker night and his open convertible is now on the market at twenty ‘k’. In ‘Business’ it is about these kinds of men, who have lost their way for a while or perhaps have been for a lot longer.

Lifelong friends Martin, Nikolaj, Peter and Tommy are all active in education. On Nikolaj’s fortieth birthday, the group finds that Martin, in his fifties, is no longer happy at all. Despite having ‘everything’, Martin shuffles through his work and private life like a zombie. Actually, the other three men don’t feel great anymore either. Where has that sense of unprecedented possibilities gone, as they see in their teenage students? Then Nikolaj (Magnus Millang) comes up with the psychiatrist Finn Skårderud. The Norwegian Skårderud states that at birth people are standard 0.6 per millage alcohol deficiency. Based on this statement, the group of friends decides to carry out a daring ‘social’ experiment: every day, except for the weekend, they try to keep their alcohol percentage at around 0.6 per mille. As a result, they hope to become freer in the head, enabling them to perform better at work and at home. You guessed it, there are not only desired effects.

‘Busy’ is a more controversial film than it seems at first glance: it plays with the idea that alcohol use opens doors to a better and more creative life, and maybe even one with more freedom. Yet the story is not only about whether or not alcohol helps people in that way, or destroys them. The film is certainly also about the struggle between conformity and freedom in Danish society. The fact that this battle is played on the cutting edge on the basis of this contrarian, and occasionally hilarious, experiment, testifies mainly to the originality of ‘Druk’.

Although not without merit, Thomas Vinterberg’s previous film ‘Kursk’ (2018) sometimes felt as unwieldy as the submarine that inexorably ended up on the seabed. However, with ‘Busy’, Vinterberg is back in top form. The film has an exceptionally graceful quality and comes across very smoothly, as if shot from the wrist. Yet there is also attention for beautiful pictures of the environment of the characters. At times, the story and her film style merge in an exquisite way, as does your mind, body and environment on a night where the booze flows freely.

In addition, the four leading roles push the drama and comedy to great heights. All four actors are completely absorbed in their roles and do not shy away from the tragic aspects of their characters. Especially Mads Mikkelsen as Martin is on a roll. Mikkelsen sensitively portrays the depressive side of this character. At the same time, as a viewer you believe all too well that this man must have been ‘fun’ once, as his friends claim. Incidentally, Mikkelsen keeps the very best for the end of the film, which is actually a return to his artistic roots and a side that many film viewers will not immediately know about him.

‘Pressure’ shares the cinematic energy and urgency with the first Dogma 95 films, such as ‘Festen’ (Vinterberg, 1998) and ‘Italian for Beginners’ (Lone Scherfig, 2000). In addition, it also has some of their rebellion. It seems as if Vinterberg is back at the old nest, in the youth of his career. Like the Dogma 95 films, he again kicks against the holy houses of the Danish middle class. Nevertheless, ‘Busy’ is not as contrarian as ‘Idioterne’ (Lars von Trier, 1998), for example. That Von Trier film seemed to be mainly looking for how much controversy you can peck out of immoral behavior. Ultimately, the youthful bravado of the Dogma films gave way to reasonable doubt in Vinterberg. This does not make ‘Busy’ immoral in the least, but just not so sure of himself and about life. This adorns the film and makes it human. Above all, it surprises us.