Weekend Event Planner

These are the 9 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Appropriately enough, a running theme through this weekend's events in Dallas is politics. With Inauguration Day on Friday, over half of the events on the slate below have an implicit or explicit political bent, with those expressions coming through dance, theater, comedy, and an actual march.

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, January 19

Danielle Georgiou Dance Group presents War Flower
With this new offering, Danielle Georgiou Dance Group investigates the establishment of culture itself. War Flower examines the cyclic and savage laws of time, nature, and ritual. In addition to original text by Danielle Georgiou, the show references political and philosophical texts, as well as political and ritual practices in animal ecosystems. War Flower is presented six times through January 28 at Bath House Cultural Center.

Friday, January 20

WaterTower Theatre presents Silent Sky
WaterTower Theatre presents the regional premiere of Silent Sky, a new play by Lauren Gunderson. The play blends humor and romance in a riveting exploration of the life and career of celebrated astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt, who fearlessly asserted herself in the male-driven, turn-of-the-century world of science and academia. The play runs through February 12.

Chippendales 2017: Best. Night. Ever. Tour
Some things may come and go, but buff male dancers stripping down to their g-strings for their admirers is something that's almost guaranteed to remain popular. The dancers of the Chippendales Touring Show provide a whirlwind of sexy goodness at House of Blues Dallas, with a lot of pants dropping and handclapping.

Saturday, January 21

2017 Texas Rangers Fan Fest
Spring training is only a month away, so it's time to get excited about the Texas Rangers again. The 2017 Texas Rangers Fan Fest features autograph sessions with current Rangers players and coaches; interactive Q&A sessions; on-field events; pitching, hitting, and fielding clinics; and more. If that's not enough, there's also the Rangers Awards Dinner on Friday night at Gilley's Dallas.

Dallas Women's March
On Saturday, millions are gathering in Washington, D.C., for the Women's March on Washington. In solidarity with that march, thousands more are expected to gather at Dallas City Hall for a so-called "Sister March." The Women’s March is designed to send a message to the world and to the new administration on its first day in office that women's rights are human rights. There is also a planned march in Denton.

USA Film Festival presents 2017 KidFilm Festival
KidFilm, presented by USA Film Festival, is the oldest and largest-attended children’s film festival in the United States, featuring an entertaining, educational, and diverse line-up of new and classic films for both children and adults. The free event, taking place at Angelika Film Center Dallas on both Saturday and Sunday, also features tributes to several prominent children's book authors.

Iliza Shlesinger: The Confirmed Kills Tour
Dallas native Iliza Shlesinger is the only female and the youngest comedian to hold the title of NBC’s Last Comic Standing. In addition to her stand-up work, her new TBS series, Separation Anxiety, premiered in March of 2016. If for some reason you can't get into this concert at Majestic Theatre, you might just see her earlier in the day at the Women's March, which she has pledged to join.

Sunday, January 22

The Dallas Opera presents Michael Fabiano
Michael Fabiano is considered one of the greatest tenors in the world today. In 2014 he was the first singer ever to be awarded the prestigious Beverly Sills Artist Award and the Richard Tucker Award in the same year. This exclusive recital, produced by the Dallas Opera, takes place at Dallas City Performance Hall.

Bill Maher in concert
For more than 20 years, Bill Maher has set the boundaries of where funny, political talk can go on American television — first on Politically Incorrect, then, for the last 13 years, on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. With this concert at the Music Hall at Fair Park taking place just after Inauguration Day, you can expect Maher to have a lot to say about the current state of politics.

Bill Maher performs at the Music Hall at Fair Park on January 22.

Photo courtesy of Majestic Theatre

Bill Maher performs at the Music Hall at Fair Park on January 22.

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Movie Review

White supremacy is the villain in real-life thriller The Order

Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment

Jude Law in The Order.

White supremacy has long been a stand-in for evil in movies, with the correlation easy to make given the strong ties to Nazi Germany. Whether a film puts forth white supremacists as its main characters or supporting ones, their usefulness in a story is as people who are easy to hate and that deserve to be held to some sort of justice.

While that idea holds true in the new film, The Order, the nature of the group featured is somewhat muddled. The central figure is FBI agent Terry Husk (Jude Law), who essentially sets up a one-man task force in the Pacific Northwest to track a group known as The Order. Husk is convinced that the group, which is an offshoot of a larger white supremacist organization, is behind a series of bank robberies to fund anti-government schemes.

Husk recruits local police officer Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan) to help follow the group, which is led by Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult). The two, joined occasionally by FBI agent Joanne Carney (Jurnee Smollett), do their best to keep up with The Order’s increasingly bold crimes, which morphs from “just” bank robbery to murder.

Directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Zach Baylin, the film is at its best when it delves into the personalities of its characters. Husk’s monomaniacal nature is great for his job, but not so much for his family life. Bowen has a solid bond with his wife and kids, but his greenness in law enforcement leads to some questionable decision-making. Mathews, like many cult leaders, is a charismatic person with very misguided tendencies.

The filmmakers set up the plot (which is based on a real-life story) well, but the details get a little loose as the film goes along. While The Order has a hatred of Jews, a plot against radio personality Alan Berg (Marc Maron) doesn’t make much sense in the context of the film. The geography of the group’s operations is also confusing; they’re located in Washington, but they range out as far as Colorado and California to commit their crimes.

Still, the inherent appeal of good-vs-evil keeps the plot mechanics going, and the side stories of the main characters give them a depth that makes up for other faults. The filmmakers also make sure to demonstrate how the scourge of white supremacy has never been limited to one particular era, and continues to infect American society to this day.

Law commits fully to the lead role, giving a performance with a convincing American accent that is far from the suave British parts which have dominated his filmography. Hoult proves equally believable, giving his character a nuance that somehow makes him more detestable. Sheridan adds another interesting role to a career that would be enviable for any other young actor.

While The Order doesn’t rise to the level of an awards contender, its story is still relatively compelling with antagonists that, unfortunately, never go out of style. A great cast playing characters with engaging lives keeps the film watchable even when it goes into some odd detours.

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The Order is now playing in theaters.

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