Weekend Event Planner

These are the 13 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

In a surprising twist, holiday-themed events do not dominate this weekend's roundup. There are still plenty to be found, but the five new holiday events are overshadowed by new non-holiday theater, magic, dance, a comedic tribute to a certain boy wizard, a comic actress getting a big honor, a visit from a big stand-up comedian, and more.

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, December 6

Dallas Theater Center presents Fetch Clay, Make Man
Loosely inspired by the real-life friendship between Muhammad Ali and Stepin Fetchit, DTC Playwright-in-Residence Will Power has crafted a daring script that brings these two iconic figures together to shape their legacies against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. Fetch Clay, Make Man is a powerful exploration of what it is to be a black man in America. The production will run in the Studio Theatre at Wyly Theatre through January 13.

Theatre Three presents Solstice: A New Holiday Adventure
Theatre Three will again capture the meaning of the holiday season by featuring the return of last year’s favorite mischievous Solstice characters, Stuart and Paulette. The couple’s adventures continue this winter through story and song and is fittingly set in NorthPark Center. This new holiday piece is definitely not your mother’s Christmas Carol, but it does feature the most lovable drug-addled grandparents Big D has to offer. The production will run through December 30.

Champions of Magic
The five world-class illusionists that make up the Champions Of Magic present daring grand illusions, stunning close-up magic, and incredible mind reading. Audiences will witness the impossible, including disappearances, levitation, teleportation, and a heart-stopping finale — all presented with lighting and special effects to rival the biggest theatrical spectacles. The show will run at the Music Hall at Fair Park through Sunday.

Friday, December 7

BMW Dallas Marathon
While the main event takes place on Sunday, the BMW Dallas Marathon is a weekend of events, starting with the Health and Fitness Expo at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday, there will be the two-mile walk, 5K, 10K, and a series of new family races, followed by the marathon on Sunday, which begins and ends in downtown Dallas at Dallas City Hall Plaza.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre presents Black on Black
Dallas Black Dance Theatre and DBDT: Encore! dancers will showcase their skills as choreographers, creating works performed by their fellow dancers. The performance, which will take place on both Friday and Saturday at Dallas Black Dance Theatre, concludes with a live DJ and DBDT dancers in an after-party finale.

Dallas Symphony Christmas Pops
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra's tradition returns with Christmas classics, sing-along carols, the Dallas Symphony Chorus, and the magnificence of the Meyerson Symphony Center decked out in its holiday finest. The concert, featuring soprano Katy Williams, will be conducted by Lawrence Loh. It will run through December 16.

Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience
Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience is a parody show that's perfect for muggles, witches and wizards of all ages. The production, playing at Texas Theatre through December 29, goes through the story of the boy-who lived, combining all seven books into 70 hilarious minutes. The cleverly curated show includes all the favorite characters, crazily inventive props, and even a live Quidditch match.

Martina McBride in concert
Martina McBride has been country music royalty for a long time, releasing her debut album in 1992 and scoring four No. 1 albums and countless hits over the years. Though she can call upon any of number of songs in her repertoire, her return to the Dallas area will be in support of her new Christmas album, It’s the Holiday Season. She'll play at the Majestic Theatre.

Dallas Repertoire Ballet presents The Nutcracker
Dallas Repertoire Ballet presents its annual production of the beloved family classic The Nutcracker. Join Clara and her Nutcracker Prince, along with a cast of over 130 talented dancers, featuring students from the Allen-based Academy of Dance Arts. The production will run at Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts through Saturday, with a special “sensory-friendly performance” at the Saturday show.

Saturday, December 8

Dallas Heritage Village presents Candlelight
Dallas Heritage Village will present its 47th annual Candlelight, where visitors can see how holiday traditions were celebrated in the late 1800s. The Village’s largest public fundraiser features carriage rides, holiday storytelling, Victorian carolers, musical entertainment on three stages, crafts, St. Nicholas, hand-weaving, blacksmithing, and many other festive activities. It will take place on both Saturday and Sunday.

Dallas VideoFest presents Ernie Kovacs Award: Amy Sedaris
Dallas VideoFest will honor actress and writer Amy Sedaris with the coveted Ernie Kovacs Award. Sedaris, a Second City alumna, is arguably best known for her role as Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central favorite Strangers with Candy. The Ernie Kovacs Award recognizes the career and talents of some of television’s greatest visionaries. The event will take place Alamo Drafthouse Richardson.

Brian Regan in concert
Setting a comedic standard of excellence that others continually try to follow, Brian Regan is a unique comedian who is relatable to generations of fans and revered by comedians as the best in the business. Known as a "clean" yet hilarious comedian, his comedy can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages. He'll perform at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Sunday, December 9

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Asian Textiles: Art and Trade Along the Silk Road" closing day
Drawn from the DMA’s collection, this exhibition, which comes to a close on Sunday, showcases fine examples of garments and ornamental hangings. The works on view come from India, Central Asia, China, and Japan, with some objects featuring colored ink paintings on textile backgrounds. The garments range from a Japanese fireman’s coat to an Indian sari and a Chinese dragon robe.

Champions of Magic will perform at the Music Hall at Fair Park through December 9.

Champions Of Magic/Facebook

Champions of Magic will perform at the Music Hall at Fair Park through December 9.

event-planner

Movie Review

New film I Want Your Sex somehow makes kinky activity boring

Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde in I Want Your Sex.

Writer/director Gregg Araki has been making provocative movies for nearly 40 years, releasing his debut - Three Bewildered People in the Night - in 1987. Most of them have had plotlines that revolved around sex in one way or another, and for his latest - his first film in 12 years - he’s putting it right there in the title, I Want Your Sex.

Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) is an aimless twenty-something who can’t even afford the rent for his apartment with best friend, Apple (Chase Sui Wonders). Thankfully, he finds a job at the gallery of artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), who is open with her sexuality both in her artwork and in her day-to-day life. That soon includes Elliot, whom she convinces to enter into a dominant-submissive relationship with her, with sessions taking place both at work and her home.

Elliot, who’s in a going-nowhere coupling with Minerva (Charli XCX), is more than willing to participate, both because it lets him feel something he doesn’t get normally and because Erika offers a perspective on sex that’s much different from people of his generation. But as he gets in deeper with her, he starts to lose a sense of himself, going down a path in which he finds himself talking to police detectives Zem (Johnny Knoxville) and Zola (Margaret Cho).

Araki does his level best to make I Want Your Sex into a broad comedy, and early on it seems as if he might succeed. The deadpan way that sexual objects appear in the film (a penis-shaped rug in Elliot and Apple’s apartment, a vagina artwork with chewed gum as the medium) make for amusing sight gags. He also makes Elliot the bewildered other in multiple twosomes, with Minerva being the funniest, as she’s way more interested in studying than his ham-fisted attempts at sex.

It’s clear that Araki wants the film to be a commentary on the generational differences about sex, but he fumbles his own idea. It starts with an on-the-nose conversation between Erika and Elliot, and continues with the various dalliances, which seem to be more about making Elliot look and feel ridiculous than giving true insight. Their encounters certainly open his mind about what sex can be, but their one-note nature makes them repetitive and frankly boring, odd considering the acts in which the two engage.

The uninspired storytelling makes the 90-minute film drag way more than it should. Araki includes a few other characters to try to vary the tone of the film, including gallery workers Zap (Mason Gooding) and Vikktor (Daveed Diggs), but their early promise yields little results. The framing device of Elliot’s interview with the detectives never works, especially because Araki completely neuters the personalities of Cho and Knoxville for seemingly no good reason.

The cast as a whole goes to waste. Hoffman is showing the promise of his late father (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and even though he’s appealing here, the material pulls him down. Wilde just made her own provocative movie about sex (The Invite), and this one pales in comparison despite her heightened performance. Wonders, Charli XCX, and Gooding are all young stars who deserve to be showcased much better than they are in this film.

A film called I Want Your Sex is announcing itself as daring and alluring, but this film contains almost none of those qualities. Instead, it’s a slog that only occasionally has something interesting to show or say, mostly relying on the power of its actors to hold viewers’ attention - and failing at even that.

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I Want Your Sex is now playing in select theaters.