Weekend Event Planner

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

It's another music-heavy weekend in Dallas, as seven out of the 10 events we're featuring having some kind of musical element. They include a cabaret festival, a day full of rock, the return of a long-lost star, a much-maligned band, a throwback to the '90s, and one of musical theater's biggest stars. What don't they include? Justin Bieber, who suddenly canceled his July 29 concert at AT&T Stadium.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Monday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, July 27

Denise Lee Onstage presents Dallas Cabaret Festival: Life Is a Cabaret
The Second Annual Dallas Cabaret Festival takes place over the course of three days at the Women's Building at Fair Park. The festival leads off on Thursday with a performance by Cynthia Scott, who is debuting her new show, All About Love. She'll be followed on Friday by Tarnecia Durham and Simone Gundy, and finally by a review show on Saturday featuring Samuel James, Denise Lee, Kevin Haliburton, Willie Welch, Calvin Roberts, and Stephanie Brehm.

Friday, July 28

2017 Vans Warped Tour
Rock fans are in full day of fun at Starplex Pavilion when the Vans Warped Tour comes to town. The tour includes performances from Sick Of It All, CKY, GWAR, The Adolescents, T.S.O.L, Hatebreed, Emmure, The Ataris, Andy Black, American Authors, Beartooth, Dance Gavin Dance, Jule Vera, I Prevail, Neck Deep, New Years Day, Memphis May Fire, War On Women, and more.

IMomSoHard — Mom's Night Out: Summer Break Tour
IMomSoHard is a popular web series on Facebook where two best friends talk the good, the bad, and the funny about motherhood. Now the two will leave the playroom and take the stage at Majestic Theatre for IMomSoHard LIVE with a performance that reflects the casual conversations about motherhood that have entertained so many.

Michelle Branch in concert
Michelle Branch had two big albums in the early 2000s with hits like "Everywhere," "All You Wanted," and "Are You Happy Now?" In the ensuing 14 years, her output has slowed to a crawl, both by choice and through record label issues. But she's finally released her fourth album, Hopeless Romantic, which she's playing in support of at The Kessler.

WaterTower Theatre presents Hit the Wall
Hit the Wall is a riveting story that brings the audience back to the very flashpoint of the infamous 1969 riot that erupted at Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn, considered the first major battle of the modern gay-rights movement. A group of unlikely revolutionaries are thrust onto the frontline of history when a routine police raid on a gay bar becomes a full-scale riot that ignited one of the most influential social and political movements of the 20th century. WaterTower Theatre presents the play through August 20.

Saturday, July 29

Nickelback in concert with Daughtry and Shaman's Harvest
The term "Nickelback" has somehow become synonymous with "overrated," since the group's breakout in 2001. And yet each of the band's seven albums, including 2017's Feed the Machine, have reached the top 6 on the Billboard charts, so it's obvious they still have plenty of fans out there. They'll show why at this concert at Starplex Pavilion, which includes opening sets by Daughtry and Shaman's Harvest.

Reunion Tower presents Reunion Lawn Party
After the initial Reunion Lawn Party was canceled due to rain in June, July's event will serve as the kickoff for the 2017 series. The event features a performance by Special Edition Band; lawn games; food trucks such as Ruthie’s Rolling Café, Parrot Icce, Butcher’s Son, and What’s Da Scoop; a beer garden hosted by The Nodding Donkey; and a takeover by the Dallas Stars.

I Love the '90s Tour featuring TLC, Naughty by Nature, Mark McGrath, and more
Anyone who grew up or came of age in the 1990s will want to be at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie on Saturday when it hosts The I Love the '90s — The Party Continues Tour. The festival-style concert will feature performances by TLC, Naughty By Nature, Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath, Tone Loc, C+C Music Factory featuring Freedom Williams, and SNAP.

Sunday, July 30

Big3: 3-on-3 Basketball League
Three-on-three basketball seems like it might be the next big thing, as it's been accepted into the Olympics and is currently touring the country as part of the new Big3 league created in part by Ice Cube. There will be four games at American Airlines Center featuring former NBA players both on and off the court, including Chauncey Billups, Brian Scalabrine, Allen Iverson, Corey Maggette, Mike Bibby, Jermaine O'Neal, and Rashard Lewis.

Idina Menzel in concert
From Rent to Wicked to Frozen, Idina Menzel has been part of some of the most iconic musical moments over the last 20 years. At this concert at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie, Menzel will lead audiences through a special journey of songs from her new album, idina., as well as other classic pop hits, musical theater favorites. and her own personal catalogue.

IMomSoHard LIVE — Mom’s Night Out: Summer Break Tour is at the Majestic Theatre on July 28.

Photo courtesy of IMomSoHard

IMomSoHard LIVE — Mom’s Night Out: Summer Break Tour is at the Majestic Theatre on July 28.

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Movie Review

Faces of Death returns with modern twist on cult horror film

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy - in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks - is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

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