Rich Heldenfels, Pop Culture Wanderer

There are those who think film should be art. But it’s commerce, and even very good actors will at times bend to commercial demands. After all, if you have generated a following by appearing in big dumb action movies or throwaway comedies, then you may have the clout to make an occasional movie you care about. And I can’t really object to the commercial-movie strategy. I like commercial movies, even some badly made ones, if they provide a measure of escape. Put it another way: I’ve seen all the “Fast & Furious” movies, voluntarily. I bring this up because I saw Dwayne Johnson’s “Skyscraper” not long ago, and Denzel Washington’s “The Equalizer 2” today. Each movie is aimed squarely at the commercial moviegoer, and especially the fans of previous box-office-friendly work by these two actors. (Both allow for action-heavy trailers, although the action element of “The Equalizer 2” has been oversold in its ads.) Both are largely derivative. But that does not mean they’re complete...

Spoilers included. At dinner with friends recently, the conversation turned to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and the ending of the second season. I thought the season as a whole was powerful in the way it repeatedly emphasized the ruthlessness of the powerful – that the men in charge of Gilead were going to maintain control no matter how brutal they felt they had to be. And that control was not over some women, but all women, as we saw in the execution of a misguided teen (who had been betrayed by her own, control-minded father) and the repeated punishment of Serena. As one of our friends said, Serena thought privilege gave her a pass on society’s worst treatment of women – only she learned otherwise, and finally saw that her “daughter” would be denied even those few things Serena had carried over from the pre-repression years. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the portrayal of women, men and power – not only because of what we see from the men ruling the country (and their, w...