Weekend Event Planner

Toadies and Chris Brown headline best weekend events in Dallas-Fort Worth

With summer break now over, event planners are taking advantage of people being in town by providing a slew of different opportunities. You name a type of event, and big ones are probably taking place this weekend, including those involving fashion, music, film, theater, art, comedy, books, and football.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, September 10

Fashion X Dallas
The producers of Austin Fashion Week and Fashion Industry Gallery will present the second annual Fashion X Dallas, which will showcase collections from independent and emerging designers and nationally recognized contemporary brands. The three-day event will feature collections from prominent and well-known designers, promising emerging designers from around the country, and a finale with Dallas designers.

Chris Brown in concert with Kid Ink, Omarion, Fetty Wap, and Teyana Taylor
It seems like an impossibility for R&B/hip hop singer Chris Brown to stay away from controversy, but it'll hopefully be his music that's the focus of this concert at Gexa Energy Pavilion. Brown's One Hell of a Nite Tour, supporting his album X, will also include performances from Kid Ink, Omarion, Fetty Wap, and Teyana Taylor.

Friday, September 11

The 2nd Annual Poptopia featuring NEEDTOBREATHE
For the second straight year, 103.7 KVIL will present Poptopia, a music festival featuring some of the best and brightest pop bands around. Taking place at South Side Ballroom, this year's edition will include NEEDTOBREATHE, Andy Grammer (of "Honey, I'm Good" fame), Banks, Elle King, and Rachel Platten, whose "Fight Song" was arguably one of the songs of the summer.

Dia de los Toadies
Now in its eighth year, and third straight in Fort Worth, Dia de los Toadies is a two-day musical event that combines Texas acts as well as national ones hand-picked by the Toadies. Taking place Friday and Saturday at Panther Island Pavilion, it'll feature performances by the Toadies, who are set to release their latest album, Heretics, Sarah Jaffe, Burden Brothers, Local H, Holy Moly, Buck Pets, Sealion, Son of Stan, and Gollay.

McKinney Classic Film Festival
There are plenty of good reasons to check out the first-ever McKinney Classic Film Festival, taking place through Sunday at the McKinney Performing Arts Center, including screenings of gems like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 12 Angry Men, and Adam's Rib. But the undisputed highlight will be the presence of Mary Badham, aka Scout, who will attend the screening of To Kill a Mockingbird on Saturday night.

Kitchen Dog Theater presents The Dumb Waiter
With its old home at the MAC now gone, Kitchen Dog Theater will open its 2015-2016 season at a new location, The Green Zone in the Design District. The season opener is Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter, a humorous and provocative story of two hit men as they wait in a basement for their next assignment. It'll run through October 10.

Saturday, September 12

Crow Collection of Asian Art presents Alexander Gorlizki: Variable Dimensions opening
The Crow Collection of Asian Art will open a new exhibition, Alexander Gorlizki: Variable Dimensions, that brings together the artist’s work in drawing, sculpture, installation, video, and the applied arts like carpets, wallpapers, and textiles for a rich kaleidoscopic experience. The exhibit will be on display through March 3, 2016.

Patton Oswalt in concert (UPDATE: Patton Oswalt has postponed his appearance due to a conflict with a film production)
Like many successful comedians, Patton Oswalt has become much more well known for his acting ability in shows like Justified, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Veep than he ever did with his first love, stand-up comedy. But anybody who's seen his act knows he's still one of the funniest comics out there, as he'll prove with this show at the Majestic Theatre.

Sunday, September 13

Arts & Letters Live: R.L. Stine and Marc Brown — The Little Shop of Monsters
There are many authors who are great at getting young people to read, but R.L. Stine, who wrote the Goosebumps series and many others, is near the top of that list. Stine has joined forces with illustrator Marc Brown for the new book The Little Shop of Monsters, which the two will discuss, among other things, at this Arts & Letters Live event at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Dallas Cowboys vs New York Giants Season Kickoff Watching Party
The long wait is finally over: Football season is here again. The Dallas Cowboys will start their season with a home game against the New York Giants, but if you're not lucky enough to attend in person at AT&T Stadium, you can go to this free viewing party at the Bomb Factory, an event that will include food and drink specials and raffles.

Dia de los Toadies will take place at Panther Island Pavilion in Fort Worth on September 11 and 12.

Photo courtesy of KirtlandRecords.com

Dia de los Toadies will take place at Panther Island Pavilion in Fort Worth on September 11 and 12.

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Movie Review

Glen Powell bumps off rich family in How to Make a Killing

Photo courtesy of A24

Glen Powell in How to Make a Killing.

Becoming a star in Hollywood and maintaining that stardom are two very difficult things to achieve, but Glen Powell has been adept at doing so over the past few years. A key supporting role in Top Gun: Maverick led to lead parts in films like Hit Man, Anyone But You, Twisters, and The Running Man. Powell is looking to keep his star power shining in the new dark comedy/thriller, How to Make a Killing.

He plays Beckett, an outcast member of the ultra-wealthy Redfellow clan. Struggling to get by in a menial job in New York City while still living in New Jersey, Beckett’s only smidgen of hope is that he remains an heir to the vast Redfellow fortune. The only trick? Every other remaining family member must die before he’ll see a dime of that money. When even that menial job goes away, Beckett indulges the fantasy of bumping off his familial competition.

Among those standing in his way are cousins Taylor (Raff Law), a finance bro, Noah (Zach Woods), a pretentious artist, and Steven (Topher Grace), a celebrity pastor; Uncle Warren (Bill Camp) and Aunt Cassandra (Bianca Amato); and grandfather Whitelaw (Ed Harris). Complicating matters, however, are an old childhood friend, Julia (Margaret Qualley), who starts asking more of Beckett than he can give; and new flame Ruth (Jessica Henwick), who happens to be dating Noah when he meets her.

Written and directed by John Patton Ford (Emily the Criminal), the film is a tale of two halves. Narrated by Beckett in the form of telling his story to a prison chaplain, the story plays with audience expectations on multiple occasions. As Beckett ramps up to detailing exactly how he got started down the road toward being a serial killer, the film has a fun-if-macabre vibe.

Under normal circumstances Beckett would be someone to despise, but since he’s an underprivileged person who’s taking aim at people who (mostly) don’t seem to appreciate their good luck, it feels okay to cheer for him. This follows a recent trend in “eat the rich” films, one that’s been influenced by a turn against real-life billionaires. Ford plays heavily into the theme and it works for a good portion of the film.

However, things get a little murky in the second half of the movie. A few of the planned killings get less attention than others, making their - pardon the pun - execution less interesting/fun than the others. Also, Ford does a poor job of indicating just how much weight should be put on Beckett’s relationship with Julia, someone with whom he only has occasional interactions for the bulk of the film.

It’s difficult to know the exact right way to showcase Powell, but this film doesn’t seem to be the best fit. Whether it’s the odd hairstyle/wig he’s given, or the varying degrees of confidence his character shows, his performance is up and down. Qualley’s acting style is over-the-top, and she needed to dial it down in this particular role. Henwick and Camp are the grounding forces in the film, keeping the story somewhat tethered to reality while almost everyone else makes a meal of their scenes.

How to Make a Killing is serviceable entertainment that gives viewers a decent number of laughs and thrills. But Ford can’t find a way to make the story work all the way through, and a so-so performance by Powell keeps the film from rising above its mediocre station.

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How to Make a Killing opens in theaters on February 20.

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