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

Chris Pratt plays one man against the AI machine in thriller Mercy

Photo courtesy Amazon Content Services

Chris Pratt in Mercy.

It seems like every other movie set in modern times being released these days includes either a reference to or a plot revolving around artificial intelligence. In the real world, the benefits of the technology compete with its downsides, but when it comes to movies A.I. is almost always seen as a threat, including in the new film Mercy.

The audience is thrown headlong into the slightly futuristic story involving LAPD Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt), who finds himself strapped in a chair in a sparse room, being told that he is on trial for killing his wife. Turns out he’s in a court dubbed “Mercy,” which is overseen by an AI judge named Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson). By the rules of the court, Raven has 90 minutes to provide reasonable doubt of his guilt, or he will be executed on the spot.

Raven is in a multi-pronged quandary: Not only does he believe he’s innocent despite a trove of evidence pointing to his guilt, but he’s also the poster boy for the law enforcement side of the equation, having arrested the first man who went to Mercy. Anger and disbelief for Raven turn into acceptance, which then turns into him tapping into his detective skills, scrutinizing every shred of evidence the court provides him in a desperate attempt to save his own life.

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov and written by Marco van Belle, the film is a relatively propulsive thriller despite having a so-so story and even worse acting. The film is told in real time (with a few fudges here and there), so the concept alone of a man trying to prove his innocence in a short amount of time provides good intrigue. Bekmambetov’s use of digital elements as Raven scrolls through files or calls potentially exculpatory witnesses like his partner, Jaq Diallo (Kali Reis), keeps the film visually interesting.

On the other hand, the swift viewing of videos and documents by Raven, not to mention the high degree of cooperation by Judge Maddox, opens up more than a few plot holes. The filmmakers try to explain away a few leaps in logic by having Raven falling off the sobriety wagon the night before, but they can only use that excuse for so long. They also have the AI judge experience technical glitches along the way, errors that seem to point toward a wider conspiracy until they’re completely forgotten.

More than anything, it’s difficult to get over the wooden acting of Pratt and the misuse of other usually reliable actors. Pratt has no real presence, especially when he’s confined to a chair, so any emotion he tries to conjure up comes off as contrived. Ferguson is done no favors by a role that shows only her upper body and has her alternating between robotic and oddly sympathetic. Reis earned an Emmy nomination for True Detective: Night Country, but has little to do here, a fate that also takes out Chris Sullivan as Raven’s AA sponsor.

If you’re okay with turning off your brain for a little while, Mercy can be an enjoyable watch. But if you find yourself scrutinizing why characters make the odd decisions they do, or the wishy-washy way the film approaches AI in general, then you’re likely to find the whole thing lacking.

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Mercy is now playing in theaters.

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