Weekend Event Planner

These are the 6 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, September 3

The Texas Tribune Festival
The annual Texas Tribune Festival, which normally takes place in Austin, will be almost entirely virtual this year, opening it up to people all over the world. It will feature a month of programming with more than 250 speakers, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, Hillary Clinton, Andrew Yang, Joaquin Castro, Julián Castro, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Eric Holder, Jeb Bush, Cecile Richards, Chasten Buttigieg, Gloria Steinem, and more. The festival continues through September 30.

Friday, September 4

Brass, Organ & Percussion of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Sarah Hicks and the DSO musicians will present a patriotic return to Meyerson Symphony Center filled with brass-tastic arrangements of spirited anthems and marches. The concert, taking place through Sunday, will feature Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, selections from Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, as well as Bradley Welch playing the 4,500-pipe Lay Family Concert Organ. These concerts and other forthcoming concerts are currently available to subscribers only.

Southfork Ranch Fall Concert Series
The Southfork Ranch Fall Concert Series will present concerts featuring area tribute bands every two weeks through October 2, starting with Beatlemania '64, a tribute to The Beatles. Guests will be socially distanced in “viewing pods,” a 13-by-25-foot space marked off in the Southfork Ranch parking lot. Each pod holds up to six guests and tickets may be purchased as a group or individually. Masks must be worn when a guest leaves their pod to use the restroom or concession area.

Tupps Brewery presents Summer Drive-In Concert Series
Tupps Brewery in McKinney will host the final installment in their series of drive-in concerts, featuring a performance by Cody Canada and The Departed. Each vehicle will have a 20’ x 20’ block of space, and all guests are asked to remain in their assigned block for the duration of the concert. Portable chairs or a blanket on the ground inside a block are welcome. Face masks must be worn when leaving a block in order to visit the restrooms, brewery tent, or food truck.

Saturday, September 5

Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary presents Dinosaurs Live opening day
At Heard Natural Science Museum's 15th annual Dinosaurs Live exhibit, visitors can travel back in time along a half-mile nature trail with 10 life-size animatronic dinosaurs. The exhibit features the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex, a spitting Dilophosaurus, a Brachiosaurus, and more. There will be the opportunity to play on stationary baby dinosaurs, a photo-op Tyrannosaurus rex, and a photo op Pachyrhinosaurus. The exhibit will remain on display through February 25.

Sunday, September 6

Rulli Torres Fashion Design Studio presents Disturbance
Disturbance is a non-traditional gallery-style fashion show designed to keep everyone safe while following COVID-19 guidelines. Rulli Torres is a fashion designer who has produced numerous fashion shows benefiting nonprofits. The exhibition will be be a mock-up of pop culture as if one was going to a grocery store. Social distancing stickers will be placed throughout the exhibit, featuring around 15 installations in total. The event will be at Urban Arts Center in Dallas.

Hillary Clinton will be one of the speakers during the virtual Texas Tribune Festival, taking place through September 30.

Hillary Clinton/Facebook

Hillary Clinton will be one of the speakers during the virtual Texas Tribune Festival, taking place through September 30.

event-planner

Movie Review

Great acting and directing drive The Christophers to artistic heights

Photo by Claudette Barius

Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen in The Christophers.

Director Steven Soderbergh is one of those filmmakers who — aside from the Ocean’s series — never seems to make the same kind of movie twice. He is somehow able to adapt his abilities to all sorts of different stories, making each of them as compelling as any other. His latest masterclass is in the London-set film, The Christophers.

Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), who restores art for a living, is approached by brother and sister Sallie and Barnaby Sklar (Jessica Gunning and James Corden) with a scheme. They want her to become the new assistant for their aging father, Julian (Ian McKellen), a famous artist known for a series called “The Christophers,” in order to gain access to unfinished paintings from the series and complete them herself.

Lori accepts the deal despite having some uneasy feelings about Julian, with whom she had a bad interaction years ago. Julian is just as wary, both because he knows of his children’s interest in the unfinished works, and because he would prefer to be left in peace. Although the trepidation on both sides continues for the bulk of the story, a grudging respect arises between two artists who know skill when they see it.

Directed by Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon, who last collaborated on No Sudden Move, the film is astonishing in its ability to be compelling with such a small story. Much of the film is spent inside Julian’s multi-story home as Julian and Lori have low-level confrontations about a variety of things, including the meaning of his art, her abilities, the fate of the remaining “Christophers,” and more. Each conversation brings out more detail about their worldviews and their thoughts about their lot in life.

Much of the success of the film lies in the performances of McKellen and Coel. The 86-year-old McKellen has not lost his ability to astonish with the spoken word, and the monologues he delivers are engrossing even when they’re about mundane things. Coel, best known for the 2020 HBO show I May Destroy You, is a great foil for McKellen, never backing down from his challenges and giving her own unique takes on her lines.

While the film can be enjoyable for non-art lovers, those who appreciate the vagaries of the art world will have a lot to chew on. Soderbergh and Solomon debate a lot of aspects of art, including whether it’s possible to separate the art from the person making it, why some art is valued more than others, the ethics of forgery, and more. Because the film is about a fictional artist, it gives the filmmakers a bit more freedom in their criticisms.

Aside from McKellen and Coel, Gunning (Baby Reindeer) and Corden are the only other two people who get significant screen time in the film. Both of them are, let’s say, acquired tastes, and each gives an elevated performance that matches the energy of their respective characters. Tilly Botsford makes a nice impression in a small role as Julian’s masseuse.

Soderbergh’s last three films — Presence, Black Bag, and now The Christophers — have nothing in common other than the expert filmmaker helming all of them. When you can make a ghost story, a spy film, and a small film about artists equally interesting, you know you’re doing something right.

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The Christophers is now playing in theaters.

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