Weekend Event Planner

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

It's a music-heavy weekend in and around Dallas, with each of the five options on our list featuring classic acts of some kind. Among your other choices are a documentary film festival, a new local theater production, a vintage airplane show, a visit from a best-selling author, and an arts and music festival.

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

Thursday, October 5

Dallas VideoFest presents DocuFest
The annual DocuFest, presented by Dallas VideoFest, will feature 23 feature length and short documentaries over four days. All screenings will take place on one screen, giving attendees the opportunity to view every film in the festival. Notable screenings include Alan Govenar’s new Extraordinary Ordinary People, the world premiere of Badass Beauty Queen, and Ex Libris by Frederick Weisman. The festival will take place at Studio Movie Grill Northwest Highway through Sunday.

Theatre Three presents Adding Machine
Adding Machine, a musical adaptation of Elmer Rice's incendiary 1923 play, tells the story of Mr. Zero, who, after 25 years of service to his company, is replaced by a mechanical adding machine. In a vengeful rage, he murders his boss. An eclectic score gives passionate voice to this stylish and stylized show, which follows Zero's journey to the afterlife in the Elysian Fields, where he is met with one last chance for romance and redemption. Theatre Three will present the musical through October 22.

Rick Springfield and Richard Marx in concert
Heartthrobs Rick Springfield and Richard Marx were two of the biggest stars of the 1980s, with their big hair and big songs setting the tone for pop music of the day. The singers will join forces at Majestic Theatre for a stripped-down storyteller's acoustic concert featuring hits like Springfield's "Jessie’s Girl," Marx's "Right Here Waiting," and many more.

Friday, October 6

Commemorative Air Force presents Wings Over Dallas WWII Airshow
The big highlight of this year's Wings Over Dallas WWII Airshow will be a 75th anniversary commemoration of the Doolittle Raid, featuring a flying re-enactment with eight B-25 bombers, pyrotechnics, sound effects, and narration. Texas native Dick Cole, who, at age 101, is the last surviving Doolittle Raider, will be on hand. The air show, taking place through Sunday at Dallas Executive Airport, will feature more than 80 World War II-era aircraft.

Arts & Letters Live: Dan Brown
Dan Brown, the international bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code and Inferno, will appear for the first time at DMA Arts & Letters Live. He'll discuss his new novel, Origin, writing chart-topping works, and making blockbuster movies, as well as his trademark interests in codes, science, religion, and art. Origin thrusts Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon into the dangerous intersection of humankind’s two most enduring questions and the earthshaking discovery that will answer them. The event will take place at McFarlin Auditorium on the SMU campus.

Cake in concert
Alternative rock band Cake has defined its own sound over the past 20 or so years, hitting it big with songs like "The Distance," "Never There," and "Sick of You." Unlike most bands that start hot and fade away, Cake has only gotten more popular over the years, with a 2011 album, Showroom of Compassion, being their first No. 1 album of their career. Cake will play at South Side Ballroom.

Saturday, October 7

Cottonwood Art Festival
The semi-annual Cottonwood Art Festival is a two-day event that brings music, art, food, and creativity to Cottonwood Park. The show will feature museum-quality exhibits from more than 240 artists around the country, live musical performances, an interactive children’s area, and delectable dining choices. The festival will take place through Sunday.

Laid Back Festival featuring Lynyrd Skynyrd
The Laid Back Festival, a traveling celebration of music and food, will make its way to the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Jimmie Vaughan & The Tilt-a-Whirl Band featuring Lou Ann Barton will headline the main, “Laid Back” stage, while The Texas Gentlemen, Bishop Gunn, and Jaimoe's Jasssz Band will keep the party going on the more intimate “Low Country” Plaza stage, named for the late co-founder Gregg Allman’s solo album, Low Country Blues.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in concert
Husband and wife Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are such luminaries in country music that it's easy to forget they're not as active as they used to be. McGraw's last album was 2015's Damn Country Music, while Hill's last major release was all the way back in 2005 with Fireflies. This is the first time Hill has toured since 2007, when she and McGraw teamed up for the Soul2Soul II Tour. They'll play at American Airlines Center.

Sunday, October 8

State Fair of Texas Concert Series: Wilson Phillips
As you make your way around Fair Park on Sunday, enjoying oodles of fried food, rides, animal races, butter sculptures, and more, you can also stop by to see a blast from the past, Wilson Phillips. The all-female trio was huge in the early '90s thanks to hits like "Hold On" and "Release Me," and have enjoyed a bit of a resurgence thanks to their appearance in the 2011 movie Bridesmaids.

Author Dan Brown will talk about his new book, Origin, at McFarlin Auditorium on October 6.

Photo by Dan Corter

Author Dan Brown will talk about his new book, Origin, at McFarlin Auditorium on October 6.

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Movie Review

Great acting and directing drive The Christophers to artistic heights

Photo by Claudette Barius

Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen in The Christophers.

Director Steven Soderbergh is one of those filmmakers who — aside from the Ocean’s series — never seems to make the same kind of movie twice. He is somehow able to adapt his abilities to all sorts of different stories, making each of them as compelling as any other. His latest masterclass is in the London-set film, The Christophers.

Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), who restores art for a living, is approached by brother and sister Sallie and Barnaby Sklar (Jessica Gunning and James Corden) with a scheme. They want her to become the new assistant for their aging father, Julian (Ian McKellen), a famous artist known for a series called “The Christophers,” in order to gain access to unfinished paintings from the series and complete them herself.

Lori accepts the deal despite having some uneasy feelings about Julian, with whom she had a bad interaction years ago. Julian is just as wary, both because he knows of his children’s interest in the unfinished works, and because he would prefer to be left in peace. Although the trepidation on both sides continues for the bulk of the story, a grudging respect arises between two artists who know skill when they see it.

Directed by Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon, who last collaborated on No Sudden Move, the film is astonishing in its ability to be compelling with such a small story. Much of the film is spent inside Julian’s multi-story home as Julian and Lori have low-level confrontations about a variety of things, including the meaning of his art, her abilities, the fate of the remaining “Christophers,” and more. Each conversation brings out more detail about their worldviews and their thoughts about their lot in life.

Much of the success of the film lies in the performances of McKellen and Coel. The 86-year-old McKellen has not lost his ability to astonish with the spoken word, and the monologues he delivers are engrossing even when they’re about mundane things. Coel, best known for the 2020 HBO show I May Destroy You, is a great foil for McKellen, never backing down from his challenges and giving her own unique takes on her lines.

While the film can be enjoyable for non-art lovers, those who appreciate the vagaries of the art world will have a lot to chew on. Soderbergh and Solomon debate a lot of aspects of art, including whether it’s possible to separate the art from the person making it, why some art is valued more than others, the ethics of forgery, and more. Because the film is about a fictional artist, it gives the filmmakers a bit more freedom in their criticisms.

Aside from McKellen and Coel, Gunning (Baby Reindeer) and Corden are the only other two people who get significant screen time in the film. Both of them are, let’s say, acquired tastes, and each gives an elevated performance that matches the energy of their respective characters. Tilly Botsford makes a nice impression in a small role as Julian’s masseuse.

Soderbergh’s last three films — Presence, Black Bag, and now The Christophers — have nothing in common other than the expert filmmaker helming all of them. When you can make a ghost story, a spy film, and a small film about artists equally interesting, you know you’re doing something right.

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The Christophers is now playing in theaters.

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