Weekend Event Planner

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

The slate of events in and around Dallas this weekend are literally and figuratively all over the map. You can enjoy movies, music, and more in Denton; celebrate the Earth at Fair Park; laugh your head off in Arlington; or check out art of all types at galleries throughout Dallas. But first, you might want to taste some of the best food Dallas has to offer at our own special event.

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, April 20

2017 Thin Line Festival
Thin Line is a film, music, and photography festival held at multiple venues in and around Denton, including Campus Theatre, Dan's Silverleaf, Rubber Gloves Studio, and UNT on the Square. The festival's program includes high-quality documentary films, world-class music, and a diverse selection of photography. The festival continues through Sunday.

CultureMap Tastemaker Awards
The CultureMap Tastemaker Awards are an annual celebration of talent in Dallas-Fort Worth's restaurant and bar community, as selected by their peers. Our mission is to shine a spotlight on the people making the city's restaurant scene special and honor their innovation, energy, and creativity. The swanky tasting event and awards ceremony, emceed by Tim Love, takes place at Sixty Five Hundred, where we celebrate the nominees and unveil the winners.

Friday, April 21

Earth Day Texas 2017
Earth Day Texas is a three-day event at Fair Park that features numerous outdoor experiences, including live music, sustainable beer and food pavilions, electric bike test tracks, and family activities. New this year is EarthxFilm, a concurrent film festival showcasing films and emerging media that explore science, conservation, climate change, and the environment. Both events will take place through Sunday.

USA Film Festival presents A Very Sordid Wedding
In A Very Sordid Wedding, it's 2015, 17 years after family matriarch Peggy tripped over G.W.’s wooden legs in Sordid Lives, and life has moved into the present for the residents of Winters, Texas. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision in favor of marriage equality, the Sordid saga continues. There are seven screenings of the film at Texas Theatre through April 30, with filmmakers in attendance at all screenings.

Dallas Opera presents Norma
The latest production from Dallas Opera is set during the Roman occupation of Gaul in 50 B.C., where a passionate love triangle in the midst of a deepening culture clash leads to dangerous consequences. Amid the turmoil of the occupation and impending revolution, Norma is driven to the brink of insanity, convinced of her betrayal and fearing disgrace for her fatherless children. The opera plays five times through May 7 at Winspear Opera House.

Improv Arlington presents Jay Pharoah
During his tenure on Saturday Night Live, Jay Pharoah proved himself to be one of the show's most talented and popular cast members, mostly thanks to his uncanny impressions of Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Stephen A. Smith, Kanye West, and Chris Tucker. He was unceremoniously fired from the show prior to this season, but their loss is our gain as he performs four times at Improv Arlington on Friday and Saturday.

Saturday, April 22

2017 Dallas Art Dealers Association Spring Gallery Walk
Dallas Art Dealers Association presents its annual Spring Gallery Walk, an event designed for everyone from the art novice to the aficionado. Participants can enjoy a full spectrum of gallery openings, special exhibitions, and art talks at over 30 art venues, including DADA members representing art dealer galleries and nonprofit art organization spaces.

Dallas Arts District presents Changing Perspectives Block Party
The Dallas Arts District closes down Flora Street from Routh to Crockett for a block party featuring Dallas' own Zhora and special guests Bandaloop: Vertical Dance Company. The event includes food trucks, a beer garden, an art fair, live mural painting, dance improv, and more. Bandaloop performs on the east side of the Hall Arts building at 3 pm, 5 pm, and 6 pm.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in concert with Joe Walsh
Tom Petty has been putting out memorable music for over 40 years, with a slew of hits that compare favorably to any classic musician. Petty and his longtime band, the Heartbreakers, come to American Airlines Center as part of their 40th anniversary tour. They are joined by another classic musician, special guest Joe Walsh of the Eagles.

Sunday, April 23

Arts & Letters Live: Chelsea Clinton
Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton comes to Dallas to share insights from her book, It's Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going! The book is designed to inspire and empower readers of all ages to do their part to make the world a better place, as it addresses challenging issues prevalent in the modern world, including poverty, global warming, obesity, gender inequality, and cancer. The event takes place at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers play at American Airlines Center on April 22, along with Joe Walsh of the Eagles.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in concert

Photo by Joel Bernstein

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers play at American Airlines Center on April 22, along with Joe Walsh of the Eagles.

event-planner

Movie Review

Michael Jackson can do no wrong in fawning biopic Michael

Photo by Glen Wilson

Jaafar Jackson in Michael

Among the complicated figures in pop culture history, Michael Jackson has to be at or near the top. On one hand, he’s responsible for some of the most enduring music of all time, thrilling generations with his voice and dance moves. But his later years were marred by accusations of child sexual abuse and erratic behavior, including his premature death at the age of 50.

So the new biopic Michael is a tough one to judge from a critical standpoint, not least because director Antoine Fuqua and writer John Logan have elided - perhaps temporarily - the thornier parts of Michael’s history. Instead, this film focuses on the 20-year period in which Michael (played as an adult by Michael’s nephew Jaafar Jackson) goes from the prepubescent lead singer of the Jackson 5 to one of the biggest music superstars of all time.

That choice puts an overly sympathetic tint to Michael’s story, as he spends most of that time under the thumb of his domineering father, Joseph (Colman Domingo). Joseph has a vision for Michael and his brothers, and he pushes them hard in a quest to become rich and famous. Even when they achieve that goal, though, Joseph refuses to let up, holding onto Michael even when it’s clear he should go out on his own.

As a reminder of the enormous impact Michael Jackson had on the music industry and world at large, the film is successful. Fuqua and Logan include plenty of music, naturally, but they seem to be most interested in depicting Michael as a human being. They lay it on thick, whether it’s showing him spending time among his family members away from the stage, hanging out with bodyguard Bill Bray (KeiLyn Durrel Jones), or visiting sick kids in hospitals. The message that Michael is a harmless, good person couldn’t be clearer.

The film hints at but doesn’t really explore Michael’s oddities. His obsession with kids literature and movies, especially Peter Pan, are seen as inoffensive quirks, as is his menagerie of animals, including a creepy CGI version of Bubbles the chimp. His arrested development seems to be partially blamed on his parents treating him like a child well into his adulthood, and the resulting fallout is not (yet) addressed.

Many viewers will be most interested in the music sequences, and - save for some repetitive shots of fans fainting at the mere presence of Michael - they are handled well. Whether it’s at home, in the studio, on the set of the “Thriller” video, or at live performances, the film manages to fully get across just what a phenomenon Michael was at his peak. The staging and editing of each scene is dynamic, complementing Michael’s other-worldly abilities well.

If there is one reason to see the film, it is the performance of Jaafar Jackson. Whether he’s capable of doing any other kind of role is undetermined, but his portrayal of his uncle is compelling, as he demonstrates singing, dancing, and acting skills in equal measure. He’s aided by an equally great performance by Domingo, who - with the help of facial prosthetics - overcomes the trope of the bad father. Nia Long and Larenz Tate are also good in smaller roles, but Miles Teller is an odd presence as Michael’s manager.

There are reports that legal complications prevented the filmmakers from using previously-shot scenes delving into accusations against Michael, and there are rumors that a second film will be made about the last 20 years of his life. But that speculation can’t absolve Michael of showing all the positive aspects of Michael Jackson’s life and not even touching any of the negative ones.

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Michael opens in theaters on April 24.

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