Mountain Views News          Saturday, July 4, 2015

Mountain Views News Saturday July 4, 2015 
B4 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT B4 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 
SEAN’S SHAMELESS 
REVIEWS: 


By Sean Kayden 

TRUE DETECTIVE SEASON TWO 
IS WORTH YOUR TIME 


If you’re a fan of the first season of True Detectivefemale character. Everyone here is captivating andand haven’t started the new season that premieredthe characters are what truly draw you in whenover two weeks ago, what are you waiting for? Thewatching this season of True Detective.
opaque, brooding drama focuses on three lawPaul Woodrugh played by Taylor Kitschenforcement characters as well as career criminal, (“Batteleship,” “Savages,” “Friday Night Lights”) isFrank Semyon played by the villainous Vincethe a bit of a mystery. He’ is a California HighwayVaughn. With a series of disappointing comediesPatrolman who, in the first episode, gets suspendedthroughout the years, it’s great to see Vaughnwith pay after pulling over a woman who offers ain a much more serious role. After the first two sexual favor in lieu of a ticket. While he seems so 
episodes, he clearly pulls this role off very wellfar more like a third tier character compared to theappearing as a businessman, who’s focus is onothers, a few offhand comments by his girlfriendsecuring investors for a high-speed rail project setsuggest he was a private military contractor, likelyto begin construction next year. Dark and shady,in Afghanistan or Iraq. In the first episode, it isVaughn is quite compelling here as the “bad guy.”shown that he has burn marks across much of his 

Colin Farrell plays Ray Velcoro, a detectiveupper body. While it seems he’s had less screenin the Vinci, California Police department. I’vetime than the other actors thus far, Kitsch still 
always thought Farrell was magnetic on screenplays a key role here. He’s low key, almost aloof.
over the length of his career. He’s not the finestHe is dealing with some deep, heavy pain insideactor in the world and hasn’t made the best films of him. While the other two law enforcements are 
there are, but he posses something innate thatmore expressive with their anger, Kitsch is muchallows him to just pull you, the viewer, in whenevermore detached with his Woodrugh character.
he’s presented on screen. In True Detective seasonAll the personas in this season are intenselytwo, Velcoro is both a drunk and a father. His life is flawed. They’re all shattered human beings. Thea complete and utter mess. Well over a decade ago,characters are extremely well written even if thehis wife had been beaten and raped. Nine monthsplot becomes a bit confusing or befuddled alonglater, she had a child, who looks nothing like Ray.the way. The end of episode of two will have youHe wants to believe he’s the father, but never took scratching your head. However, after two episodes,
a paternity test. While the police never officiallyyou should be hooked on TD is prescribing. Ifcaught the rapist, Vince Vaughn’s Frank Semyonyou were a fan of the first season, I must tell youcharacter found out who it was, told Ray, and theythe tone and pacing is different. It’s still dark 
took care of him. Ray has been entangled withand deliberately paced, but it’s unlike the daysFrank ever since. Like Vaughn, Ferrell is terrific,in Alabama with Matthew Mcconaughey and 
showcasing his true talents playing a broken andWoody Harrelson and their memorable one on onebruised detective and troubled father. conversations. So, if you haven’t started this season

Ani Bezzerides played by the powerful Racheljust yet, don’t go in with any huge expectationsMcAdams is a detective in the Ventura Countythat correspond to season one’s viewing. This goSheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division.around is a fresh take on a police serialized series.
She is outwardly deficient of any emotion otherI am totally digging the way they changed thingsthan perhaps anger. She has a father, who’s intoup, keeping me engaged from the first frame to itsa very experimental hippie lifestyle. He runs alast. It’s menacing, it’s intriguing, it’s gripping andcommune, and she has a sister, Athena, where she True Detective season two may be the best offeringwas exposed for doing webcam porn when Aniof television currently on air. 
and her partner raided the house she was living atwith others. This is a great role for McAdams whoTrue Detective airs on HBO on Sunday nightsis terrific playing a dominant, independent, strong at 9pm. 

Jeff’s Book Picks By Jeff Brown 

THE GLORIOUS CAUSE: THE 
and advanced within sight of Philadelphia. Yet,
George Washington-and many other Americans-

AMERICAN REVOLUTION: 1763-1789 

refused to let the Revolution die. On Christmas 
by Robert Middlekauffnight, as a storm struck the Delaware Valley, he ledhis men across the river and attacked the Hessian 

 This critically

garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a

acclaimed 

thousand men. A second battle of Trenton 

volume offers 

followed within days. The Americans held off a

an unsurpassed 

counterattack by Cornwallis’s best troops, then 

history of the 

were almost trapped by the British force. Under

Revolutionary War

cover of night, Washington’s men stole behind the

and the birth of the 

enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at

American republic.

Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve

Beginning with 

weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe

the French and 

damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and

Indian War and 

their strategy was ruined. Fischer’s richly textured

continuing to the

narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in

election of George

these events.The startling success of Washington

Washington as 

and his compatriots not only saved the faltering

first president,

American Revolution, but helped to give it new

Robert Middlekauff 

meaning. 

offers a panoramichistory of the 

PAUL REVERE’S RIDE by David Hackett 

conflict between 
England and America, highlighting the drama andFischer Paul Revere’s midnight ride looms as an 
anguish of the colonial struggle for independence.almost mythical event in American history--yetCombining the political and the personal, he it has been largely ignored by scholars and left toprovides a compelling account of the key eventspatriotic writers and debunkers. Now one of thethat precipitated the war, from the Stamp Act to theforemost American historians offers the first serious 
Tea Act, tracing the gradual gathering of Americanlook at the events of the night of April 18, 1775-resistance 
that culminated in the Boston Tea Partywhat led up to it, what really happened, and whatand “the shot heard ‘round the world.” The heart of followed--uncovering a truth far more remarkablethe book features a vivid description of the eight-than the myths of tradition.Fischer fashions anyear-long war, with gripping accounts of battles andexciting narrative that offers deep insight into thecampaigns.The book concludes with an insightfuloutbreak of revolution and the emergence of thelook at the making of the Constitution in theAmerican republic. Beginning in the years beforePhiladelphia Convention of 1787 and the strugglethe eruption of war, he illuminates the figureover ratification. Middlekauff gives the reader a vividof Paul Revere, a man far more complex thansense of how the colonists saw these events and the the simple artisan and messenger of tradition.
importance they gave to them. Common soldiersRevere ranged widely through the complexand great generals, Sons of Liberty and Africanworld of Boston’s revolutionary movement--fromslaves, town committee-men and representativesorganizing local mechanics to mingling with thein congress--all receive their due. And there arelikes of John Hancock and Samuel Adams. When 
insightful portraits of such figures as Sam and the fateful night arrived, more than sixty menJohn Adams, James Otis, Thomas Jefferson, Georgeand women joined him on his task of alarm--anWashington, and many others. operation Revere himself helped to organize and

set in motion. Fischer recreates Revere’s capture

WASHINGTON’S 

that night, showing how it had an importantCROSSING impact on the events that followed. He had anby David Hackett uncanny gift for being at the center of events,
Fischer and the author follows him to Lexington Green


-setting the stage for a fresh interpretation of theSix months after battle that began the war. Drawing on intensivethe Declaration of new research, Fischer reveals a clash very differentIndependence, the from both patriotic and iconoclastic myths. PaulAmerican Revolution Revere’s Ride returns Paul Revere to center stagewas all but lost. A in these critical events, capturing both the dramapowerful British and the underlying developments in a triumphantforce had routed the return to narrative history at its finest. 
Americans at New York, 
occupied three colonies, 


ROTARY OF SIERRA MADRE 
PRESENTS 


Harry Shahoian as Elvis 

Sunday, August 2, 2015 from 6-8 pm 

Sierra Madre Bandstand 

Rounds Premium Burger Truck 

Ice Cream Princess 

Serving from 5pm 


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