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.

Gladys Knight performs at Winspear Opera House on April 2.

Photo courtesy of Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight performs at Winspear Opera House on April 2.

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Movie Review

Lust eclipses romance in new adaptation of 'Wuthering Heights'

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in Wuthering Heights.

Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights is one of those classic books assigned in high school English classes, and it has received a number of film adaptations over the years, each of which differ in numerous ways from the source material. Purists won’t receive any reprieve from Emerald Fennell’s 2026 adaptation, with a title that is stylized as "Wuthering Heights” for good reason.

Cathy (played as an adult by Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) have known each other their entire lives, with Cathy’s alcoholic and inveterate gambler father (Martin Clunes) taking in Heathcliff on a whim when he was a boy. The two bond as they grow up together, although Cathy always seems to have an eye on moving up in society from their relatively impoverished lifestyle.

Cathy finally gets her wish when the rich Linton familyled by Edgar (Shazad Latif), moves in down the road, Despite discovering she has feelings for the now grown-up Heathcliff, Cathy sees Edgar as her way out and agrees to marry him. A scorned Heathcliff flees, returning years later as mysteriously wealthy. His reappearance ignites something in Cathy’s soul, and the two engage in a perhaps unwise affair.

Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) infuses the dusty material with an energy that’s not typically present in stories set in this particular time and place. Aside from the occasional Charli XCX song (the singer created a whole concept album for the film), the film looks and feels like a period piece, albeit one that doesn’t get bogged down in the drudgery that can sometimes come from films set in the distant past.

Much of that has to do with the lust the filmmaker puts into the story. Even if you’re not familiar with Brontë’s book, you can rest assured that Fennell has strayed far from the text, giving Cathy and Heathcliff thoughts and actions unthinkable in the 19th century. Fennell plays with expectations by opening the film with audio featuring creaking noises and a man grunting, conjuring up a situation far different than what is actually happening, and she also makes liberal use of rain, sweat, and tears to make the actors enticing.

What she can’t do, however, is make the two lead characters compelling. Cathy is a striver who never seems to know what she wants out of life, and Heathcliff goes from a bore to a brute over the course of the film, with no clear indication that he likes anybody, much less Cathy. Anyone expecting some kind of grand romance will be disappointed as Fennell is much more interested in making the film weird, like having the walls of Cathy’s room look like her skin, complete with freckles.

Robbie and Elordi do well enough with the material, and it’s clear that both of them are committed to bringing Fennell’s vision to life. Their styles tend to balance each other out, and if the story had been committed to their characters’ relationship, they might be lauded for their chemistry. In the end, though, the supporting actors feel more interesting, including ones played by Hong Chau, Alison Miller, and Clunes.

This version of Wuthering Heights should never be construed as an alternative to reading the book for any high schoolers out there. While Fennell makes the film interesting with her technical filmmaking choices, the story never finds its footing as it fails to sell the one thing that it seems to promise.

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Wuthering Heights opens in theaters on February 13.

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