The Perot Museum of Nature and Science hasn't exactly been hurting for visitors since it opened in December 2012. But that's all child's play compared to what awaits the hottest museum in town once school lets out. Summer is coming, and that means more hours of entertainment for parents to fill.
For Memorial Day weekend, the museum will stay open until 9 pm, Friday through Monday, giving you an extra few hours to rub shoulders with dinosaurs, experience an earthquake, conduct a science experiment, or participate in one of the other myriad hands-on activities sprinkled throughout the five-story building.
If you're a member, the deal's even better, as early admission hours (normally only available on Saturdays and Sundays) will be offered on Memorial Day as well. Starting Tuesday, May 28, the museum will switch to extended hours for the rest of the summer, staying open an extra hour every day through August 25.
If that's not enough, the museum will also unveil a new attraction. On May 25, Waking the T. Rex 3D: The Story of SUE, a science-adventure film that chronicles the largest, most complete T. Rex ever found, takes over for Meerkats 3D in the Hoglund Foundation Theater. The 23-minute film is no mere documentary, as it uses animation to imagine how the dinosaur might have looked and acted throughout her life.
Of course, the biggest added benefit of all is that the museum is a huge, air-conditioned area that takes hours to navigate, a perfect option for soon-to-be scorching summer days.
Scene from Waking the T. Rex 3D, the new film playing in the Hoglund Foundation Theater at the Perot Museum.
Photo courtesy of Giant Screen Films
Scene from Waking the T. Rex 3D, the new film playing in the Hoglund Foundation Theater at the Perot Museum.
YouTube has become such a big part of the culture that it was only a matter of time before content creators started making waves in big screen filmmaking. Interestingly, most of them have made their names in the horror genre, including Danny and Michael Philippou (Talk to Me, Bring Her Back), Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach (the recent Iron Lung), and now Kane Parsons with Backrooms.
Set in 1990, the film centers on Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who owns a rundown furniture store in a nondescript city. He is divorced and seemingly depressed, two things that come up in his multiple sessions with his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve). Lately, he has taken to sleeping in the store instead of going home, which allows him to notice strange electrical activity when the lights are supposed to be turned off.
When investigating the issues one night, he discovers a mysterious opening that leads to a completely different structure with a seemingly endless amount of rooms and corridors. Some of them are innocuous and some of them contain strange and creepy elements. With nothing else of interest in his life, Clark returns to the area night after night, eventually drawing in his employee, Kat (Lukita Maxwell), her boyfriend Bobby (Finn Bennett), and Mary.
The 20-year-old Parsons, helped by a number of well-known producers, demonstrates an astonishing level of filmmaking prowess for a first-time feature filmmaker. There is no trace of amateurishness in the progression of the story or the visual style of the film. Whatever confusion arises comes from the plot itself, which is designed to raise way more questions than answers.
Clark’s journey into the bewildering collection of rooms is full of intrigue instead of scares for most of the film, but when Parsons decides to amp things up, he really goes for it. The final third of the film contains some haunting imagery that defies description or explanation. It seems clear that Parsons’ preferred method of storytelling is to keep the audience off-balance, unable to predict what comes next.
What he also seems to understand, however, is that you have to give the audience something to hold on to, and in this case it’s the backstories of Clark and Mary. Both seem to be living differing versions of pathetic, uninteresting lives, but things revealed in their sessions broaden the scope of their stories. The strange world they find seems to reflect their respective traumas, giving a tenuous connection to reality that keeps the film from becoming too frustrating.
Ejiofor and Reinsve, both of whom are Oscar nominees, give the film an air of legitimacy that allows viewers to follow whatever odd roads Parsons wants to go down. Because it’s impossible to tell where the film is heading, the steady acting of Ejiofor and Reinsve is crucial in its success. Maxwell, Bennett, and Mark Duplass are good in brief appearances, but don’t appear enough to have a huge impact.
The ambiguous nature of Backrooms lends it the possibility of becoming a franchise, as Parsons could seemingly take it in any direction he wanted and have it feel part of the larger whole. Given how well done this and other recent films by YouTubers have been, the melding of the two seemingly disparate mediums makes more sense than ever.
