Weekend Event Planner

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

This is the rare weekend when the Dallas area will have very few visitors from out of town. That's a good thing for those who like to live local, as almost all of the events featured in this week's roundup focus on local organizations. They include a movie festival, classical music, three theater productions, a waterpark birthday, and a Japanese holiday celebration.

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, January 10

North Texas Film Festivals presents Best of Fests
Film festivals based in Dallas, Fort Worth, and around the area Texas have joined forces for the first time to present a Best of Fests film festival. Twenty-two different film festivals will present films that either were popular with their audiences or represent their programming esthetic. The films will be screened at venues across Dallas that include Alamo Drafthouse Cedars, Cinépolis Luxury Cinemas, Studio Movie Grill Northwest Highway, and the Texas Theatre. Screenings will take place through Sunday.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Mahler's The Song of the Earth
Leonard Bernstein declared the monumental “Song of the Earth” to be Gustav Mahler’s greatest symphony. This concert at Meyerson Symphony Center, taking place three times through Sunday, begins will also feature Mozart’s lavish “Prague Symphony.” The concert will feature mezzo-soprano, Kelly O’Connor, and tenor, Russel Thomas, under the direction of Donald Runnicles.

Friday, January 11

Eisemann Center presents Herman's Hermits
At the age of 15, Peter Noone achieved international fame as lead singer of the legendary '60s pop band Herman’s Hermits. His classic hits included “I’m Into Something Good,” “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter,” “I’m Henry VIII, I Am,” “Silhouettes,” and many more. Noone and the Hermits will play at Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson.

Cry Havoc Theater presents From the Table: A Celebration of Food
When a community gathers together, whether for celebration or for mourning, one constant remains: food. Humanity’s relationship with food is one of necessity – but an individual’s relationship with food is one of history. The teens of Cry Havoc will set the table for a celebratory exploration of how our lives are defined by the food we consume and the stories tied to it. Cry Havoc Theater Company is partnering with Cafe Momentum to create a communal food experience for the audience. The production will run at South Dallas Cultural Center through January 19, with a special abbreviated performance at Cafe Momentum on Sunday.

Imprint Theatreworks presents In the Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play)
In the Next Room (Or The Vibrator Play) is a comedy about intimacy, awakening, and most importantly ... equality. The play is set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used “devices” to treat women for imagined hysteria. This entertaining work of self-discovery shows that human connection is not simply a means to an end, but a vital part of life itself. The production will run at Bath House Cultural Center through January 26.

Shakespeare Dallas presents Hamlet
For its inaugural indoor performance, Shakespeare Dallas will perform Hamlet, perhaps William Shakespeare's most well-known drama. The Winter Season, taking place at Moody Performance Hall, is designed with a smaller cast in mind, making the performances more intimate for audiences. The production will run through January 20.

Saturday, January 12

Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark 1st Birthday Party
Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark has not only made year-round waterpark fun available to the masses, but it almost instantly became the best waterpark experience anywhere in Dallas-Fort Worth. Activities at Epic Waters' 1st Birthday Party will include the introduction of the new Epic Waters rubber duck mascot at a mascot party, birthday cake for guests, dance contests, and hourly raffles for Epic Waters passes, parties, and swag.

Sunday, January 13

Japan-America Society of Dallas/Fort Worth presents Mochitsuki New Year’s Celebration
Celebrate the new year with Japanese music, food, and fun at Fujitsu Network Communications in Richardson. Guests can try their hand at traditional Japanese games and calligraphy, see a traditional mochitsuki (rice pounding) demonstration, and sample fresh mochi. The event will feature performances by Dallas Kiyari Daiko, Dr. Capital, and the Cherry Blossoms Choir.

Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark will celebrate their first birthday with a special celebration on January 12.

Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark in Grand Prairie

Photo courtesy of Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark

Epic Waters Indoor Waterpark will celebrate their first birthday with a special celebration on January 12.

event-planner

Movie Review

Daniel Craig searches for elusive new bond in audacious film Queer

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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