The Mask of Masculinity: How Tough are We on the Inside?

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Being a man in the modern world is a different experience in comparison to our predecessors, meaning that the traditional stereotypical view of masculinity is often at odds with the relationship role that many men now adopt.

A modern man is far more likely to use organic products like shilajit, share household chores and display nurturing tendencies, which is absolutely fine of course. However, there’s still a core number of males who may feel that they have to maintain their mask of masculinity, despite struggling with emotional turmoil on the inside.

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Drink of the Week: The Douglas Fairbanks

The Douglas Fairbanks.For those of you who don’t know your early Hollywood history, Douglas Fairbanks was probably the first real superstar action hero and, like Buster Keaton in his own day and Jackie Chan many years later, a superb stunt performer. He played the dashing, ultra-athletic lead in some of the earliest film versions of “The Thief of Baghdad,” “The Mark of Zorro” and “The Three Musketeers,” among many other productions. He was also — and I believe this is a DOTW first for a celebrity-named cocktail — a teetotaler.

Maybe, then, there’s a certain irony in that the flavor of the drink is, despite the presence of a very sweet liqueur, quite dry and tart. Meanwhile, the drink named after Fairbanks’ fellow silent-era superstar and reputed one-true-love, Mary Pickford, is quite sweet. Conversely, she is said to have had an extremely serious drinking problem.

So, yes, we’re talking extremes. You’d better like dry and tart because, even an ounce of a sweet liqueur and egg white can’t make the Douglas Fairbanks into anything but a drink for people who like ’em on the austere side. You’ve been warned.

The Douglas Fairbanks

2 ounces gin
1 ounce apricot brandy
1/2 ounce fresh lemon or lime juice
1/2 egg white (1 1/2 tablespoons of packaged egg white)

Combine the liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker. If you are using fresh egg white (i.e., out of an actual egg), first shake it without ice to emulsify the egg, being mindful of the mildly explosive properties of un-iced egg white. Next, add plenty of ice and shake again very vigorously. Strain the result into large chilled cocktail glass. Prepare for tartness!

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Movie Review: “The Accountant”

Starring
Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, J.K. Simmons, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Tambor
Director
Gavin O’Connor

What if Jason Bourne wasn’t an amnesiac super-soldier but rather a high-functioning autistic man with comparable fighting skills? That appears to be the general idea behind Gavin O’Connor’s “The Accountant,” a film suffering from such an identity crisis that it’s unclear exactly what kind of movie he’s trying to make. Though it starts out as both a fairly generic crime procedural and a zen-like character study about an on-the-spectrum math genius struggling to lead a normal life, it completely changes gears midway through and transforms into a straight-up action thriller. The problem is that “The Accountant” never stops being those other movies either, resulting in a convoluted and tonally unbalanced mess that is occasionally entertaining but feels like it’s a few drafts away from a finished product.

Small-town accountant Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) isn’t like everybody else. He’s highly intelligent, a proficient marksman and capable of winning a knife fight with only a belt. In fact, Christian isn’t even his real name; it’s just one of many aliases he uses to stay off the grid. Raised by his sadistic military father, who eschewed traditional therapy for an unorthodox childhood designed to prepare him for the toughness of the real world, the antisocial Christian now moonlights as a forensic accountant for dangerous criminal organizations, uncooking the books to locate missing money. Determined to stay one step ahead of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes division, led by director Raymond King (J.K. Simmons), Christian accepts a seemingly innocuous job auditing a high-profile robotics company after an accounting clerk named Dana (Anna Kendrick) discovers a discrepancy in the finances. But as Christian and Dana get closer to exposing the truth, they’re targeted by a contract killer (Jon Bernthal) who’s been hired by someone within the company to contain the leak.

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Blu Tuesday: Ghostbusters, The Legend of Tarzan and More

Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on social media with your friends.

“Ghostbusters”

WHAT: When childhood friends/physicists Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) and Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) experience an actual paranormal sighting, they team up with oddball nuclear engineer Jillian Holtzman (Kate McKinnon) and street-smart MTA worker Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) to capture a ghost as proof that they exist. Meanwhile, a bullied hotel janitor named Rowan (Neil Casey) has begun planting devices around the city that amplify paranormal activity in the hopes of opening a portal to a ghostly dimension, and the only ones capable of stopping him are the newly formed Ghostbusters.

WHY: One of the main reasons why the original “Ghostbusters” was such a huge success was the camaraderie among its four leads, and though the characters in Paul Feig’s gender-swapped reboot have their individual moments to shine (particularly “Saturday Night Live” star Kate McKinnon), the team chemistry isn’t nearly as strong. However, that’s just the start of the film’s problems, because it’s also marred by an incredibly lame villain and an underdeveloped script that results in many jokes falling flat. The movie isn’t without its charms – the action sequences deliver the thrills that you’d expect from a modern “Ghostbusters” film, and Feig does a solid job of weaving horror and sci-fi elements throughout – but it’s never allowed to completely be its own thing. Any time the movie tries to pay homage to the 1984 version, it loses whatever momentum it’s built up to that point. That ultimately proves to be its undoing, because while “Ghostbusters” is an occasionally entertaining and mostly harmless reboot, it lacks the nuance and comic energy that made its predecessor an instant classic.

EXTRAS: In addition to a pair of audio commentaries (one with director/co-writer Paul Feig and co-writer Katie Dippold, and the other with Feig and various crew members), there’s a series of production featurettes covering things like casting, creature design and visual effects, over an hour of deleted/extended scenes, alternate takes and two different gag reels.

FINAL VERDICT: RENT

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3 Things to Figure Out By 30

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As a man, it pays to take the occasional look in the mirror. This isn’t just to make sure you haven’t forgotten to shave that patch on your neck, or to figure out how your nose hair situation is doing. It’s important to think about how you’re developing in various areas. It’s always good to think about your development, comparing your current self against your past self. But it’s also good to think about where you stand compared to other people your age. Not all of us develop at the same rate, but there are certain things you should definitely have worked out by now. We’ll divide these into three criteria: fitness, finance and creativity.

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