Weekend Event Planner

These are the 10 best things to do in Dallas this Valentine's weekend

While many events in and around Dallas have either been postponed or canceled during the coronavirus pandemic, organizations have pivoted to virtual or socially distanced events to continue offering the masses some entertainment while we need it the most.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend Valentine's Day weekend. While not every event is out of the house, they all promise to provide a nice distraction from the everyday life. And if you're still looking for a way to treat your beloved, here's a list of Dallas restaurants with special Valentine's meals, and here's a roundup of decadent desserts.

Thursday, February 11

Ochre House Theater presents Ghosts in the Kitchen: The Romantic Night
Ochre House Theater will present Ghosts in the Kitchen, a series of storytelling through virtual theater featuring stories of hauntings found in the realm of wandering souls who attempt to understand the complexities of life and to remember what it is like to be human. First up is The Romantic Night, in which Athalgarde Christhelmet (Matthew Posey) walks home from his favorite bar, The Rustic Inn, and loses his way and himself in a baffling boozy world. The production will be streamed on Ochre House Theater’s YouTube Channel Thursdays-Sundays through February 21.

Tab Benoit in concert
Tab Benoit is a Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and guitarist who has built a remarkable 30+ year career on the foundation of his gritty and soulful Delta swamp blues and acquiring a devoted legion of fans along the way. He has released 18 albums in his career, including 2012's Legacy: The Best Of. He'll play four shows over two days, Thursday and Friday, at The Kessler.

Bishop Arts Theatre Center presents Before You Get Married
Bishop Arts Theatre Center will present the virtual production Before You Get Married, an audio play that explores the relationship between siblings on the night before the sister's wedding with the knowledge they may not be related. With the passing night and flowing wine, both siblings struggle to understand what they mean to each other as they reveal secrets of the past and explore the desires of two people at once impossibly connected and separated. The production will be available to stream at any time through March 12.

Friday, February 12

Avant Chamber Ballet presents Still Growing + 19th Amendment
Avant Chamber Ballet will present Madison Hicks’ Still Growing and Katie Puder’s 19th Amendment as their next performance for the 2020-21 virtual season. Still Growing is a response to our experiences in 2020 and features music by Max Richter. 19th Amendment commemorates the 100th anniversary of the ratification of a woman’s right to vote. The production will be available to stream at any time through June 30.

Pocket Sandwich Theatre presents Walkin' The Line: A Tribute to Johnny Cash
Keeping alive the memory of one of the greatest entertainers of all time, Bennie Wheels delivers his Walkin' the Line show. A natural born entertainer and trained vocalist, Bennie presents his authentic representation of The Man In Black in his Folsom Prison-era prime. Johnny Cash comes back to life with all the greatest hits, and many forgotten treasures, in this show, playing on both Friday and Saturday at Pocket Sandwich Theatre.

Saturday, February 13

Downtown Plano Mardi Gras Crawl
Guests at Downtown Plano's Mardi Gras Crawl can have fun sippin' and strollin' while supporting local small businesses. Beverages include frozen daiquiris, wine, beer, bloody marys, hard seltzer, and more. Beverage stations will be set up inside the local shops and boutiques in Downtown Plano. Participants will receive a Mardi Gras signature mason jar taster and a map directing them on their journey.

Men Are From Mars – Women Are From Venus Live
The Off-Broadway hit comedy Men Are From Mars – Women Are From Venus Live is a one-man fusion of theatre and stand-up, a light-hearted theatrical comedy based on the New York Times No. 1 best-selling book by John Gray. Moving swiftly through a series of vignettes, the show covers everything from dating and marriage to the bedroom. There will be three performances through Sunday at the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson.

Backdoor Comedy presents Champagne, Chocolates & Comedy: Valentine’s Day Celebration with Paul Varghese
Backdoor Comedy Club in Richardson will present special Valentine's Day shows featuring headliner Paul Varghese, along with Linda Stogner and other Backdoor favorites. Tickets include a glass of champagne, a box of chocolates, and a ticket to a future show. There will be four performances through Sunday.

Texas Live presents An Evening with Jason Boland & The Stragglers
Members of the Red Dirt/Texas Country genre, Jason Boland & The Stragglers are actually a product of Oklahoma, having gotten their start when Boland and drummer Brad Rice met at Oklahoma State University. But they've proved their Texas bona fides since then, with one of their albums named Live and Lit at Billy Bob's Texas. They'll play a special limited capacity show at Texas Live in Arlington.

Dale Watson in concert
Dale Watson is a singer who champions "Ameripolitan" as a new genre of original music, one that he says is "authentic country music." Since releasing his debut album at the relatively old age of 33, he has been a workhorse, releasing new music in one form or another every year for the past 25 years. He'll play at the Granada Theater in support of his last full-length album, 2019's Call Me Lucky.

Avant Chamber Ballet presents Still Growing + 19th Amendment, which will be available to stream at any time through June 30.

Photo by Sharen Bradford

Avant Chamber Ballet presents Still Growing + 19th Amendment, which will be available to stream at any time through June 30.

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Movie Review

Korean film No Other Choice uses dark comedy to tell deeper story

Photo courtesy of Neon

Lee Byung-hun in No Other Choice.

When Parasite won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2020, it signaled a shift in how international feature films were viewed not only by Academy voters, but also American filmgoers, who made it the fifth-highest grossing non-English language film of all time. Extra attention has been paid to other international films in the intervening years, including the new South Korean film, No Other Choice.

Starring Lee Byung-hun of Squid Game fame, the dark comedy chronicles the increasingly desperate actions of Man-su, a middle manager at a paper factory who is laid off due to automation. After months of trying to find a job at another paper company, he finally finds a good prospect only to learn that several other men may be better candidates. Man-su decides that the only solution is to eliminate the competition.

The only problem is Man-su is a bit of a coward; an early plan at standing up to his company in the face of the lay-offs meets an anticlimactic end. His wishy-washy ways seem to permeate his life, from putting off treatment on a painful tooth to not communicating with his more willful wife to actually going through with his vengeful ideas. He bumbles his way through every aspect of his life, virtually daring anyone to call him out on his poor decision-making.

Written and directed by Park Chan-wook, and co-written by Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, and Jahye Lee, the film initially seems to be another approach toward telling the class division story that’s at the center of Parasite and Squid Game. And it is that to a degree, as those in charge of the paper companies and the hiring committees are either indifferent or unsympathetic to the plight of those who have been forced out of work.

But the more we see of Man-su, the more it becomes clear that his is a story all its own, one where a man claims there is “no other choice” when in fact there are plenty of other options. The men in the film in general don’t come across well, with many of them reacting to stress by turning into whiners who believe the world is out to get them. Some situations turn violent as the film goes along, events that most of the time could have been avoided if the people involved actually took the time to think things through.

The film features a somewhat confusing story made even more puzzling if you don’t speak Korean. On first viewing, it’s initially unclear why Man-su is doing what he’s doing, or why he’s going after certain people in particular. The plot becomes more understandable as the film progresses, but Chan-wook includes several side plots that muddle things further even as they broaden certain characters. There are also a couple of visual text jokes that can easily be missed if you don’t know where to look.

Byung-hun is great as a man who can’t seem to get out of his own way. The role is almost in direct contrast to the one he played on Squid Game, making it easy to see how well he can adapt to different stories. Son Ye-jin as Man-su’s wife Miri and Lee Sung-min as Bummo, one of Man-su’s intended victims, are also highly engaging.

Like any film not in English, No Other Choice requires viewers to pay strict attention to the screen to get full enjoyment of the actors and their dialogue. While it doesn’t hit as hard as a comedy because of this factor, it’s still a greatly entertaining film whose underlying message makes it become a little deeper.

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No Other Choice is now playing in theaters.

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