Weekend Event Planner

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

The slate of events in and around Dallas this weekend are literally and figuratively all over the map. You can enjoy movies, music, and more in Denton; celebrate the Earth at Fair Park; laugh your head off in Arlington; or check out art of all types at galleries throughout Dallas. But first, you might want to taste some of the best food Dallas has to offer at our own special event.

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, April 20

2017 Thin Line Festival
Thin Line is a film, music, and photography festival held at multiple venues in and around Denton, including Campus Theatre, Dan's Silverleaf, Rubber Gloves Studio, and UNT on the Square. The festival's program includes high-quality documentary films, world-class music, and a diverse selection of photography. The festival continues through Sunday.

CultureMap Tastemaker Awards
The CultureMap Tastemaker Awards are an annual celebration of talent in Dallas-Fort Worth's restaurant and bar community, as selected by their peers. Our mission is to shine a spotlight on the people making the city's restaurant scene special and honor their innovation, energy, and creativity. The swanky tasting event and awards ceremony, emceed by Tim Love, takes place at Sixty Five Hundred, where we celebrate the nominees and unveil the winners.

Friday, April 21

Earth Day Texas 2017
Earth Day Texas is a three-day event at Fair Park that features numerous outdoor experiences, including live music, sustainable beer and food pavilions, electric bike test tracks, and family activities. New this year is EarthxFilm, a concurrent film festival showcasing films and emerging media that explore science, conservation, climate change, and the environment. Both events will take place through Sunday.

USA Film Festival presents A Very Sordid Wedding
In A Very Sordid Wedding, it's 2015, 17 years after family matriarch Peggy tripped over G.W.’s wooden legs in Sordid Lives, and life has moved into the present for the residents of Winters, Texas. In the wake of the Supreme Court decision in favor of marriage equality, the Sordid saga continues. There are seven screenings of the film at Texas Theatre through April 30, with filmmakers in attendance at all screenings.

Dallas Opera presents Norma
The latest production from Dallas Opera is set during the Roman occupation of Gaul in 50 B.C., where a passionate love triangle in the midst of a deepening culture clash leads to dangerous consequences. Amid the turmoil of the occupation and impending revolution, Norma is driven to the brink of insanity, convinced of her betrayal and fearing disgrace for her fatherless children. The opera plays five times through May 7 at Winspear Opera House.

Improv Arlington presents Jay Pharoah
During his tenure on Saturday Night Live, Jay Pharoah proved himself to be one of the show's most talented and popular cast members, mostly thanks to his uncanny impressions of Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Stephen A. Smith, Kanye West, and Chris Tucker. He was unceremoniously fired from the show prior to this season, but their loss is our gain as he performs four times at Improv Arlington on Friday and Saturday.

Saturday, April 22

2017 Dallas Art Dealers Association Spring Gallery Walk
Dallas Art Dealers Association presents its annual Spring Gallery Walk, an event designed for everyone from the art novice to the aficionado. Participants can enjoy a full spectrum of gallery openings, special exhibitions, and art talks at over 30 art venues, including DADA members representing art dealer galleries and nonprofit art organization spaces.

Dallas Arts District presents Changing Perspectives Block Party
The Dallas Arts District closes down Flora Street from Routh to Crockett for a block party featuring Dallas' own Zhora and special guests Bandaloop: Vertical Dance Company. The event includes food trucks, a beer garden, an art fair, live mural painting, dance improv, and more. Bandaloop performs on the east side of the Hall Arts building at 3 pm, 5 pm, and 6 pm.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in concert with Joe Walsh
Tom Petty has been putting out memorable music for over 40 years, with a slew of hits that compare favorably to any classic musician. Petty and his longtime band, the Heartbreakers, come to American Airlines Center as part of their 40th anniversary tour. They are joined by another classic musician, special guest Joe Walsh of the Eagles.

Sunday, April 23

Arts & Letters Live: Chelsea Clinton
Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton comes to Dallas to share insights from her book, It's Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going! The book is designed to inspire and empower readers of all ages to do their part to make the world a better place, as it addresses challenging issues prevalent in the modern world, including poverty, global warming, obesity, gender inequality, and cancer. The event takes place at the Dallas Museum of Art.

The CultureMap Tastemaker Awards take place at Sixty Five Hundred on April 20.

Tastemaker Awards Dallas-Fort Worth 2016

Photo by WJNPHOTO

The CultureMap Tastemaker Awards take place at Sixty Five Hundred on April 20.

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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