The climate of pop culture in the U.S. is seemingly focused on a crisis of masculinity right now. University professor and author Scott Galloway has written a book called "Notes on Being a Man," scheduled for publication later this year, which he has started publicizing in interviews now. And the Netflix miniseries "Adolesence," released in March of this year, is about a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a classmate. These examples are highlighting an apparent deficit of success in the lives of young men which people are talking about online and on TV.
Why are young men struggling to achieve romantic satisfaction, fulfilling careers, and financial independence? I might have an idea why after watching the action-packed drama, "The Accountant 2" starring Ben Affleck (Air, 2023) and Jon Bernthal ("The Unforgivable," 2021) as two opposing examples of traditional manhood.
"The Accountant 2" is, of course, a sequel to "The Accountant" (2016) about a math genius with autism who manages the enormous and illegal finances for various gangsters. The sequel continues following this genius' life when a U.S. Treasury worker is murdered in a dirty public restroom, and Ben Affleck's character is roped in to the invstigation to help solve the murder. Covert assassins and human traffiking criminals appear out of the shadows for fights, shootouts, and a dangerous bus ride in the Mexican desert.
So I think this film is one of the many factors contributing to the masculinity crisis, because this film is dumb. It's one half brotherly love and one half gun worship. The dialogue of brotherly love, between Ben Affleck's nerdy emotionless savant and his volatile confident brother, is full of predictable one-liners and hollow feelings. This film gives most of its attention to the guns everyone uses. I estimated at least eight million bullets are fired in this one, and the longer I watched the more seriously I hoped at least one of those bullets was for me. A bullet could put me out of my misery so I wouldn't have to watch films like this anymore.
Any moments of serious thrills or sexy espionage are comically absurd. I can appreciate Ben Affleck's performance as an unlikely leading man who is awkward, monotone, and avoids eye contact. But he isn't enough to improve this film from being clumsy, juvenile, and overly manufactured. The day after I watched this film, I gave a chance to another manly action picture called Havoc recently released on Netflix and starring Tom Hardy ("Venom: The Last Dance," 2024). (Just because one action film is bad doesn't mean others shouldn't get a chance too.) That film put me in an even worse mood than The Accountant 2.
Why do these mainstream action films have to be so thoughtless and obsessed with firearms? Why are these kinds of films always being given to our audiences of young men? With such shallow and meaningless stories, no wonder young men are feeling lost in their own lives. If you want to see a great film on the realistic, complex layers of masculinity, catch the 2023 Danish drama, "The Promised Land" currently available on Hulu.
