Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Shop of Dreams ���Mr. Selfridge��� turns a department store into the greatest show on earth TV by DEAN ROBBINS Jeremy Piven provides Masterpiece Classic with a jolt of American energy, rousing the series from its recent Downton Abbey lethargy. In the eight-part ���Mr. Selfridge��� (Sunday, 9 p.m., PBS), Piven plays the real-life Harry Gordon Selfridge, a brash Chicago huckster who pioneered the modern department store in turn-of-the-century London. Before Selfridge arrived, English shopping was a staid affair. Harry turns it into the greatest show on earth, P.T. Barnum-style. He anticipates consumer culture by making his store into a wish-fulfillment fantasy, complete with lavish window displays and cosmetic counters. When his financing falls through, Selfridge orders his stunned underlings to double the advertising budget. ���I must say that the reckless way you conduct your business dismays and, yes, frightens me,��� says a British employee who is clearly unprepared for the American Century. On Entourage, Piven played one of the greatest con men in TV history, the agent Ari Gold. The blustering Selfridge is Gold with a top hat and watch chain, but Piven makes adjustments to be convincing in period drag. Most of all, he communicates how much fun it is to sell a skeptical country on your grand vision. Whatever ���Mr. Selfridge��� is selling over the next eight weeks, I���m buying. Fall to Grace Thursday, 8 pm (HBO) Jim McGreevey was the New Jersey governor with presidential aspirations who fell from grace after being forced to admit his homosexuality. McGreevey resigned in 2004 amid scandal but then ��� per the title of Alexandra Pelosi���s inspiring documentary ��� fell to grace in his life���s next act. McGreevey is now proudly gay and an aspiring Episcopalian minister who works with women in prison. He has the same charisma that once propelled him into office, but a different set of values. He recognizes the destructive nature of his ego, and the shame drilled into him during his Catholic upbringing. Humbled, he identifies with the imprisoned women who���ve made mistakes but still yearn for a shot at fulfillment. ���Nobody should be defined by the nadir of their lives,��� he insists. Our hero doesn���t appear to be playing a saint for the cameras, but to have learned from his experiences and achieved a sort of enlightenment. I know he���ll hate me for saying this, but I can���t help it: McGreevey for President 2016. Orphan Black Saturday, 9 pm (BBC America) This new series starts with a stunning tableau. A scraggly English punk named Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) catches the eye of an elegantly dressed woman on a subway platform ��� an exact look-alike. The elegantly dressed woman then calmly walks in front of a train and kills herself. This is only the first step down the rabbit hole that is Orphan Black. Sarah decides she can solve her many problems by assuming her double���s identity and emptying her bank account. But the masquerade leads her into a dangerous conspiracy that, by the end of episode one, she can���t even begin to understand. Mysterious figures text her, threaten her, have sex with her, shoot at her. Sarah pieces together the dead woman���s life while the complications pile up in her own life. Maslany is a revelation. She elicits sympathy as Sarah, even as the character breaks the law and makes terrible decisions. She���s equally convincing as Sarah���s double. You have no trouble believing that the English punk is pulling off this high-wire hoax, and with an American accent, yet. Speaking of Sarah���s double, what is the look-alike thing all about? I hope next week���s episode brings answers, although I love the questions just as much. Horrifyingly Bad Exorcism (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS When you name your movie The Last Exorcism you had better mean it. Obviously, since there was money to be made, the producers of The Last Exorcism Part II (88 minutes) decided to ignore this one simple fact. I have seen some crap horror movies in my time but this one is right up there in the top ten. I would venture to say it is even worse than any crap horror movie I saw in 2012 ��� The Apparition and Silent Hill: Revelation don���t even come close to matching this level of bad. I can never claim I didn���t know in advance just how bad it was probably going to be, but this week���s alternatives weren���t much more appealing. For example, I would rather drive rusty railroad spikes into my eye sockets then watch Jack The Giant Slayer. I���m not sure what is worse ��� that the first movie was actually a four star horror movie in my book (rendering the sequel that much more awful by comparison) or that this movie is so patriarchal it verges on satire. Of course, the first movie celebrated the patriarchy just as much, but in the original version it worked by making male domination of the protagonist add to the horror of the narrative. Here, it just makes me roll my eyes. And while we���re on the topic of the patriarchy and male oppression, etc., which Big Book of Stereotypes did the writers use to come up with the dialogue in this movie? I swear if I never hear the word ���chile��� for ���child��� again it will be too soon. And writers, please tell me more about your made-up religion that vaguely resembles Voodoo! The film opens on some archival footage from the shaky-cam original. Then, the scene shifts to some kind of condo and a couple of randoms who are about to have a real bad day. When Random Male is attacked, the spooky musical cues clue us in that Something Demonic is Afoot. The scene ends on Nell (Ashley Bell, still looking like Michael Cera in a wig) crouched on top of a kitchen counter, still wearing the filthy white nightgown from the first film. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM She is supposed to be about 17, not that she looks it. For most of the film she is dressed like a thirteen old who is channeling her great grandmother. Maybe her fashion sense is what gets her put into the group home? Since it is immediately obvious to the doctors treating her that she has survived an encounter with a cult (eye roll), she is promptly put into a home for Wayward Girls Who Have Been Through Some Stuff. The home is run by Frank Merle (Muse Watson) because if there���s one thing that girls from abusive homes need, it���s a strong male authority figure to fix their lives for them and tell them not to wear crosses for some undefined reason. Seriously ��� a group home, run by a creepy dude, who suggests to his young and vulnerable charge that she should not wear her cross. Nell���s roommate Gwen (Julia Garner) befriends her, but she is possibly involved in the cult from the last movie or possibly possessed, or possibly a poorly written character. It���s really hard to tell. They work at a motel together, where Nell meets a boy named Chris (Spencer Treat Clark from Gladiator). Chris is not as creepy looking as Caleb the Ginger from the first film, but he���s pretty close. He is also possibly involved in the cult from the last movie, or possibly possessed, or possibly a poorly written character. So, nothing really happens for most of the film, except her possibly dead or possibly not dead father Louis (Louis Herthum) showing up a few times. Then, there is this voodoo lady, and she is stupid and does stupid things with her stupid voodoo friends; the end. Thankfully, it was not filmed in shaky cam ��� the only thing that would have made this movie any worse. Now showing at Wynnsong HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing 7, Carmike 12 and Carmike Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandMarket Fair 15. comingweekly.com. MARCH 27 - APRIL 2, 2013 UCW 17