Weekend Event Planner

These are the 13 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It's another big weekend in and around Dallas, with notable events happening at multiple venues. There will be three huge concerts, a music and arts festival, a Tony Award-winning musical, a ballet with a favorite children's character, a nationally known comedian, and historical airplanes on display, among other events.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, May 16

DFW South Asian Film Festival
The 5th annual DFW South Asian Film Festival's lineup will include one world premiere, two North American premieres, one U.S. premiere, 14 Texas premieres, and three Dallas premieres. The four-day movie event, taking place through Sunday in various locations around Dallas, boasts 21 shorts, documentaries, and feature films, Q&A sessions with attending filmmakers/actors, and nightly after-parties for festival-goers.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Symphonie Fantastique
The penultimate concert in Dallas Symphony Orchestra's 2018-2019 season features the invigorating Violin Concerto by Brahms and the hallucinatory Symphonie Fantastique. The concert, taking place through Sunday at the Meyerson Symphony Center, will also feature the DSO debut of violinist Blake Pouliot under the direction of conductor Pablo Heras-Casado.

Dallas Summer Musicals presents Miss Saigon
This new production of the legendary musical Miss Saigon, celebrating its 30th anniversary, tells the epic story of a young Vietnamese woman named Kim. In a bar run by a notorious character called The Engineer, Kim meets an American G.I., an encounter that will change their lives forever. The production, running through May 26 at the Music Hall at Fair Park, features a soaring score with songs like “Last Night of the World,” “The Movie in My Mind,” and “The Heat is On in Saigon."

Friday, May 17

Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival
The Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival in Richardson boasts six performance stages, four outdoor and two inside the Eisemann Center, where more than 80 musical acts are showcased. Headlined by bands like Good Charlotte, Fitz and the Tantrums, and The Jacksons, the festival also features other national, regional, and local bands, the Singer Songwriter contest, the family friendly WF! Kids, the WF! Eats, the WF! Marketplace, and Performers Row featuring strolling entertainers, buskers and acrobats.

Texas Ballet Theater presents Pinocchio
The final production in Texas Ballet Theater's 2018-2019 season features the mischievous Pinocchio, a puppet that embarks on a whirlwind quest to become a real boy. Featuring phenomenal costuming and innovative choreography, the production will play at Winspear Opera House through Sunday before moving over to Fort Worth next weekend.

Bishop Arts Theatre Center presents The Real James Bond Was Dominican
What happens when a Dominican boy in Queens who is obsessed with James Bond finds out that the real James Bond was Dominican? This is a true story about Porfirio Rubirosa, Ian Fleming’s inspiration for Bond, and how this discovery set off a whole tragi-comic journey for a young, Dominican actor-to-be. The production will run at Bishop Arts Theatre Center through Sunday.

Jim Gaffigan: Quality Time Tour
Comedian Jim Gaffigan is as relatable a celebrity as you'll ever find. His popularity has stemmed from bits involving his struggles as the father of five kids, marriage in general, and his love/hate relationship with Hot Pockets. In advance of his latest special, Quality Time, premiering on Amazon Prime, he'll bring his stand-up tour to The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

New Kids On The Block in concert with Salt-N-Pepa, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, and Naughty by Nature
Nostalgia for the '80s and '90s will be in full effect when New Kids On The Block, Salt-N-Pepa, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, and Naughty by Nature get together for this concert at American Airlines Center. You may think all of these acts are stuck in a certain time, but headliners NKOTB released an EP, Thankful, in 2017, while Tiffany has been the most prolific musician of the group, releasing her 10th album, Pieces of Me, in 2018.

Saturday, May 18

Cavanaugh Flight Museum presents Warbirds Over Addison
Cavanaugh Flight Museum will present its biggest weekend of the year, Warbirds Over Addison. Aviation buffs will have the chance to see, touch and even fly in many of the planes in the Cavanaugh collection, including the P‐51 Mustang, AD-5 Skyraider, FM2 Wildcat, and many more. The event, taking place on Saturday and Sunday, also showcases visiting aircraft brought in by warbird enthusiasts and museum collections around the country.

Dave Matthews Band in concert
If it's the third weekend in May, that means it's time for the annual visit from Dave Matthews Band. The group has consistently played the same venue, Dos Equis Pavilion, on virtually the same weekend in May every year since at least 2013. Though their days of delivering hits like "What Would You Say," "Crash Into Me," and "The Space Between" are behind them, they always score No. 1 albums, including their 2018 album, Come Tomorrow.

Sunday, May 19

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Dior: From Paris to the World"
Dallas Museum of Art will present "Dior: From Paris to the World," an exhibition which surveys more than 70 years of the House of Dior’s legacy and global influence. The DMA is one of only two U.S. venues for this extensive retrospective of the celebrated fashion house. The exhibition, featuring a selection of more than 100 haute couture dresses, as well as accessories, photographs, original sketches, runway videos, and other archival material, will be on display through September 1.

John Cusack with 30th anniversary screening of Say Anything...
Hollywood icon John Cusack comes to Dallas for a live conversation and audience Q&A following a screening of the iconic 1989 film, Say Anything..., which is celebrating its 30th anniversary. With four decades’ worth of roles in over 70 films, Cusack will share stories from his career, answer audience questions, and give a behind-the-scenes look into his breakout role as Lloyd Dobler. The event will take place at Majestic Theatre.

Ben Platt in concert
Ben Platt has made quite the name for himself in the acting world, co-starring in two Pitch Perfect films, playing Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon, and winning a Tony Award for originating the title role in Dear Evan Hansen. That work in musicals inspired his next career move as a singer, and he'll perform at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving in support of his debut album, Sing to Me Instead.

Dallas Summer Musicals will present Miss Saigon at the Music Hall at Fair Park through May 26.

Dallas Summer Musicals presents Miss Saigon

Photo by Matthew Murphy

Dallas Summer Musicals will present Miss Saigon at the Music Hall at Fair Park through May 26.

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Movie review

Early days of pandemic become a powder keg in tense movie Eddington

Photo courtesy of A24

Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in Eddington.

The coronavirus pandemic had a profound impact on the entire world, one that has been shown in various ways by movies and TV shows. However, even though a number of productions have attempted to show what life was like during the early days of the pandemic, few have tried to truly reckon with the way lockdowns and restrictions changed people.

Filmmaker provocateur Ari Aster does just that in Eddington, set in a fictional small town in New Mexico in early 2020 that proves to be a microcosm of the debates taking place worldwide at that time. Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) is not a fan of mask mandates or other restrictions imposed by the government, while mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) tries to lead by example in an effort to keep his community safe.

The men butt heads not just on how to deal with the pandemic, but also over a personal history involving Joe’s wife, Louise (Emma Stone). When news of the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota makes its way to town, it starts a slow simmer among the town’s youth population, putting even more stress on Joe and his small department. Conspiracy theories, white guilt, partisan politics, cults, and more combine to make the community into a powder keg that threatens to explode at the slightest provocation.

Aster (Midsommar, Beau is Afraid) takes aim at all sides in a film that’s part satire and part thriller. No matter how each viewer reacted to the pandemic, the film offers at least a character or two that will come close to representing their viewpoint. Although opinions may differ, it seems clear that Aster is not portraying one side as “right” or more righteous than the other. What he is doing is demonstrating just how much was happening in a short period of time, and how those things could negatively affect anyone.

On the flip side, the film also challenges viewers with viewpoints that may not match their own, which can make for an uncomfortable experience at times. The reactions various characters have to certain events range from rational to wholly unexpected, and Aster seems to delight in keeping the audience on their toes the entire time. This is especially true when violence rears its ugly head, resulting in some intense and upsetting scenes.

Not everything in the film lands, though. A subplot involving Louise and Vernon (Austin Butler), a cult leader who preys on her fears, feels tacked on, with no relation to the film as a whole. In fact, the character of Louise is a misfire in general, one whose purpose makes little sense. Aster also lets (asks?) some actors speak in almost inaudible tones at various points in the film, a frustrating experience in a film as dialogue-heavy as this one.

Phoenix loves to dig into off-kilter characters, and this one ranks high on that scale. Even if you don’t enjoy what his character does, it’s hard to fault the performance that brings him to life. Most of Pascal’s scenes are with Phoenix, and while he matches Phoenix’s energy, the lower key nature of his character leaves him overshadowed. The nature of the film means few others make an impact, although Deidre O’Connell as Joe’s passive-aggressive mother-in-law and William Belleau as Officer Jiminiz Butterfly stand out in their scenes.

Few of us would volunteer to go back to the baffling days of early 2020, but Eddington does a great job of examining what was happening at the time and how events united some and divided others. It’s not a feel-good film, but it is one that will make viewers re-examine their reactions at the time and how those influenced the current reality.

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Eddington is now playing in theaters.

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