Weekend Event Planner

These are the 9 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

This weekend in and around Dallas is full of entertainers who have enjoyed success, but not so much that their fame has overwhelmed them. There will be four concerts with big-name singers or groups, two comedy events, a new local theater production, a detailed look at a hot-button issue, and a revisiting of a classic blockbuster movie.

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, August 1

Carly Rae Jepsen in concert
Pop star Carly Rae Jepsen might have remained a local celebrity in her native Canada had not fate and Justin Bieber intervened when he signal-boosted her eventual smash hit, "Call Me Maybe," in 2011. The resulting fame led to other hits like "Good Time" with Owl City and "I Really Like," though neither reached the heights of that first hit. Jepsen will play at House of Blues Dallas in support of her new album, Dedicated.

Friday, August 2

Daniel Sloss: X
Daniel Sloss is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning Scottish comedian. He has performed three solo New York seasons off-Broadway, and Netflix released two hour-long specials, DARK and Jigsaw, in 2018. He's also made appearances on talk shows like Conan and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. He'll perform a one-night-only show at Majestic Theatre.

Hammer's House Party with MC Hammer, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Kid 'n Play, 2 Live Crew, and The Funky Bunch
Rapper MC Hammer was all the rage in the early '90s, unleashing hits like "U Can't Touch This," "Pray," and "2 Legit 2 Quit." After almost 25 years in relative obscurity, he's back to host Hammer's House Party at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, a concert that will feature performances by other '80s and '90s rappers and singers like Sir Mix-a-Lot, Kid 'n Play, 2 Live Crew, Sisqo, and The Funky Bunch.

Blink-182 and Lil Wayne in concert
You wouldn't necessarily put rock band Blink-182 and rapper Lil Wayne together, but that's what this co-headlining tour is offering. Blink-182 will also be performing their pivotal 1999 album, Enema of the State, from start to finish, along with other hits. Lil Wayne, if he actually shows up, is touring in support of his 2018 album, Tha Carter V. The concert will be at Dos Equis Pavilion.

Imprint Theatreworks presents Kentucky
Kentucky is a biting comedy about Hiro, an Asian-American, self-made woman making it in New York. She is also estranged from her dysfunctional family in Kentucky. When her little sister, a born-again Christian, decides to marry at 22, Hiro takes it upon herself to do whatever she can to stop the wedding and salvage any shred of hope she had for her sister's future. The play will run at Arts Mission Oak Cliff through August 17.

Saturday, August 3

Bishop Arts Theatre Center presents Incarceration, Execution, and the Human Face of the Criminal Justice System
Best-selling author Sanderia Faye is joined by Jim Buffington (Bridges to Life Chief Operating Officer), Jay Gumm (Forgiven Felons Founder), and Richard Miles (Miles of Freedom Founder), for a candid conversation that will take the audience behind bars into the criminal justice system. Framing this community conversation at Bishop Arts Theatre Center will be readings from Faye’s new book, Eleven.

Wiz Khalifa in concert
Rapper Wiz Khalifa has been at the top of the hip-hop genre since the release of his 2011 album, Rolling Papers, which contained the inescapable hit "Black and Yellow." Since then, he's fostered collaborations with other artists and songs on not one, but two Fast & Furious movies, including the smash hit "See You Again" with Charlie Puth. He'll perform at Dos Equis Pavilion in support of his new mixtape, Fly Times Vol. 1: The Good Fly Young.

Funnier than a Mutha#*@%!& Comedy Festival: Ladies Night Out
Hosted by NeNe Leakes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, The Funnier than a Mutha#*@%!& Comedy Festival: Ladies Night Out will feature performances by comedians like Loni Love, Sherri Shepherd, Adele Givens, Jess Hilarious, Kym Whitley, and Janelle James. The festival will take place at The Theatre in Grand Prairie.

Sunday, August 4

Majestic Theatre presents Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope
It's been more than 40 years since the original Star Wars came out and changed the face of movies forever. As we eagerly await the release of the latest but certainly not last Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker, you can travel back to a simpler time when four characters — Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca — banded together to try to defeat the evil Empire. The screening will be at Majestic Theatre.

MC Hammer and other '80s and '90s acts will perform at Hammer's House Party at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving on August 2.

MC Hammer/Facebook

MC Hammer and other '80s and '90s acts will perform at Hammer's House Party at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving on August 2.

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Movie Review

Alexander Skarsgård commands the bold, offbeat drama Pillion

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

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Pillion is now playing in theaters.

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