Weekend Event Planner

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

It's another big weekend for events in the Dallas area, with four big-name concerts, another Van Gogh-centric exhibition, two new local theater productions, a fair/rodeo that will whet your appetite for the State Fair next month, and best of all, a chance to celebrate local restaurants with your friends at CultureMap.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend.

Thursday, August 19

"Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience"
Not to be confused with "Immersive Van Gogh," a similar exhibition taking place in downtown Dallas, "Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience" allows visitors to fulfill the dream of stepping into a masterpiece painting. The 360-degree, immersive digital art experience illuminates and transforms a unique physical space into a fully immersive exhibit, where Van Gogh’s work takes over the walls via digital projections and VR experiences. The exhibition will run almost daily through November 28 at Globe Life Park in Arlington.

CultureMap Dallas-Fort Worth Tastemaker Awards
The CultureMap Tastemaker Awards is the annual celebration of the top talent in Dallas-Fort Worth's restaurant and bar communities, as selected by their peers. The mission of the event is to shine a spotlight on the people making the local restaurant scene special and honor their innovation, energy, and creativity. At the event, taking place at Fashion Industry Gallery and emceed by comedian CJ Starr, we will celebrate all of the nominees and unveil the winners, and guests will be able to sample bites and sip specialty drinks along the way.

Second Thought Theatre presents Libra Season
Second Thought Theatre will present the virtual production Libra Season, commissioned as part of their 2020 S.T.E.P. Program (Second Thought Emerging Playwrights). The play, which will be performed live each night and streamed from each actor’s own home, is about the employees of Libra Ltd., who are having a bad fall. After several stressful months of working from home, they now face a leaked memo with possible disastrous consequences. The production will run through September 4.

Friday, August 20

North Texas Fair & Rodeo
Just like the State Fair of Texas, the North Texas Fair & Rodeo returns after a year off due to the pandemic. The nine-day event, taking place through August 28 at North Texas Fairgrounds in Denton, offers activities for all ages, including live concerts, horse & livestock shows, contests, cook-offs, food, fun, games, and more. Music performers will include Midland, Flatland Cavalry, Terri Clark, Sawyer Brown, Randall King, and more.

Jelly Roll in concert
Rap and country music aren't usually two things that go well together, but Jason DeFord (aka Jelly Roll) has been carving his own unique path. The prolific artist has released 16 albums in just 10 years, including three in 2020 alone. His biggest success has come with his four Waylon & Willie albums, on which he's collaborated with Struggle Jennings, Waylon's step-grandson. He'll perform at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Uptown Players presents Fun Home
Uptown Players will present Fun Home, the 2015 Tony Award winner of Best Musical based on Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic memoir of the same name. After her father’s sudden death, Alison dives into her past and tells the story of her untraditional family dynamic, with her strict, temperamental father defining a large part of her childhood. The production, running at Kalita Humphreys Theater through August 29, is hailed as the first mainstream musical with a lesbian protagonist, and the musical explores themes of family, sexuality, and secrets.

Kesha in concert
Somehow, despite her scoring a No. 1 album with her 2010 debut, Animal, and notching multiple hits over the past decade, Kesha has never had a solo headlining concert in Dallas until now. It was supposed to happen last year, but, you know, pandemic. She'll perform at South Side Ballroom in support of her 2020 album, High Road, joined by special guest Betty Who.

Saturday, August 21

Chris Stapleton's All-American Roadshow
The third time's the charm when it comes to this all-star country music blowout event. Originally scheduled for last summer, it was postponed to November 2020 and then to this date because of the pandemic that just won't quit. The lineup is about as big as you can get, featuring headliner Chris Stapleton, Willie Nelson & Family, Jamey Johnson, and Yola. The concert takes place at Globe Life Field in Arlington.

Megadeth in concert with Lamb of God
For over 35 years, Megadeth has been one of the standard-bearers for the heavy metal genre. Their biggest success came in the early 1990s, when they had two top 5 albums in the Billboard 200, Countdown to Extinction and Youthanasia. Unlike some other metal bands, though, they've soldiered on into the 21st century, releasing a new album every few years, including the forthcoming The Sick, The Dying ... and the Dead. They'll play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, joined by Lamb of God.

Kesha will perform at South Side Ballroom on August 20.

Photo courtesy of Kesha

Kesha will perform at South Side Ballroom on August 20.

tastemakers event-planner galleries concerts

Movie Review

Alexander Skarsgård commands the bold, offbeat drama Pillion

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

---

Pillion is now playing in theaters.

movies film