Weekend Event Planner

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

UPDATE: The Bulladora Music Experience, which was on this list when it first published, has been canceled due to weather.

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The first weekend in June is deceptively busy around the Dallas area. While we only list 10 events below, many of them include multiple activities that span the spectrum of theater, music, art, movies, television, comic books, and more. In other words, you'll have no trouble finding something to do.

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, June 2

Vitruvian Nights Live Concert Series
Starting Thursday, Vitruvian Park in Addison is hosting a bi-weekly concert series featuring live music; gourmet food trucks; drinks; mobile boutiques, and giveaways from radio stations like 106.1 Kiss FM, 102.1 the Edge, and Lone Star 92.5. Kicking things off is Warehouse, a Dave Matthews Band tribute group.

Audacity Theatre Lab presents 2016 Dallas Solo Fest
The Dallas Solo Fest, presented by Audacity Theatre Lab, features eight one-person shows that include a mix of local and national solo performers. Taking place at Magnolia Lounge at Fair Park through June 12, the purpose of the festival is to celebrate extraordinary solo theater, as well as increase awareness and appreciation for the form in the North Texas area.

Friday, June 3

Soluna Festival finale
The Soluna Festival is coming to a close with three final events. The highlight includes three performances, Friday through Sunday, by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra of Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony, complemented by two performances at Nasher Sculpture Center by artist Mai-Thu Perret: Figures on Thursday and O on Saturday.

Red Bull Global Rallycross Dallas
Completing an exceptionally busy weekend at Fair Park is Red Bull Global Rallycross, which makes a return to the Lone Star State with its inaugural Dallas event. The competition pits star-driven, production-based cars against each other in door-to-door racing featuring dirt, asphalt, and tabletop jumps. There will be racing on both Friday and Saturday.

Fan Expo Dallas
The largest comics, sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming event in Texas, Fan Expo Dallas features a slew of big names from movies, TV, and comics. The three-day festival at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center includes special events like a free presentation with William Shatner, Sci-Fi Speed Dating, a forum with Jay and Silent Bob, and Breakfast with Stan Lee.

WaterTower Theatre presents Outside Mullingar
The latest from WaterTower Theatre is Outside Mullingar, written by Pulitzer-, Oscar-, and Tony Award-winning author John Patrick Shanley. The play is a romance about Anthony and Rosemary, two introverted misfits in rural Ireland. Anthony is oblivious to the longing of his neighbor Rosemary, but when his father threatens to disinherit him, it spurs a delightful tale about love and its many surprises. The production runs through June 26.

R. Kelly in concert
R&B singer R. Kelly has been unapologetic in making his music as sexy as possible, with examples like his biggest hit, "Bump n' Grind," and his 2013 album, Black Panties. The always memorable performer is playing at American Airlines Center in support of his 2015 album, The Buffet.

Saturday, June 4

VolunteerNow presents Voly in the Park 2016
Voly in the Park, a daylong event at Klyde Warren Park, is Dallas’ only volunteerism festival, featuring 75 nonprofit agencies, hands-on volunteer projects, live entertainment, and more than 5,000 attendees. This festival showcases VolunteerNow’s volunteer matching program, Voly.org, an online platform that makes it quick and easy for volunteers to connect with more than 1,000 North Texas nonprofits.

Kenny Chesney in concert with Miranda Lambert, Jake Owen, and Old Dominion
The first big concert of the summer is this monster at AT&T Stadium, featuring country superstar Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Jake Owen, and Old Dominion. Chesney is touring in support of his forthcoming 2016 album, Some Town Somewhere, while Lambert is still riding high off the success of her 2014 album, Platinum.

Country star Kenny Chesney plays at AT&T Stadium on June 4, with support from Miranda Lambert and others.

0012, RodeoHouston, Kenny Chesney concert, March 2013

Photo by © Michelle Watson/CatchLightGroup.com

Country star Kenny Chesney plays at AT&T Stadium on June 4, with support from Miranda Lambert and others.

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Movie review

Over-the-top The Bride! makes other Frankenstein movies seem subtle

Photo by Niko Tavernise

Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley in The Bride!.

The story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster is now over 200 years old, with Mary Shelley’s book having been adapted or referenced in close to 500 films. Less common is the character of The Bride of Frankenstein, which existed in the original text but has more often than not been excised in adaptations. Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal has tried to rectify that by giving the character a big showcase in her new film, The Bride!.

Gyllenhaal has reimagined the story as one in which a woman named Ida (Jessie Buckley) becomes possessed by the spirit of Shelley (also Buckley). At the same time, the already-existing Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) approaches Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening), who specializes in reanimation, with the request to make him a wife. When Ida falls to her death in an “accident” involving her boyfriend (John Magaro), the ideal corpse becomes available.

After Ida’s resurrection, she and the monster become restless being studied by Dr. Euphronius and decide to break out to experience the world. The world, naturally, is not exactly welcoming to them, and soon the couple are on the run for causing mayhem, including a few murders. In hot pursuit are detective Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his assistant, Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz), as well as other authorities.

It’s clear that Gyllenhaal wanted to merge the Frankenstein story with Bonnie & Clyde, especially since she sets the film in the mid-1930s. And that wouldn’t have been a bad idea if having the monster and The Bride going on a crime spree was truly the focus of the movie. But most of the time there’s less intentionality in their misdeeds and more confusion, leading to a muddled plot with no clear direction or end goal in mind.

One of the biggest problems is that Gyllenhaal starts the energy of the film at an 11, giving her and everyone else nowhere to go but down. She dabbles in multiple different tones, at times going the straight drama route and other times making what seems like full-on camp. At one point, she even has the monster and the Bride in a dance sequence set to “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” which would be hilarious as an homage to Young Frankenstein if the film weren’t so disjointed.

Most baffling of all is what Gyllenhaal wants from The Bride character. She morphs multiple times over the course of the film, from close to unintelligible at the beginning to rough-and-tumble at the end. There are hints at the lack of control she has over her autonomy, including Shelley’s possession of her and the monster lying to her about her past, but any commentary that Gyllenhaal might be trying to make gets lost amid the oddity of the film as a whole.

Both Buckley and Bale are all-in for their performances, which definitely fall in the “love it or hate it” dichotomy. Each scene is pitched so high that there’s little nuance to either of them, and neither is on par with their previous Oscar-caliber roles. The high-powered supporting cast of Bening, Sarsgaard, Cruz, and Jake Gyllenhaal is watchable based on previous roles, but none of them elevate this particular movie.

Whatever intentions Maggie Gyllenhaal had in making The Bride! are only halfway legible in a film that can never find its tonal footing. There has rarely been subtlety in movies featuring Frankenstein’s monster and related characters, but this one makes all the others seem like stuffy dramas in comparison.

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The Bride! is now playing in theaters.

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