Weekend Event Planner

These are the 7 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

While the majority of events around Dallas have either been postponed or canceled, there are a few that have popped up to offer the masses some entertainment while still adhering to the social distancing necessary during the coronavirus pandemic.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. While they're not all outside of the house, they all promise to provide a nice distraction from the everyday life.

Thursday, August 27

Rooftop Cinema Club: The Drive-In at The Central
Dallas is getting another drive-in movie option this week thanks to Rooftop Cinema Club. Taking place at The Central in East Dallas, the drive-in will project movies onto a 52-foot screen with skyline views as the backdrop, with audio broadcast through the FM transmitter radio in cars. Moviegoers are welcome to bring their own food, but food and beverage are also being offered through a contactless system. Opening weekend movies include Selena, Dazed and Confused, Dirty Dancing, Friday, Jurassic Park, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Little Mermaid, and Pulp Fiction.

Friday, August 28

Twilight at the Tin Star
Twilight at the Tin Star, taking place at Tin Star Theater in Trinity Groves, is an immersive art event that guests can experience from the safety of their vehicle in an in-the-round, drive-in theater setting. The performance features music by Danny Goldman and MAKE trio, and percussionist Austin Allen. Bruce Wood Dance will perform a site-specific work created by choreographer Gregory Dolbashian under the canopy of TETRA, an illuminated structural art piece by Colin Hendee.

Improv Arlington presents Lavell Crawford
Audiences are becoming increasingly familiar with Lavell Crawford’s giant-sized talent from his numerous television appearances. Crawford gained national exposure on NBC’s hit reality series Last Comic Standing, leading to his own half-hour standup special on Comedy Central. Crawford is best known for his recurring role on AMC’s Emmy Award-winning Breaking Bad. He'll perform five times through Sunday at Improv Arlington.

Improv Addison presents Terry Fator
Terry Fator is perhaps the first entertainer to combine the art of ventriloquism with singing celebrity impressions. His puppets, including Cowboy Walter, Emma Taylor, and Winston the Impersonating Turtle, effortlessly perform the singing styles of an eclectic group of stars, including Tony Bennett, Elvis, Maroon 5, Garth Brooks, Nat King and Natalie Cole, Roy Orbison, Etta James, and more. He'll perform five times through Sunday at Improv Addison.

Saturday, August 29

Legacy Hall presents End of Summer Luau
Legacy Hall in Plano will present a safe and socially distant tropical getaway with an End of Summer Luau. The festive evening will feature a traditional Hawaiian pig roast, hula dancers, a fire performer, tiki cocktails, a limbo competition, and a performance by Summer of ’69, a Bryan Adams tribute band. Food is not included in the overall ticket cost; the pig roast is $18 when pre-purchased with an event ticket, or $22 at the door.

CarBaret: Pee Wee's Big Adventure + Mr. Rid + Lily Taylor
CarBaret, the pop-up drive-in theater/performance space at Brizo in Richardson will present a 35th anniversary screening of Tim Burton's cult classic, Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Prior to the screening, DJ Mr. Rid will present music and selected short films, and Lily Taylor featuring Black Taffy will play live music. Guests can order food from a drive-in menu that will be delivered to cars or chairs, featuring beer bratwurst, grilled kebabs, veggie tacos, and more. Guests can stay in their cars, on top of their cars, or in folding chairs near their cars.

Sunday, August 30

Dallas Museum of Art exhibition openings
The Dallas Museum of Art will open two new exhibitions on Sunday: Love is the Message, The Message is Death, Arthur Jafa’s renowned film that juxtaposes representations of Black artists, scholars, athletes, and politicians with depictions of events ranging from faith-based transcendence to police brutality; and "Contemporary Art + Design," which presents recently acquired paintings, installations, jewelry, furnishings, and design objects made by artists from 11 countries that show new directions for the growth of the DMA's collection. Both exhibitions will remain on display through March 7.

Bruce Wood Dance choreographer Gregory Dolbashian will perform in Twilight at the Tin Star, taking place August 28.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Wood Dance

Bruce Wood Dance choreographer Gregory Dolbashian will perform in Twilight at the Tin Star, taking place August 28.

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Movie Review

Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy - in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks - is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

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Weekend Event Planner

These are the 7 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Bruce Wood Dance choreographer Gregory Dolbashian will perform in Twilight at the Tin Star, taking place August 28.

Movie Review

Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

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