Weekend Event Planner

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

Music will be the order of the weekend in and around Dallas. There will be five great concerts to attend, ranging from country music royalty new and old to a rising blues/rock star. You can also see two fantastic comedians, shop for a good cause, partake in food and wine in a classical music venue, or get one final glimpse at a unique art exhibition.

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

Thursday, August 26

Marty Stuart in concert
Country music legend Marty Stuart has been releasing albums for over 40 years, but it wasn't until the late 1980s and early '90s that he hit his heights thanks to hits like "Hillbilly Rock," "Little Things," "Tempted," "Burn Me Down," and "This One's Gonna Hurt You." He hasn't been as prolific in the 2000s, but he just released his first new album in nine years, Songs I Sing in the Dark. He'll play at The Kessler on both Thursday and Friday.

Improv Arlington presents Mark Normand
Through his relentlessly punchy writing and expert delivery, Mark Normand is quickly becoming one of the most talked about comedians on the scene. He most recently self-released a one-hour special, Out To Lunch, on YouTube. A veteran of the late night shows, Normand also has his own podcast, Tuesdays with Stories. He'll perform five times through Saturday at Improv Arlington.

Dwell with Dignity presents Thrift Studio
Dallas-based nonprofit Dwell with Dignity will present its annual fundraiser and month-long pop-up store, Thrift Studio. Thrift Studio, taking place through September 25, features donated, high-end furniture, housewares, and accessories sold at significant discounts, with 100 percent of sales benefitting DwD’s mission. Shoppers will find vignettes created by leading designers, showrooms, and retailers, showcasing donated home decor items.

Friday, August 27

The Dallas Symphony Wine & Food Festival
Instead of classical music, the Dallas Symphony will serve up its inaugural Wine & Food Festival this weekend. The event, taking place through Sunday at the Meyerson Symphony Center, will feature wines from around the world, champagnes, craft brews, locally distilled spirits, plus some favorite tastes and small plates from celebrated Dallas chefs and restaurants. For the exact listing of activities, visit the event website.

Jim Gaffigan: The Fun Tour
Comedian Jim Gaffigan is as relatable a celebrity as you'll ever find. His popularity has stemmed from bits involving his struggles as the father of five kids, marriage in general, and his love/hate relationship with Hot Pockets. His latest special, The Pale Tourist, premiered on Amazon Prime Video in December 2020. He'll bring his stand-up tour to The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Saturday, August 28

Luke Bryan in concert
The only thing that could keep country singer Luke Bryan away from the Dallas-Fort Worth area was the pandemic. Bryan is as consistent a performer as they come, appearing somewhere in the area every year — except last year — since at least 2012. He'll be back at Dos Equis Pavilion to play in support of his 2020 album, Born Here Live Here Die Here. He'll be joined by opening acts Dylan Scott and Runaway June.

Jonathan Tyler in concert with Jeremy Pinnell
Jonathan Tyler is a Dallas-based musician who has received national attention, opening for major acts like Erykah Badu, Leon Russell, Deep Purple, The Black Crowes, Kool and the Gang, and more. Tyler and his band, the Northern Lights, have released three studio albums in their career, including 2015's Holy Smokes. He'll perform at The Kessler, with Jeremy Pinnell as the opening act.

Sunday, August 29

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Curbed Vanity: A Contemporary Foil by Chris Schanck" closing day
Sunday will be the final day to view "Curbed Vanity: A Contemporary Foil by Chris Schanck" at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dallas native's first museum commission and solo museum presentation. Schanck created a contemporary work inspired by the late-19th century Martelé dressing table in the DMA’s collection. Made of found objects from the immediate neighborhood of the artist’s Detroit studio, Schanck’s dressing table is coated in resin and aluminum foil, a reference to the Dallas aluminum factory where, along with his father, Schanck worked when he was young. The two dressing tables are presented together to form a conversation about craftsmanship, material, and the vanity that drives them.

Turtle Creek Chorale presents Songs of Strength and Survival
The healing power of live music, and especially choral music, is something that was absent as we made our way through the trials of a global pandemic over this last year. Turtle Creek Chorale will present a small ensemble concert at Cathedral of Hope Dallas designed to remind the audience how powerful, intimate, and up close choral music can be. It will include a selection of songs designed to inspire and spark a flame of strength in all of us.

Gary Clark Jr. in concert
If it weren't for that pesky pandemic, Austin native Gary Clark Jr., who's known for blending blues, rock and soul music with hip hop, would have had a lot to celebrate this past year. His third album, 2019's This Land, was his most successful one yet, earning him four Grammy nominations and three wins for Best Contemporary Blues Album, Best Rock Performance, and Best Rock Song. He'll play nightly through Tuesday, now at House of Blues Dallas after a venue change from The HiFi Dallas.

Luke Bryan will play at Dos Equis Pavilion on August 28.

Photo by Michelle Watson/Catchlight Group

Luke Bryan will play at Dos Equis Pavilion on August 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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