Weekend Event Planner

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

Australian boy band 5 Seconds of Summer will headline a concert at Gexa Energy Pavilion on August 7.

5 Seconds of Summer/Facebook

This weekend around Dallas is full of well-known names, from musicians to artists to movie stars. There will be an increasingly noteworthy film festival, three new local theater productions, an art exhibition featuring a secretive artist, five big concerts, a classic kids movie accompanied by a symphony, and more.

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

Thursday, June 23

Oak Cliff Film Festival
The 2022 Oak Cliff Film Festival will feature nearly 60 films, including new features, documentaries, short films, and classics. Highlighted films include opening night film Butterfly in the Sky, a documentary about LeVar Burton and Reading Rainbow; Jenny Slate's Marcel the Shell with Shoes On; a repertory screening of David Lynch's Lost Highway; closing night film I Love My Dad starring Patton Oswalt; and more. Events will take place through Sunday at multiple venues, including Texas Theatre, Turner House, Oak Cliff Cultural Center, The Kessler, Bishop Arts Theatre Center, and The Wild Detectives.

Shakespeare Dallas presents The Tempest
As part of their annual Shakespeare in the Park series, Shakespeare Dallas presents The Tempest. Prospero, a magician, creates a vast magical storm, wrecking the ship of his enemies and leaving them to wash up on shore. When they wake they find themselves lost on a fantastical island where nothing is as it seems. The production, which is playing in repertory with A Midsummer Night's Dream, will run through July 22 at Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre.

Friday, June 24

Banksyland
Banksyland is an international touring exhibition that immerses audiences in the works of the infamous and elusive artist, Banksy. The exhibit features more than 80 pieces and installations, including original and studio works, salvaged street artworks, and never-before-seen immersive installations. The exhibition will take place at a location in the Dallas Design District through July 4.

Chicago and Brian Wilson in concert
Hailed as one of the “most important bands in music since the dawn of the rock and roll era,” the legendary rock and roll band with horns, Chicago, came in as the highest charting American band in Billboard magazine’s Top 125 Artists Of All Time. They are the first American rock band to chart Top 40 albums in six consecutive decades. Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys will co-headline this concert at Dos Equis Pavilion, where they'll be joined by Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Toy Story - Live in Concert
The Dallas Symphony will present Disney Concert’s newest live-to-picture concert event featuring the timeless classic film, Toy Story, accompanied by Randy Newman’s beloved score. Pull-string cowboy, Woody, and astronaut action figure, Buzz Lightyear, grow from enemies battling for the attention of their owner Andy to comrades who join forces. There will be three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Art Centre Theatre presents Clue
It's a dark and stormy night, and you've been invited to a very unusual dinner party. Each of the guests has an alias, the butler offers a variety of weapons, and the host is, well ... dead. So whodunnit? Was it the timid Mr. Green? The militant Colonel Mustard? Mrs. White who helped her husband on his way? Ms. Scarlet whose helped many men along the way? Professor Plum, who is looking for a way? The scatterbrained Mrs. Peacock? Or did the butler do it? Race to find the murderer in Boddy Manor before the body count stacks up. The production will run at Art Centre Theatre in Plano through July 10.

Improv Addison presents D.L. Hughley
One of the most popular and highly recognized stand-up comedians on the road today has also made quite an impression in the television and radio arena. D.L. Hughley is known for his sitcom, The Hughleys; as host of his own late night talk show on CNN, D.L. Hughley Breaks the News; and as one of the Original Kings of Comedy. Hughley will perform seven times through Sunday at Improv Addison.

Cara Mía Theatre presents Teatro en Fuga Festival
Cara Mía Theatre's Teatro en Fuga Festival will kick off on Friday with a work-in-progress reading of When Aliens Fall from the Sky by poet and performance artist Lemon Andersen. Influenced by the autobiographical monologues of Spalding Gray, When Aliens Fall from the Sky is a rally cry for the melting pot of Latinidad to speak and act on the identity crisis in America, and join in a collective path forward. The festival, which will have two other events on July 2 and 9, takes place at Latino Cultural Center.

Colbie Caillat in concert
Pop singer Colbie Caillat had an enviable start to her career, landing a top 5 single with her first song, "Bubbly," off her 2007 debut album, Coco. While not exactly a one-hit wonder, she hasn't reached those heights again, although she has had a string of top 10 hits on Billboard's Adult Airplay chart. Caillat has released six solo albums in her career, most recently 2016's The Malibu Sessions. She'll play at Majestic Theatre.

T-Pain in concert
Rapper/singer T-Pain called out Dallas fans in April for not buying tickets to his scheduled May 18 date at The Factory in Deep Ellum. Then, just before the date, he abruptly switched both the date and location, supposedly due to safety concerns. It's unclear if this concert at Texas Trust CU Theatre at Grand Prairie is selling well, as it's general admission, but hopefully it will be drama-free. He'll be joined by Young Cash and Mason Dane.

Saturday, June 25

Kid Rock in concert
Rapper/rocker Kid Rock has had quite the career, releasing several independent albums before breaking out with 1998's Devil Without a Cause, which featured the inescapable hit "Bawitdaba." Since then he's dipped a toe in multiple genres, including country, with his last real hit being 2008's "All Summer Long." These days he's known as much for being a conservative firebrand as a musician, but he'll play at Dos Equis Pavilion in support of his new album, Bad Reputation, joined by the classic rock band, Foreigner.

5 Seconds of Summer in concert
Australian pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer long ago shed the erroneous "boy band" title, thanks to their distinct rock sound and the fact that, unlike bands like One Direction or BTS, they actually play their own instruments. Each of their four albums have landed at either No. 1 or No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and their forthcoming fifth album, 5SOS5, is likely to do the same. They'll play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Sunday, June 26

Immersive Frida Kahlo closing day
Just a tick under five months after it opened, Immersive Frida Kahlo will have its last exhibition at Lighthouse Dallas on Sunday. It's unclear whether it just wasn't as popular as Immersive Van Gogh, which has now run for almost a full year, or if it's being removed to make room for the incoming Immersive Monet & The Impressionists, which starts on July 1. Either way, Frida fans will need to make haste to view it before it leaves town.

Banksyland will open in the Dallas Design District on June 24, running through July 4.

Photo courtesy of One Thousand Ways

Banksyland will open in the Dallas Design District on June 24, running through July 4.

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Movie Review

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney go off in trashy film The Housemaid

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid.

Both Amanda Seyfried (the upcoming The Testament of Ann Lee) and Sydney Sweeney (Christy) are starring in movies with Oscar ambitions this year. By sheer coincidence, the two actors are also co-starring in The Housemaid, a thriller coming out within weeks of their more ambitious works, one that is likely to be seen by many more people than those prestige plays.

Sweeney is given top billing as Millie, a down-on-her-luck ex-convict looking to land any type of job so as not to break her parole. She finds a too-good-to-be-true lifeboat with Nina (Seyfried), who hires her to be a housemaid for her large house on Long Island, where she lives with her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle).

After a warm interview, Nina almost immediately becomes highly erratic, whipping back-and-forth between happy-go-lucky and rageful. It seems clear that Nina is suffering from mental health issues, as she’ll often accuse Millie of misplacing or stealing items that she didn’t take. Andrew, apparently used to Nina’s tirades, tries to protect Millie from the worst, something that grows increasingly difficult as Nina ups the ante.

Directed by Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) and adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from the bestselling book by Freida McFadden, the film is likely the trashiest mainstream movie to come out in 2025. The first half of the movie relies not on story but on moments as Nina embodies the word “hysterical” to an unbelievable extent. The resigned acceptance of the abuse by Millie, as well as the saintly patience of Andrew, make almost every scene laughable, as nobody seems to be acting anywhere close to how a person would normally react to such extreme situations.

The scenes and the performance of Seyfried are so over-the-top, in fact, that it’s clear that the filmmakers are in on the joke. It’s next to impossible not to have a little bit of fun while watching the actors react to outrageous incidents as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The worse Nina acts, the more Millie and Andrew retreat into their chosen roles, and the funnier the film becomes.

Fans of the book will know that the story changes course, eventually turning into a more stereotypical thriller that also has some relatively gnarly visuals to offer. But the trashiness continues, with Sweeney’s, um, assets repeatedly on display in both clothed and unclothed ways. The sex appeal of the R-rated movie makes it an outlier, as recent studio films have shied away from asking their big stars to disrobe completely.

Both Seyfried and Sweeney are far from their Oscar hopeful roles here. Seyfried is given free rein to act as brazenly as she pleases, and she takes full advantage of that ability. Sweeney seems to have been told to be much more reserved, and unfortunately that results in too many wooden line readings. Sklenar continues his breakout streak (It Ends with Us, Drop) with a role that allows him to show more range than either Seyfried or Sweeney.

The Housemaid is an unusual type of movie to be released at a time of year when most films are either those aiming for awards or more family-friendly fare. Despite its many flaws, it’s still an enjoyable watch that features a variety of crazy scenarios not typically seen in movies nowadays.

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The Housemaid is now playing in theaters.

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