Weekend Event Planner

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

There's a decent amount of stuff happening in and around Dallas this weekend, but a jam-packed festival at JerryWorld overshadows them all. If that's not your speed, you can take in some professional golf, participate in a hedonistic festival, attend a fundraising theatrical production, witness two up-and-coming singers, or enjoy the final visit of a legend.

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, May 9

PGA Tour presents AT&T Byron Nelson
With the annual AT&T Byron Nelson golf tournament now falling just one week before the PGA Championship, it takes on extra importance as golfers get ready to compete for another major championship. The 2019 event, taking place through Sunday at Trinity Forest Golf Club, will feature Dallas' own Jordan Spieth, defending champion Aaron Wise, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Tony Romo, and many more.

GiANT Entertainment presents City Dionysia
City Dionysia is a fancy-dress outdoor arts and music festival featuring dance, music, performance art, vendors, performers, and arts and crafts in honor of the birth of Theatre and its patron god, Dionysus. Taking place at Annette Strauss Square through Saturday, it promises guests can have a decadent, Bacchanalian experience through various activities, including mask making, choral chanting, movement, and more.

Toyota Music Factory presents Texas Lottery Live Concert Series: Shooter Jennings and Dale Watson
Every Thursday, the Toyota Music Factory in Irving presents the Texas Lottery Live Concert Series, featuring a variety of local and national bands performing outdoors in the Texas Lottery Plaza. This week's concert will feature the powerhouse duo of Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon, and Dale Watson, an Austin-based alt-country artist. The series will continue weekly through May 30.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Beethoven Symphony No. 4
As the Dallas Symphony Orchestra winds down its 2018-2019 season, they'll present this concert featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, Schumann's Cello Concerto, and Elgar's Sursum Corda and In the South. The concert, which includes cellist Daniel Muller-Schott under the direction of Karina Canellakis, will play through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

The Killers in concert
After a 14-year career that had included hit songs like "Mr. Brightside" and "When You Were Young," The Killers finally scored their first No. 1 album with their latest release, 2017's Wonderful Wonderful. Prior to their performance at the inaugural KAABOO Texas at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Friday, The Killers will play at The Bomb Factory in Dallas on Thursday.

Friday, May 10

KAABOO Texas
Who knows why this festival, coming to Dallas-Fort Worth for the first time, is called KAABOO, but it doesn't really matter since it's packed so full of entertainment of all sorts. It has top notch music from The Killers, Sting, Lionel Richie, Lauryn Hill, Little Big Town, Kid Rock, Alanis Morissette, and many more; comedy from Brad Garrett, Demetri Martin, Dennis Miller, Whitney Cummings, Nate Bargatze, and more; and food from some top culinary talent, like Kent Rathbun. KAABOO will go on through Sunday.

Uptown Players presents Broadway Our Way
The Uptown Players divas return for another entertaining weekend of Broadway music with plenty of twists, laughs, and surprises. The fundraising production, taking place through Sunday at Moody Performance Hall, features many favorite actors from past Uptown Players seasons performing selections from Broadway shows, both past and present, all done with an Uptown Players twist.

Saturday, May 11

Nasher Sculpture Center presents "Sheila Hicks" Opening Day
Nasher Sculpture Center presents "Sheila Hicks," an eponymous exhibition of new and recent work by the American-born, Paris-based artist, Sheila Hicks. Along with a display of recent fiber sculptures, Hicks, who has been working almost exclusively with fiber and textiles throughout her seven decades-long career, will create a new, site-specific installation in the garden, a sweeping gesture spanning portions of the outdoor space. The exhibition will be on display through August 18.

Kali Uchis and Jorja Smith in concert
Kali Uchis and Jorja Smith are two of the most interesting young female singers, with both having auspicious debuts in 2018. The Colombian-American Uchis teamed up with Tyler, the Creator for a couple of hit songs, including "After the Storm" on Uchis' album, Isolation. Rising English star Smith turned heads with her first album, Lost & Found. The two will co-headline this concert at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory.

Sunday, May 12

Anita Baker in concert (UPDATE: Due to expected severe weather in Houston, Baker has postponed her concert there and this concert in Grand Prairie. The new date is Friday, June 28.)
In the 1980s and '90s, R&B/soul singer Anita Baker was as big as almost anyone else out there, with a series of top 10 albums, including 1988's No. 1 Giving You the Best That I Got, and a slew of hit songs like "Sweet Love," "Giving You the Best That I Got," and "Just Because." The 61-year-old singer has decided to put her touring days behind her, playing at The Theatre at Grand Prairie as part of her Farewell Concert Series.

The Killers will not only headline KAABOO Texas, taking place May 10-12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, but they'll also play at The Bomb Factory on May 9.

Photo courtesy of The Killers

The Killers will not only headline KAABOO Texas, taking place May 10-12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, but they'll also play at The Bomb Factory on May 9.

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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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