Weekend Event Planner

These are the 9 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

As is often the case, it's a music-heavy weekend here in Dallas. The fun thing about this grouping, though, is that you'll be able to experience said music in a variety of venues, most of them outside. Besides music, you can also catch the opening and closing of two separate art exhibits, play with LEGOs in Irving, or see some really short plays.

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, August 11

George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum presents The National Parks - Select Images
The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum celebrates the centennial of the National Park Service with a special exhibit featuring modern, iconic photographs by American photographer Mark Burns. The photographs were taken by Burns from 2011 through 2015 and include each of America’s 59 national parks. The exhibit is on display through August 30.

Bud Light Party Convention with Jason Derulo and Brett Eldredge
You can get down into the mire of real politics, or you can enjoy Bud Light's "campaign" with this special concert at Klyde Warren Park, featuring appearances by Jason Derulo and Brett Eldredge. The event is free with a catch: The only way to get tickets is to win them. Both KISS FM and Mix 102.9 are giving away tickets, or you can enter the digital sweepstakes.

AXS TV Concerts Hosted by Mark Cuban: The Monkees
The Monkees were named one of our best summer concerts, but that was for their concert on June 28 at Winspear Opera House. Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban has convinced them to come back to town to kick off his AXS TV concert series at the Bomb Factory, giving fans a chance to get more up close and personal with the iconic band.

Friday, August 12

Brick Dallas/Fort Worth
Prepare to build, play, and be entertained at Brick Dallas/Fort Worth at the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas. Along with jaw-dropping creations will be live-action build demonstrations, workshops, contests, the official LEGO store, and exclusive Brick show merchandise. The convention takes place through Sunday.

DFW Restaurant Week Food and Wine Festival
We already told you about this two-day event at Main Street Garden in our food and drink events roundup, but that was for the eating and drinking aspect. On the entertainment side, there are going to be performances by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on Friday and Magic! on Saturday, allowing you to dance off the calories you consume earlier in the evening.

Disturbed & Breaking Benjamin in concert with Alter Bridge & Saint Asonia
Living up to their name, Disturbed has gotten some notoriety recently for their somewhat disturbing cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence." That song appears on their 2015 album, Immortalized, which will be showcased during this co-headlining concert, alongside Breaking Benjamin, at Gexa Energy Pavilion.

Saturday, August 13

Gwen Stefani in concert with Eve
The fact that you can get in to see pop superstar Gwen Stefani, as well as her opening act, Eve, for as little as $10 (courtesy of a 4 for $40 lawn seating deal) has to be one of biggest steals in recent memory. Fresh off her stint on The Voice, Stefani is killing it with her most recent album, This is What the Truth Feels Like, which details her love for boyfriend, Blake Shelton.

Kitchen Dog Theater presents 3rd Annual One-Minute Play Festival
If you love theater but think plays take way too long, Kitchen Dog Theater's annual One-Minute Play Festival is for you. Taking place at Trinity River Arts Center through Monday, it features 60 brand-new One-Minute Plays by more than 30 playwrights, each of whom tries to get their vision across in just 60 seconds.

Sunday, August 14

Dallas Museum of Art presents Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty closing day
If you've been procrastinating on seeing the Dallas Museum of Art's latest showcase exhibit, Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, this is your last chance, as the show closes on Sunday. The first retrospective of Penn’s work in nearly 20 years features over 140 photographs, including iconic images from his oeuvre, as well as previously unseen or never exhibited photographs.

Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty is closing August 14 at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Photo by Irving Penn

Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty is closing August 14 at the Dallas Museum of Art.

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Movie Review

A-list actor Saoirse Ronan proves award-worthy in new film The Outrun

Photo by Yunus Roy Imer/courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

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In Hollywood, there are two levels of being an A-lister, with occasional overlap between the two. There are the movie stars who can be counted on time and again to deliver at the box office, and there are the actors who put on Oscar-level performances in nearly every film they’re in. Saoirse Ronan resides firmly in the latter category, which she proves yet again in The Outrun.

The first time we see Rona (Ronan), she is drunk in a pub in London, so far gone that she has to be thrown out by security. In quick succession, she is shown with a severe black eye while giving a police report, and then working on her family farm on Scotland’s Orkney Islands, accompanied by text stating simply “117 days.” With a modicum of storytelling, it’s readily apparent that Rona is an alcoholic, and that the film will spend time with her at various stages of her tumultuous life.

The “present” of the film is her time on the Orkney Islands, with Rona helping her dad, Andrew (Stephen Dillane), run the farm, putting up with her overtly religious mom, Annie (Saskia Reeves), and doing her level best to stay sober. The fact that the 29-year-old has no clue what to do with her life and that she’s still pining over her old boyfriend, Daynin (Paapa Essiedu), doesn’t exactly help her predicament.

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt and adapted by Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot from Liptrot’s memoir of the same name, the film treads familiar ground seen in other movies about alcoholism, with the biggest difference being the setting. The harsh beauty of the landscape where she spends most of her time seems to be a metaphor for her life, a place that can be unforgiving but also capable of the occasional positive surprise.

Fingscheidt eschews a straightforward narrative in favor of one that offers glimpses of Rona’s life throughout her drunkenness and sobriety. While she is able to keep Rona’s story legible for most of the film, there are times when the back-and-forth takes extra effort to understand. A clever marker the film uses to help viewers track time is Rona’s changing hair color, which is bright blue when she’s in her drinking phase in London, with only blue tips remaining during her time of recovery.

The film contains other elements to try to enhance the central story, some of which are more successful than others. Rona recounts various Scottish legends through voiceover, most notably one about selkies, shapeshifters that can change between seal and human form. The idea is interesting, but the connection between the legend and Rona is not strong. A subplot involving her dad’s lifelong mental health issues hits a bit harder, although it rightly is not explored all that much.

Ronan is, as always, an acting force. When an actor plays an alcoholic, it can be easy for them to fall into clichés, but Ronan manages to avoid most of them. Her skills have always been in the smaller, quieter moments anyway, and it’s when her character has to delve into self-reflection that she shines the most. Dillane and Reeves are veteran actors who complement Ronan well, and Essiedu does nicely in a role that is chopped up.

The Outrun - named for a certain part of the landscape on Rona’s family farm - doesn’t necessarily have a lot of new things to say about the states of addiction or soberness, but the personal story is compelling enough to hold interest. And with Ronan in the lead, moviegoers are in good hands, as her performance proves to be award-worthy once again.

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The Outrun opens in theaters on October 4.

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