Weekend Event Planner

These are the 10 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

The theme of the weekend in and around Dallas is entertainment with a purpose. Different events will feature film, theater, and forums designed to spur conversation beyond the events themselves. You can also take in circus combined with classical music, a guitar legend, a hilarious basketball team, a great rock group, and two stellar art exhibits.

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 25

Denton Black Film Festival
The Denton Black Film Festival will present a lineup of nearly 50 films at its 2018 edition, offering a platform that showcases filmmakers and films that tell diverse, dynamic stories. While the screenings take place at Campus Theatre through Sunday, the festival will also include a poetry slam, panels and workshops, music, comedy, and more.

Dallas Summer Musicals presents The Color Purple
The Color Purple is the 2016 Tony Award winner for Best Musical Revival, a re-imagining of an epic story about a young woman’s journey to love and triumph in the American South. This joyous American classic conquered Broadway with a soul-raising score of jazz, gospel, ragtime and blues, giving an exhilarating new spirit to the Pulitzer Prize-winning story. The musical, which stars McKinney native Adrianna Hicks, will run at the Music Hall at Fair Park through February 4.

Friday, January 26

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Cirque de la Symphonie: Cirque Goes to the Cinema
Acrobats literally will drop into the Meyerson Symphony Center as conductor Ruth Reinhardt and the Dallas Symphony are joined by Cirque de la Symphonie. Aerialists, contortionists, strongmen, and jugglers will perform to above and around the orchestra as they play. There will be three performances through Sunday.

Joe Satriani in concert
Joe Satriani is considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time, mentoring other guitar greats like Steve Vai, Andy Timmons, and more. He's also been part of the supergroup Chickenfoot, which included ex-Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. He'll play at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving in support of his new album, What Happens Next.

Cara Mía Theatre Co. & Human Rights Initiative present Women Speak, Men Listen
Driven by the #metoo and #timesup social media movements in response to accusations and evidence citing misconduct from powerful men across many industries, Cara Mía Theatre Co. and Human Rights Initiative are presenting a platform to hear and honor women’s voices. There will be two forums over the weekend — Friday at Pan African Connections and Saturday at Latino Cultural Center.

WaterTower Theatre presents Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue
Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Quiara Alegría Hudes takes a poignant look at the way war permeates young men’s lives in a play spanning three generations of the same Puerto Rican-American family. Different wars and different tales are strung together as the mother of a wounded soldier seeks to reconcile the disparate parts and heal emotional wounds. The play will run at WaterTower Theatre in Addison through February 18.

Saturday, January 27

Nasher Sculpture Center presents "First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone" opening day
"First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone" is the first museum exhibition to present ancient handaxes and figure stones as works of art. "First Sculpture" will present these objects as evidence of the earliest forms of artistic intention, highlighting the aesthetic qualities of each stone and providing crucial historical and scientific information to give the viewer a deeper understanding of human history. The exhibit will be on display through April 29.

American Airlines Center presents The Original Harlem Globetrotters
The Original Harlem Globetrotters will bring their action-packed tour to American Airlines Center for two games. The globetrotting team is known for their ball handling wizardry, basketball artistry, and one-of-a-kind family entertainment. After each game, Globetrotter stars will stay for an autograph, photograph, and high-five session for fans.

The Killers in concert
For almost the past 20 years, it seems like The Killers were just on the cusp of becoming the biggest band in the world. They scored with hits like "Mr. Brightside," "When You Were Young," and "Human," but they always stopped just short of crossover success. In fact, it wasn't until their latest album, 2017's Wonderful Wonderful, that they had a No. 1 album. They'll play at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory with opening act Amanda Brown.

Sunday, January 28

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Truth: 24 Frames Per Second" closing day
Sunday will be your final chance to see the first major exhibition in the Dallas Museum of Art’s history dedicated to time-based media. “Truth: 24 Frames Per Second” brings together 24 pioneers of film and video and over six decades of work focused on pressing contemporary themes, such as race relations, political unrest, sexual identity and the media, to explore the nature of truth and reality in contemporary life. As a bonus, admission to the exhibit is now free.

The Harlem Globetrotters will play two games at American Airlines Center on January 27.

Photo courtesy of Harlem Globetrotters

The Harlem Globetrotters will play two games at American Airlines Center on January 27.

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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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