Weekend Event Planner

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

A holiday weekend is often a time for event organizers to scale back on their plans, but not so this Labor Day weekend. The next five days are absolutely packed, headlined by four big events at a new major venue. You can also see a world premiere play, enjoy the music of one of the best movies of 2016 live, see two major college football powers square off, and more.

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. (Note: The Pavilion at the Music Factory in Irving was scheduled to open this weekend, but all events have either been moved or postponed due to construction delays.)

Thursday, August 31

UT Arlington presents Lou Diamond Phillips Film Festival
In advance of Lou Diamond Phillips appearing at UT Arlington on September 7 as part of its Maverick Speakers Series, the university will host screenings of some of Phillips' best known movies. 2012's Filly Brown will screen on Thursday, followed by La Bamba on September 5, and a double feature of Courage Under Fire and The 33 on September 6. All films are free and will take place at Mavericks Activities Center.

Dallas Theater Center presents Miller, Mississippi
The 2017-2018 season opener for Dallas Theater Center is the world premiere of Miller, Mississippi, which tells the story of one family that falls apart as the country attempts to come together during the Civil Rights movement. In the classic Southern Gothic tradition, the tragic new play will stun minds and break hearts, as the personal and political combine to bring about the Miller family’s undoing. The production will run at Wyly Theatre through October 1.

TITAS presents Momix: Opus Cactus
If Salvador Dali and Leonardo da Vinci were inspired by National Geographic, you’d get Opus Cactus, Moses Pendleton’s evening-length work about the desert world. With their signature dance illusion style, Momix explores the mysterious creatures and cacti of the desert. The season opening performance will take place at Winspear Opera House.

Friday, September 1

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents La La Land in Concert
The controversy over La La Land's non-win at the Academy Awards overshadowed the fact that it was one of the best movies of 2016. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will pay tribute to its musical greatness by screening the critically-acclaimed film while the full orchestra performs the score live. There will be two performances Friday and Saturday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

2017 Riverfront Jazz Festival
Dallas’ inaugural Riverfront Jazz Festival, presented and produced by The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, will host 35 national and international music artists on three stages over Labor Day Weekend. Taking place at Texas Horse Park, the festival will feature performances by honorary chairs Erykah Badu, Will Downing, and Najee, as well as Jon Secada, Ruben Studdard, and others. The festival will take place through Sunday.

Jimmy Herring and the Invisible Whip in concert
Jimmy Herring, best known as the lead guitarist for Widespread Panic, will bring his band, the Invisible Whip, to town to play new music and material from his last two records. Although Herring has been touring consistently with Widespread Panic over the past 10 years, it has been almost five years since he last toured with his own band. The concert will take place at Trees.

Saturday, September 2

Advocare Classic: Michigan vs. Florida
All the three local Division I college football teams - SMU, TCU, and UNT - open their seasons with home games on Saturday, but those who aren't fans of the Ponies, Frogs or Mean Green should head to this game at AT&T Stadium. The Michigan Wolverines and Florida Gators will meet for the first time in the regular season. Ticket-holders can enjoy a pregame Fan Fest with performances by Reckless Kelly and Judah & The Lion.

Dallas Dancefest
Dallas DanceFest, taking place at Moody Performance Hall on Saturday and Sunday, features works from 28 diverse dance companies from the Dallas-Fort Worth area and beyond. Performers will include Ballet Ensemble of Texas, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Danielle Georgiou Dance Group, NobleMotion Dance, Texas Ballet Theater, Bruce Wood Dance, imPULSE Dance Project, and more.

Sunday, September 3

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Visions of America: Three Centuries of Prints from the National Gallery of Art" closing day
Sunday is your final chance to see "Visions of America: Three Centuries of Prints from the National Gallery of Art," which surveys how America and its people have been represented in prints for the last 400 years. The exhibit features more than 150 outstanding prints from the colonial era to the present, including works by Paul Revere, James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jenny Holzer, and others.

Monday, September 4

Lifehouse and Switchfoot in concert
This co-headlining concert by Lifehouse and Switchfoot, two bands that appeal to the Christian music genre, was to have taken place at the Pavilion at the Irving Music Factory. Because of construction delays there, it has been moved to South Side Ballroom in Dallas. Lifehouse is touring in support of its 2015 album, Out of the Wasteland, while Switchfoot is promoting its 2016 album, Where the Light Shines Through.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will present La La Land in Concert on September 1 and 2 at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in La La Land

Photo by Dale Robinette

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will present La La Land in Concert on September 1 and 2 at Meyerson Symphony Center.

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Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films likeM3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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