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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They Are All Gonna Laugh at You Carrie(Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS 90% of Businesses using Staffing Services say it's an effective way to round out their workforce. Experience the Difference (910) 437-5959 (910) 437-5959 • 815 Stamper Rd. • Fayetteville, NC 28303 815 Stamper Road www.fayettevillenc.expresspros.com Fayetteville, NC 28303 (9 1 0) 829-9 1 71 www.fascinate-u.com 1 1 6 Green Street NOVEMBER EVENTS Sat., Nov. 9: 1 1 - 1 "Make It, Take It" * "Not-So-Scary Scarecrows" Sat., Nov. 1 6: 1 1 - 1 "Super Science" * "Newton's Third Law of Motion" Balloon jet cars. Sat., Nov. 23: 1 1 - 1 pm "Silly Saturday" - Meet Quacky the Duck from Fayetteville Urban Ministries. Fri., Nov. 29: 1 - 6 pm "Dickens Holiday" Make your own Victorian era Christmas ornaments" Special admission $ 1 for everyone1 Sat. -Nov. 2 & 1 6: 12 - 4: "Come see the Trains" Cape Fear Model Railroad Club (free admission to the 3rd floor ) * Free with museum admission or membership. restaurant Where We Eat & Speak Italian 910.867.8700 1400 Walter Reed Road, Suite 130 Fayetteville, NC 28304 24 UCW NOVEMBER 6-12, 2013 y y L le I tizzeriatal it p & I really wanted to love Carrie (100 minutes). Chloe Grace Möretz is a fine young actor, although too gorgeous by half to pull off the look of Carrie as described in the source material. Also, I would love some more horror movies from director Kimberly Pierce that showcase her skills at developing characters and managing atmosphere. However, when all is said and done, Carrie is just a remake with pretensions to greatness — wholly unnecessary, likeable, but not really blowing me away. It's possible that time and distance will bring the film's better qualities into focus while softening its flaws, but it's hard to separate the great and the average from this vantage point. For example, I thought the actor playing Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday) was a bad fit, but my husband said he got really angry with her while watching the movie. To him, that signifies she was a good actor. I don't know if I agree, but then I couldn't pinpoint any acting choices in particular that stood out as bad, either. Carrie White (Möretz) is a senior in high school. After some preliminaries in the gym class that reveal her as an awkward social outcast, she gets bullied after a confusing moment in the showers. Just like in the first version a group of girls locked in a mob mentality make the situation worse. In this version, one of the girls films it (for later use in some cyber bullying) until the gym teacher, Rita Desjardin (Judy Greer), intervenes. In the book, the gym teacher gave lip service to protecting Carrie, but always seemed to resent the fact that Carrie needed protecting. While casting Greer in the role was a smart move, she doesn't quite manage to project the ambiguity of the character. And while we're on the subject, casting a man as the principal (Barry Shabaka Henley) was a missed opportunity. This could have been a film about girls' cruelty to other girls against the backdrop of older women not taking emotional violence seriously enough — casting a man relegated the character to a source of cheap giggles over how men don't like to talk about periods. But I digress. Desjadin excuses Carrie from gym class for the next week and calls her mother, Margaret (Julianne Moore). Once home, Margaret locks Carrie in the "prayer closet," which Carrie protests by using her psychic powers to crack the door. This is a turning point, as Carrie finally realizes that she has mad skills and begins researching telekinesis in the school library. Meanwhile, Desjardin has received carte blanche to dream up an appropriate punishment for the girls, which she exercises by making them do running drills in the hot sun. When Chris protests she is suspended from school and prom. She turns to her crony, Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde) for support, which she does not get. Chris decides that Carrie is to blame and begins plotting revenge with her boyfriend Billy (Alex Russell). Meanwhile, Sue feels so guilty about her part in the incident she convinces her boyfriend Tommy (Ansel Elgort) to take Carrie to prom instead of her. And we all know how well that turns out. While the source material and the original film adaptation do a good job tying Carrie's burgeoning powers to her physical maturation and her emotional turmoil, this version empowers Carrie as a potential X-Men recruit — she is in complete control of her abilities and gets better with practice. Overall, it failed to live up to the promise of its quality director and cast. The attempt to update the story via the injection of social media directly contradicts the plan to stick closer to the source material, while simultaneously seeming like an afterthought. I didn't hate it, I just hoped for more. Now showing at Wynnsong 7, Carmike 12 and Carmike Market Fair 15. HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM