Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 25, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A11 winnipegfreepress. com ENTERTAINMENT WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 2015 A 11 By CHRIS LACKNER / Twitter: @ PopForecast Time- travel flick familiar terrain Project Almanac covers well- trodden territory ' You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,' but these days, a guide through the seemingly endless flurry of pop- culture offerings is just what we need. With that in mind, here is what's on the radar in TV, music and film for the coming week. TV BIG EVENT THURSDAY: Fortitude , Super Channel, 8 p. m.) BIG PICTURE: Look away, Harry Potter fans, here's a huge spoiler alert! Dumbledore - well, actor Michael Gambon - is still alive and living in the Arctic. And he has exchanged his wand for a camera to become a photographer. ( Oh, and he might be a murderer.) Gambon leads an international cast in this British murder- mystery series set in a small Arctic town. Fortitude is billed as a place for wilderness lovers - a town where locals are " guaranteed a quiet life." ( For other examples of how " small- town idyllic life" works out in pop culture, please visit Derry, Maine or Twin Peaks.) When something wicked this way comes, Fortitude is suddenly rocked by its first- ever violent crime. Enter an outsider detective, played by the brilliant Stanley Tucci, and the town's dirty secrets slowly begin to unravel. ( I'm hoping Lord Voldemort is revealed to be the murderer). FORECAST: True Detective is so 2014; this could be the crime drama of the year. Am I the only one who misses Columbo ( rest in peace, Peter Falk)? I'm calling for a remake starring Ryan Gosling. Keep the wrinkled old detective coat and add the sex factor. If I count any network executives among my readers, please contact me privately to discuss the royalty cheques. HONOURABLE MENTION: The Americans ( Wednesday, FX Canada, 9 p. m.). Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys continue their brilliance as Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, undercover Soviet spies living in the U. S. in the 1980s. They are so damn good, you are rooting for the enemy. For those who want to root for the Jennings' enemy, simply tune in to the all- American spectacle that is Super Bowl Sunday next week. MOVIES BIG RELEASE FRIDAY: Project Almanac BIG PICTURE: Imagine The Big Bang Theory meets Back to the Future meets the Final Destination horror franchise. A trio of male high school nerds with impossibly attractive female friends find a blueprint to build a time machine - err, " temporal relocation prototype" - hidden in a dad's basement workshop. ( Hollywood has made a movie about one of my two boyhood dreams. Now they just need to make a movie in which an eight- year- old boy marries She- Ra). Of course, the group elects to build the device and inadvertently begins destroying the world as they know it. Before long, the young ' uns are abusing their " second- chance machine" ( yes, they actually call it that). Failed science tests are corrected. Lotteries are won. They travel back to one of the first Lollapaloozas back in the ' 90s. ( Seriously? With all of human history as their playground, that's a place and time they elect to visit?) FORECAST: The trio's changes in the past create a ripple effect in the future, leading to natural disasters, plane crashes, dead friends, lost loves and whatnot. I predict Doc Brown makes a cameo as their time- travel fixer. This movie makes me seriously nostalgic for Marty McFly. I never say this, but we need a true remake of Back to the Future . My casting choice: Joseph Gordon- Levitt. ( Or Justin Bieber, just because I have a big heart and want to save his career.) Project Almanac MUSIC BIG RELEASE TUESDAY: The Lone Bellow ( Then Came the Morning ) BIG PICTURE: The title track reads - and sounds - like a companion piece to Van Morrison's Here Comes the Night . It is also my favourite new track of 2015. In other moments on the album, singer- songwriter Zach Williams seems to channel everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Paul Simon and dabbles in genres from bluegrass to gospel, but all under the umbrella of pop- folk. These are powerful, moody anthems often belted out with an earnest passion. ( Credit also goes to the deft production touch of the National's Aaron Dessner.) FORECAST: The Lone Bellow doesn't suffer from a sophomore jinx. You can play this band till the morning comes. You almost feel like the trio are products of a bygone Appalachian era instead of modern residents of Brooklyn. ( Or maybe they just found the blueprint to a time machine in a basement.) The Lone Bellow Fortitude A_ 11_ Jan- 25- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A11 1/ 24/ 15 5: 11: 10 PM ;