Weekend Event Planner

A Christmas Story and Usher top best weekend events in Dallas

As will be the case throughout pretty much all of December, holiday-themed events once again dominate the entertainment landscape around Dallas-Fort Worth. But there are a couple of non-holiday happenings going on, including the return of a hip hop master and special screenings of one of the best trilogies of all time

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, December 4

Dallas Summer Musicals presents A Christmas Story, The Musical
A Christmas Story, which tanked in its initial movie release, is an unlikely success story. But home video and years of airing on TBS have made it a holiday classic, and now fans have a new way to enjoy the story through this stage musical. You can see Ralphie pine for a BB gun and almost shoot his eye out through song at Music Hall at Fair Park until December 14.

Usher in concert with August Alsina
Despite the presence of many high-powered competitors, Usher has remained at or near the top of the hip hop/R&B charts for going on 20 years. The Dallas-born singer is on the verge of releasing his eighth album, UR, in 2015, so attendees of this concert at American Airlines Center can expect a good mixture of the new and the old. Usher is joined by opening act August Alsina.

Friday, December 5

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is another story that has become a holiday classic thanks to repeated showings of the Rankin/Bass TV special. This stage musical attempts to replicate the charm of the original, using puppets and some of the same songs to give a nostalgic feel to things. It plays at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth through Sunday before moving to the Majestic Theatre in Dallas next week.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents DSO Pops Christmas
It's one thing to sing along to your favorite Christmas songs on the radio and quite another to do so when backed up by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and a choir. That is the case for the next three weekends at Meyerson Symphony Center when the DSO Pops plays a variety of holiday favorites and Christmas classics. The show runs through December 21.

Texas Ballet Theater presents The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is one of those holiday shows that will never go out of style, as it has almost the perfect appeal to both children and adults. Texas Ballet Theater present its annual rendition, taking the audience through the enchanted Land of Sweets with Clara and her Nutcracker Prince. It plays at Winspear Opera House through Sunday before moving to Bass Performance Hall next week.

Saturday, December 6

2014 Dallas Children's Health Holiday Parade
It's a been a long wait for the return of this annual holiday parade, as last year's edition was canceled due to a freak ice storm. There's zero chance of that happening this year, so guests can line Commerce Street and other roads in downtown Dallas to enjoy the plethora of floats, balloons, marching bands and more for the trek that culminates at Dallas City Hall.

Alamo Drafthouse presents Back to the Future Trilogy Feast
James Wallace, the head local programmer for Alamo Drafthouse, is a self-professed Back to the Future fanatic, so you know that this event showing the BTTF films back-to-back-to-back is worth the price of admission. Each movie has a full themed menu to make the experience even more fun. Great Scott, indeed.

Celebrate the Holidays at Klyde Warren Park / Reliant Lights Your Holidays
These two events in the Dallas Arts District are technically separate, but they are tied together in a unique way. The goings-on at Klyde Warren Park feature a variety of holiday activities, including music, live reindeer, photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, and a tree lighting. But right after they light the tree, Santa and Mrs. Claus lead visitors over to Sammons Park for Reliants Lights Your Holidays, which has performances by Jack Ingram and Los Lobos, fireworks, a snow hill and more.

Sunday, December 7

CultureMap Holiday Pop Up Shop
Only the ultra-prepared have already finished their holiday shopping, so we're presenting a chance to peruse the offerings of a slew of local retailers all in one convenient spot. Among the stores showcasing their wares at Sixty Five Hundred are Dirt, Gypsy Wagon, Life of Riley, Mizzen + Main, Scardello Artisan Cheese and Trousseau of Dallas.

Neighborhood in the Bishop Arts District is one of a slew of local shops selling wares at the first CultureMap Holiday Pop Up Shop on December 7.

Photo courtesy of Neighborhood

Neighborhood in the Bishop Arts District is one of a slew of local shops selling wares at the first CultureMap Holiday Pop Up Shop on December 7.

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Movie Review

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma gives horror a surreal twist

Photo courtesy of MUBI

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

The horror genre really ramped up in the 1970s and ‘80s, bringing with it a new subgenre - the slasher - that gave audiences new visuals of gore, but also a reliance on sexism and homophobia that would come to define the era. The new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma wrestles with that legacy in ways that are funny, thought-provoking, and downright strange.

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is a queer filmmaker who has been hired to reboot the moldy IP that is the Camp Miasma franchise, one that was fresh in the 1970s but which numerous shlocky sequels have rendered irrelevant. In an attempt to get to know the property better, Kris has scored a meeting with the reclusive Billy (Gillian Anderson), the star of the original film who has shunned the public eye for decades.

Turns out that Billy lives deep in the woods at Camp Rivoli, which served as the location for the first film. As Kris tries to get to know Billy and convince her to be a part of the new film, she starts to fall under Billy’s spell and the lore of the franchise as a whole. That includes believing that the movie’s villain, Little Death - a transgender person who has an air conditioning vent as a head/mask - may not just be a character created for the movies.

Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), the film at first feels like it’s going to go the straight-up comedy route, with comic explosions of blood, a strange fascination with candy brands, and a production design that does nothing to hide that the two main actors are on a movie set with painted backdrops. This is backed up by Kris’ phone conversations with her girlfriend, Mari (Jasmine Savoy Brown) and her agent (Sarah Sherman), as well as numerous other details.

But the film starts to go down the surreal route the longer Kris stays at the camp with Billy, especially when they sit down to watch the original Camp Miasma. An extended sequence shows a good amount of that film-within-the-film, demonstrating why Kris and Billy have a love/hate relationship with the property. For Kris, though, the lines between the film and the real world start to blur, and Schoenbrun uses a variety of out-there elements to drive the point home.

The final act of the film can barely be described as Kris goes deeper down the rabbit hole, with Schoenbrun using her film to comment on the horror genre as a whole, its treatment of women and LGBT people, the movie industry, and more. All the while the “camp” of Camp Miasma maintains a presence, with candy wrappers showing up everywhere and the tongue-in-cheek references to Little Death (the French term La petite mort, which means “the little death,” is a euphemism for orgasm).

Einbinder, an Emmy winner for Hacks, is the perfect person to inhabit her role. Her established real-life and fictional personas color everything she does in the film, with her enthusiasm and curiosity shining through. Anderson leans heavily into another reference - Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard - to create a character that is as mysterious as she is alluring. Supporting actors like Brown, Sherman, Patrick Fischler, Dylan Baker, and Eva Victor keep the movie at the right pitch all the way through.

While other films have made fun of horror movie tropes before, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma finds a wholly unique way of doing so. It’s a funny and daring trip into the psyches of two women who may be victims of their own obsessions, and of the movies that made them that way.

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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now playing in select theaters

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