Weekend Event Planner

These are the 8 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

This weekend will bring a little bit of almost every conceivable entertainment option to the Dallas area. Among your choices will be a new local theater production, a military-themed film festival, two big-name comedians, big band jazz performed by an orchestra, a music and beer festival, a live version of a hugely popular podcast, and the final days of a major art exhibit.

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, November 9

Undermain Theatre presents John
In John, it's the week after Thanksgiving in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where a young couple are welcomed to an eerie bed and breakfast by an eccentric inn keeper. The play is a haunting and haunted meditation by Annie Baker, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Flick. The production will run at Undermain Theatre through December 3.

Sons of the Flag presents Stars & Stripes Film Festival
Timed to coincide with Veterans Day weekend, the Stars & Stripes Film Festival will feature five military-themed and critically acclaimed films that highlight the bravery of men and women in uniform. Among the screenings will be 13 Hours, Green Berets, The Hunt for Red October, The Patriot, and The Dirty Dozen. All screenings, most of which are free, will take place at Highland Park Village Theatre.

Chris Rock: Total Blackout
Despite having been in the business for 30 years, Chris Rock is still one of the strongest comedic voices working today. The Grammy and Emmy Award-winning comedian is revered by fans and fellow comics alike for his insightful and daring sense of humor. Rock will bring his all-new Total Blackout tour, his first in over nine years, to the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory for one night only.

Friday, November 10

Dallas Symphony Orchestra Pops Series: Harlem Renaissance
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will present Harlem Renaissance. The Cotton Club, Harlem’s legendary jazz nightclub, comes alive again with an evening of great jazz, soulful tapping, and showmanship. The concert, being performed three times at the Meyerson Symphony Center through Sunday, will feature trumpeter/singer Byron Stripling, singer Miche Braden, tap dancer Red Louis Levy, and drummer Robert Breithaupt.

Saturday, November 11

Index Fest
Formerly known as Untapped Festival, Index Fest will celebrate beer, music, food, and arts at Fair Park. The same focus on craft beer and music will remain, but Index Fest now tries to incorporate high-quality food and arts. Performers will include Big Boi, J Roddy Walston & The Business, Cherub, Langhorne Slim & The Law, Tone Loc, and Michael Lee and the Wartime Limousine.

Trevor Noah in concert
Like other late night talk show hosts, Trevor Noah has made hay since Donald Trump was elected president. The Daily Show's inherent political bent has allowed him to go even further than other hosts, making his takeover for Jon Stewart all the more natural. Noah will take a break from his duties on Comedy Central to get back to his roots as a stand-up comic at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory.

My Favorite Murder Live
Diving deep into the details of murders committed by infamous serial killers wouldn't normally be entertaining, but in the hands of Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, it's that and much more. The two have turned their podcast, My Favorite Murder, into one of the most popular on the Internet thanks to their unique ability to talk about horrific things in a light yet respectful way. They'll record three live shows — two on Saturday and one on Sunday — at Majestic Theatre.

Sunday, November 12

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Shaken, Stirred, Styled: The Art of the Cocktail" closing day
Sunday is the final day to take in this cocktail-centric exhibit. Featuring nearly 50 works predominantly from the DMA’s extensive design holdings, "Shaken, Stirred, Styled: The Art of the Cocktail" explores the culture of cocktails and the wares in which they were prepared and served. The exhibition follows the development of the modern cocktail from the late 19th century to the present day, tracing the stylistic reflections of the rituals of the cocktail’s concoction, presentation, and consumption through metalware, glassware, and ceramics.

Trevor Noah will perform at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory on November 11.

Photo courtesy of Viacom

Trevor Noah will perform at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory on November 11.

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Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films likeM3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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