Weekend Event Planner

These are the 8 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

As March blends into April, the Dallas area experiences a busy weekend, with lots of high-profile events taking place. They include the biggest film festival the area has to offer, the national tour of a Tony Award-winning musical, a gaggle of movie and TV celebrities, women's college basketball at its finest, three big concerts, and a popular comedian.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, March 30

2017 Dallas International Film Festival
The 11th edition of the Dallas International Film Festival is headlined by a special 50th anniversary screening of Bonnie and Clyde on opening night at Dallas City Performance Hall, followed by 10 more days of movies at various venues around Dallas, primarily Angelika Film Center Dallas and Magnolia Theatre. In all, the festival features 122 films from 31 countries, including 75 features and 47 shorts, through April 9.

Dallas Summer Musicals presents Kinky Boots
With songs by pop icon Cyndi Lauper, Kinky Boots takes audiences from a gentlemen’s shoe factory in Northampton to the glamorous catwalks of Milan. Charlie Price is struggling to live up to his father’s expectations and continue the family business. With the factory’s future hanging in the balance, help arrives in the unlikely but spectacular form of Lola, a fabulous performer in need of some sturdy new stilettos. The Tony Award-winning musical plays at Music Hall at Fair Park through April 9.

Friday, March 31

Fan Expo Dallas
Fan Expo Dallas is the largest comics, sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming event in Texas. Set to host more than 50,000 fans at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center through Sunday, it features appearances by a slew of movie, TV, and comic book celebrities, including Stan Lee, Mark Hamill, Milo Ventimiglia, Adam West and Burt Ward from Batman, Norman Reedus and Jeffrey Dean Morgan from The Walking Dead, and more.

2017 NCAA Women's Final Four
It's no surprise that the University of Connecticut Huskies have made it back to the Final Four, as they've won each of the past four championships. They are joined on Friday at American Airlines Center by the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Stanford Cardinal, and South Carolina Gamecocks, followed by the championship game on Sunday. Tickets are technically sold out, but secondary market tickets can still be found.

Panic! at the Disco in concert
Las Vegas rockers Panic! at the Disco made a big first impression with their debut album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, and the hit single, "I Write Sins Not Tragedies." They haven't had any crossover songs since, but that hasn't hurt their popularity, as each of their four subsequent albums have reached the top 10 on the Billboard charts, including 2016's No. 1 Death of a Bachelor. They'll play at Allen Event Center with MisterWives and Saint Motel.

Lisa Lampanelli: Queen of Mean
If you choose to see Lisa Lampanelli in concert, you revoke your right to be offended. That's because Lampanelli, who's been a stand-up comic for over 25 years, is known as the "Queen of Mean," a cross between Don Rickles, Archie Bunker, and a vial of estrogen. She entertains with her brand of insult comedy at Majestic Theatre.

Saturday, April 1

Edgefest 2017
There may no longer be an Edge anymore, but Edgefest lives on, at least for one last time. The 2017 edition of Edgefest, taking place at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, includes performances by Blink-182, The Offspring, 311, Chevelle, Toadies, the Naked and Famous, the Record Company, The Nixons, Dreamers, Goodbye June, Missio, Black Pistol Fire, Badflower, and The Wrecks.

Sunday, April 2

Gladys Knight in concert
The great ones endure, and Gladys Knight has long been one of the greatest. Very few singers over the last 50 years have matched her unassailable artistry. The seven-time Grammy winner has enjoyed No.1 hits in Pop, Gospel, R&B, and Adult Contemporary, along with success in film and television. She performs a retrospective of songs from throughout her career at Winspear Opera House, including from her latest album, 2014's Where My Heart Belongs.

The 2017 Dallas International Film Festival takes place through April 9 at various venues, mostly the Angelika Film Center Dallas.

Photo by Marc Lee

The 2017 Dallas International Film Festival takes place through April 9 at various venues, mostly the Angelika Film Center Dallas.

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Movie Review

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney go off in trashy film The Housemaid

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid.

Both Amanda Seyfried (the upcoming The Testament of Ann Lee) and Sydney Sweeney (Christy) are starring in movies with Oscar ambitions this year. By sheer coincidence, the two actors are also co-starring in The Housemaid, a thriller coming out within weeks of their more ambitious works, one that is likely to be seen by many more people than those prestige plays.

Sweeney is given top billing as Millie, a down-on-her-luck ex-convict looking to land any type of job so as not to break her parole. She finds a too-good-to-be-true lifeboat with Nina (Seyfried), who hires her to be a housemaid for her large house on Long Island, where she lives with her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle).

After a warm interview, Nina almost immediately becomes highly erratic, whipping back-and-forth between happy-go-lucky and rageful. It seems clear that Nina is suffering from mental health issues, as she’ll often accuse Millie of misplacing or stealing items that she didn’t take. Andrew, apparently used to Nina’s tirades, tries to protect Millie from the worst, something that grows increasingly difficult as Nina ups the ante.

Directed by Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) and adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from the bestselling book by Freida McFadden, the film is likely the trashiest mainstream movie to come out in 2025. The first half of the movie relies not on story but on moments as Nina embodies the word “hysterical” to an unbelievable extent. The resigned acceptance of the abuse by Millie, as well as the saintly patience of Andrew, make almost every scene laughable, as nobody seems to be acting anywhere close to how a person would normally react to such extreme situations.

The scenes and the performance of Seyfried are so over-the-top, in fact, that it’s clear that the filmmakers are in on the joke. It’s next to impossible not to have a little bit of fun while watching the actors react to outrageous incidents as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The worse Nina acts, the more Millie and Andrew retreat into their chosen roles, and the funnier the film becomes.

Fans of the book will know that the story changes course, eventually turning into a more stereotypical thriller that also has some relatively gnarly visuals to offer. But the trashiness continues, with Sweeney’s, um, assets repeatedly on display in both clothed and unclothed ways. The sex appeal of the R-rated movie makes it an outlier, as recent studio films have shied away from asking their big stars to disrobe completely.

Both Seyfried and Sweeney are far from their Oscar hopeful roles here. Seyfried is given free rein to act as brazenly as she pleases, and she takes full advantage of that ability. Sweeney seems to have been told to be much more reserved, and unfortunately that results in too many wooden line readings. Sklenar continues his breakout streak (It Ends with Us, Drop) with a role that allows him to show more range than either Seyfried or Sweeney.

The Housemaid is an unusual type of movie to be released at a time of year when most films are either those aiming for awards or more family-friendly fare. Despite its many flaws, it’s still an enjoyable watch that features a variety of crazy scenarios not typically seen in movies nowadays.

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The Housemaid is now playing in theaters.

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