Weekend Event Planner

These are the 8 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

While the majority of events around Dallas have either been postponed or canceled, there are a few that have popped up to offer the masses some entertainment while still adhering to the social distancing necessary during the coronavirus pandemic.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. While they're not all outside of the house, they all promise to provide a nice distraction from the everyday life.

Thursday, August 13

Women Texas Film Festival
The fifth annual Women Texas Film Festival focuses solely on the work of visionary female filmmakers. Pivoting to an all-virtual presentation, it will open with Olivia Peace’s teenage comedy Tahara, and Lisa Donato’s Gossamer Folds will be the Closing Night Selection. The festival, taking place through Sunday, features LGBTQIA+ stories, provocative documentaries, and Texas-based female filmmakers throughout its lineup, which includes 11 feature films and 36 short films.

Ochre House Theater presents Mousey
Ochre House Theater Cinema is streaming its 2018 production of Mousey, a dark musical written and directed by Carla Parker. Available for free at any time on Ochre House's YouTube channel, Mousey tells the story of how things have gone rotten in the world of toys. Mrs. Mousey begins to suspect that there is more to life than just being a toy and launches into the dangerous journey that questions the very existence of their innocent lives. Rebellion and unrest erupt and turn the toys’ once-harmonious lives into bitter-sweet chaos, where once peace-loving and compliant toys turn on one another in search of a Utopia that does not exist.

Friday, August 14

Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum Reopening Day
As part of a coordinated plan among six downtown Dallas museums, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum will reopen to the public Friday. They are highlighting the special exhibition "The Fight for Civil Rights in the South," a photographic exhibit that chronicles the African American struggle for civil rights and social equality in the 1960s, including the burning of the Freedom Riders bus and the March from Selma to Montgomery.

Dallas Museum of Art Reopening Day
The Dallas Museum of Art will also reopen on Friday, greeting visitors with two new exhibitions. "For a Dreamer of Houses," which was to have opened in March, presents contemporary artworks that evoke personal spaces and consider the politics of places we identify with. The presentation will debut major recent acquisitions, immersive installations, large-scale works, and more. "Dalí’s Divine Comedy" showcases Salvador Dalí’s most ambitious illustrated series: his colored wood engravings of the Divine Comedy.

Addison Weekend Drive-In Concert Series
The Addison Weekend Drive-In Concert Series, where guests can listen to live music from a variety of Dallas-Fort Worth bands, returns. Attendees will be able to enjoy the shows from the comfort of their vehicles, or bring lawn chairs to sit next to a car. Music will be transmitted via both speaker system and FM radio. This weekend features performances by Extended PLAY on Friday and Joseph Veazie on Saturday.

Saturday, August 15

Christopher Jackson: Live from the West Side
In Christopher Jackson: Live from the West Side, the Tony Award-nominated actor best known for originating the role of George Washington in the cultural phenomenon Hamilton will perform songs from his favorite musicals, pop standards, and original material, and share stories from his time affiliated with In The Heights and Hamilton. Audience members for the virtual concert will also be invited to text in questions, some of which will be answered during the live event.

CarBaret's "Back to School Special" - Fast Times at Ridgemont High
CarBaret, which takes place in the parking lot outside of Brizo in Richardson, will present a "Back to School Special" featuring the 1982 Cameron Crowe coming-of-age classic, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Pre-show entertainment will be provided by Yippee Ki-Yays and DJ Devin Pike. The drive-in menu kitchen + bar will feature a menu of beer bratwurst, grilled kebabs, and veggie tacos that will be delivered to cars or chairs.

Sarah Jaffe in concert
Originally a live, in-person concert until, you know, COVID, singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe will take the virtual stage for a Texas Tunes concert. Streamed live from Medical City Lewisville Grand Theater in Lewisvlle, Jaffe will perform songs from throughout her career, including her most recent album, 2017's Bad Baby.

Tahara will be part of the virtual Women Texas Film Festival, taking place through August 16.

Photo courtesy of Women Texas Film Festival

Tahara will be part of the virtual Women Texas Film Festival, taking place through August 16.

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Movie Review

Jessica Chastain drama Dreams stumbles through steamy romance

Photo courtesy of Teorema

Isaac Hernández and Jessica Chastain in Dreams.

The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.

It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.

Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).

Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.

But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.

Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.

Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.

Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.

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Dreams is now playing in select theaters.

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